Michelangelo Di Lodovico Buonarroti

Michelangelo Di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni who is also known as michelangelo changed the face of art. Today artists, sculptors, painters and architects strive to be like michelangelo. Michelangelo has many famous pieces, he is most famous for his painting of the sistine chapel and his sculpt the pieta. He was nicknamed father and master of all the arts. Michelangelo is known as the most famous artist of the italian renaissance.

Michelangelo was born on march 6 1475, in caprese italy. When he was born his father Lodovico Buonarroti, was the podesta or the mayor of the towns Caprese and Chiusi. When michelangelo was about a month old his father's term as podesta ended and his family moved back to their hand me down home in florence.there michelangelo was given over to a wet nurse by the name of Francesca di Neri.

Michelangelo would say that he got his talent for sculpture through the milk of his wet nurse, who came from a heritage of stone carvers.

His mother died when he was six years old, meaning he never really had a maternal influence in his life. This is accredited for his interesting relationship with women, and even for his homosexuality. Michelangelo went to a school controlled by a man named Francesco da Urbino until the age of thirteen. when he was befriended by Francesco Granacci an apprentice for two very popular florentine painters, who gave michelangelo a job as an apprentice for them. From this apprenticeship he learned a technique of painting called fresco, which is a rapid watercolor

painting done on wet plaster on a wall or ceiling. He began to draw frequently recreating earlier paintings done by Giotto and Masaccio. In the beginning his father was not happy with his son's career choice and he repeatedly beat him for it. It finally ended when the workshop started to pay both for his works. Michelangelo moved on to the sculpture school of Bertoldo di Giovanni. In this environment he sharpened his skills of sculpting. He had a boastful personality,which earned a broken nose from jealous older student which left him disfigured for the rest of his life. He once again started replicating earlier works that fascinated Lorenzo de' Medici, who unofficially was the leader of the florentine republic. Through a recommendation from Bertoldo di Giovanni he got the opportunity to stay in the Medici palace both to learn and to serve. Michelangelo accepted the offer which paid him a stipend and gave his father a job as a clerk in the palace. This stay introduced him to many prominent poets, scholars, and the social elite. Lorenzo raised michelangelo as his own son. After Lorenzo died there was a political conflict causing michelangelo to flee to bologna, where he continued studying. He then returned to florence to start a career as a sculptor, his works were styled after classical masterpieces. There are several renditions of the story of the cupid. The two main versions are one that michelangelo artificially altered the sculpture to make it look like it was older than it actually was. The other version, which is the more commonly known version, that his art dealer used an aging method where the sculpture was buried to make it look older. He then sold it under that false pretense which in turn angered the buyer, who demanded his money back. In the ended the buyer was so impressed with michelangelo's work that he let him keep the money, he even invited him to rome where he 1496 would live the rest of his life. Not son after he had settled down he was approached by a wealthy banker to create a drunken bacchus statue. This statue became one of his best known early works. This banker secured him a commission from cardinal Jean Bilhères de Lagraulas, who was a representative of King Charles VIII to the pope. Michelangelo created a sculpture called the pieta, where virgin mary is holding jesus across her lap pondering her son's death. This statue was signed by michelangelo across the statues chest after it was mistaken for another artist's work. This was the only piece that michelangelo ever signed. The statue was put up in the church of the cardinal’s tomb. The statue has been moved five times since, it now resides in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. Finished the statue in 1499 and returned to florence in 1501.When he returned to florence he completed a figure of madonna with the christ child. Michelangelo then took over a sculpture called the david, which already had two artists try their hand at it and then abandon it. He turned the 17 foot piece of damaged marble into a dominating figure, this took him 3 years to complete. “The strength of the statue's sinews, vulnerability of its nakedness, humanity of expression and overall courage made the "David" a prized representative of the city of Florence.” The david was michelangelo’s first piece where he used his own style. The statue was placed in front of the duomo. After completing the david he created a bronze replica, and a few replicas of the virgin mary. News of the david spread quickly, and in 1505 pope Julius II asked michelangelo to come to rome to redesign his tomb. The project took 40 years to complete due to contract and design issues. Michelangelo considered this the tragedy of his career. The tomb was originally intended to be part of the new St. Peter's church being constructed in Rome by the architect Bramante. Michelangelo started to suspect that the pope was giving precedence to Bramante and the artist raphael, so he fled to florence. Several months later the pope met up with him again in bologna., they discussed the tomb which would end with michelangelo creating a bronze portrait of julius that would later be destroyed. In 1508 the pope had him stop working on the tomb and start on the sistine chapel. Annoyed at the disturbance he was determined to finish it as fast as possible, he finished it in an astonishing 4 years all by himself since he fired all 5 of his assistants. The complexity of the painting is incredible especially since it only took him 4 years.there are hundreds of Biblical figures painted in luminous colors and robust chiaroscuro that make up twenty-five scenes describing the beginning of the world, with the most iconic image being the "Creation of Adam," a portrayal of God touching the finger of man.Michelangelo, in characteristic fashion, claimed that the design was all his own, but most likely he was assisted by Biblical scholars assigned by Pope Julius II.The work later had to be completely removed soon after due to an infectious fungus in the plaster, and then recreated. Although he continued to sculpt and paint throughout his life, the physical rigor of painting the chapel had taken it’s toll on Michelangelo, and he soon turned his focus toward architecture. In 1513 pope julius died further complicating the tomb and michelangelo's contract issues, michelangelo and the popes inheritors revised a new contract for him to finish the tomb. Michelangelo carved a massive figure of moses which would be used as the tombs centerpiece. The monumental Moses is one of the absolute high points of Michelangelo's sculptural career. It is the only figure in the finished project that was certainly executed by Michelangelo himself rather than his assistants, whom he eventually assigned to finish the disastrous project. In 1516 he worked out a third contract for the tomb of julius, and then returned to florence. When he returned the current pope, pope leo X, offered him numerous commissions to improve florence,all of which revolved around the considerable additions being made to San Lorenzo.Planning for the additions to San Lorenzo began in 1517 with models for a new facade for the church, which was Michelangelo's first serious architectural undertaking. Concurrently with the design for the San Lorenzo facade, Michelangelo worked on a Statue of Christ and monumental task of removing marble from the quarry for the San Lorenzo project, and was outraged when the contract was canceled in 1520. In 1521 michelangelo started working on the medici chapel and on the Biblioteca Laurenziana projects. In 1523 pope leo was succeeded by Giulio de'Medici, he then signed another contract to finish the tomb of pope julius with significant down size. michela