Michelangelo - Wikipedia

Thank you, my friend Maj Marty Hogan for making us aware that March 6 is the anniversary of the birth of Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet of the High Renaissance born in the Republic of Florence Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art.
Rest in eternal peace Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni.
"The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is one of Michelangelo's most famous works. Learn more about the history of this masterpiece. 1508-12, fresco (Vatican, Rome). Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEE3B8Fsuc0

Images:
1. Michelangelo Pietà (1498-1499) "Artwork description & Analysis: This was the first of a number of Pietàs Michelangelo worked on during his lifetime. It depicts the body of Jesus in the lap of his mother after the Crucifixion. This particular scene is one of the seven sorrows of Mary used in Catholic devotional prayers and depicts a key moment in her life foretold by the prophet, Simeon.
Cardinal Jean de Bilhères commissioned the work, stating that he wanted to acquire the most beautiful work of marble in Rome, one that no living artist could better. The 24-year-old Michelangelo answered this call, carving the work in two years out of a single block of marble."
2. Michelangelo Bacchus (1496-1497) "Artwork description & Analysis: This statue of Bacchus depicts the Roman god of wine precariously perched on a rock in a state of drunkenness. He wears a wreath of ivy and holds a goblet in one hand, brought up toward his lips for a drink. In the other hand, he holds a lion skin, which is a symbol for death derived from the myth of Hercules. From behind his left leg peeks a satyr, significant to the cult of Bacchus often representing a drunken, lusty, woodland deity.
The work, one of Michelangelo's earliest, caused much controversy. It was originally commissioned by Cardinal Riario and was inspired by a description of a lost bronze sculpture by the ancient sculptor Praxiteles. But when Riario saw the finished piece he found it inappropriate and rejected it. Michelangelo sold it to his banker Jacopo Galli instead."
3. Michelangelo The Creation of Adam (1508-1512) "Artwork description & Analysis: This legendary painting, part of the vast masterpiece that adorns the Sistine Chapel, shows Adam as a muscular classical nude, reclining on the left, as he extends his hand toward God who fills the right half of the painting. God rushes toward him, his haste conveyed by his white flaring robe and the energetic movements of his body. God is surrounded by angels and cherubim, all encased within a red cloud, while a feminine figure thought to be Eve or Sophia, symbol of wisdom, peers out with curious interest from underneath Adam's arm. Behind Adam, the green ledge upon which he lies, and the mountainous background create a strong diagonal, emphasizing the division between mortal he and heavenly God. As a result the viewer's eye is drawn to the hands of God and Adam, outlined in the central space, almost touching. Some have noted that the shape of the red cloud resembles the shape of the human brain, as if the artist meant to imply God's intent to infuse Adam with not merely animate life, but also the important gift of consciousness. "
4. Michelangelo The Last Judgement (1536-1541) "Artwork description & Analysis: This fresco covers the entire altar wall of the Sistine Chapel and is one of the last pieces in the seminal building that was commissioned by Pope Clement VII when Michelangelo was 62. In it we see the Second Coming of Christ as he delivers the Last Judgement. The monumental work took five years to complete and consists of over 300 individual figures. The scene is one of harried action around the central figure of Christ, his hands raised to reveal the wounds of his Crucifixion. He looks down upon the souls of humans as they rise to their fates. To his left, the Virgin Mary glances toward the saved. On either side of Christ is John the Baptist and St Peter holding the keys to heaven. Many of the saints appear with examples of their sacrifices. Particularly interesting is St Bartholomew, martyred by the flaying of his skin, the face on which is said to be a self-portrait of Michelangelo. The saved souls rise from their graves on the left helped by angels. On the right, Charon the ferryman is shown bringing the damned to the gates of Hell. Minos, assuming the role Dante gave him in his Inferno, admits them to Hell. Another noteworthy group are the seven angels blowing trumpets illustrating the Book of Revelation's end of the world."


Background from .theartstory.org/artist-michelangelo-life-and-legacy.htm#biography_header
"Michelangelo
Italian Painter, Sculptor, Poet, and Architect
Movement: High Renaissance
"The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection. Only God creates. The rest of us just copy."

SUMMARY
Michelangelo is one of art history's earliest true "characters." He was a polymath genius who is widely considered to be one of the greatest artists of the Italian Renaissance period even while acquiring a reputation for being temper driven, fickle, and difficult. He was part of the revival of classical Greek and Roman art, yet his unique contributions went beyond mere mimicry of antiquity. His work was infused with a psychological intensity and emotional realism that had never been seen before and often caused quite a bit of controversy. Despite his rebelliousness, he managed to find lifelong support by the era's most renowned patrons and produced some of the world's most iconic masterpieces that continue to be revered, and even devotionally prayed upon, today.

KEY IDEAS
His early studies of classical Greek and Roman sculpture, coupled with a study of cadavers, led Michelangelo to become an expert at anatomy. The musculature of his bodies is so authentically precise that they've been said to breathe upon sight.
Michelangelo's dexterity with carving an entire sculpture from a single block of marble remains unparalleled. He once said, "I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free." He was known as one who could conjure real life from stone.
The artist's feisty and tempestuous personality is legendary. He often abandoned projects midway through or played out his pride or defiance of conventionality through controversial means such as painting his own face on figures in his work, the faces of his enemies in mocking fashion, or unabashedly portraying sacred characters in the nude.
Michelangelo's most seminal pieces: the massive painting of the biblical narratives in the Sistine Chapel, the 17-foot tall testament to male perfection David, and the heartbreakingly genuine Pietà are considered some of the world's most genius works of art, drawing large numbers of tourists to this day.

Michelangelo was born to Leonardo di Buonarrota and Francesca di Neri del Miniato di Siena, a middle-class family of bankers in the small village of Caprese, near Arezzo, in Tuscany. His mother's unfortunate and prolonged illness forced his father to place his son in the care of his nanny. The nanny's husband was a stonecutter, working in his own father's marble quarry.
When Michelangelo was six years old, his mother died yet he continued to live with the pair and legend has it this unconventional situation from childhood would lay the foundation for his later love affair with marble.
By the time he was 13 years old, it was clear to his father that Michelangelo had no aptitude for the family vocation. The young boy was sent to apprentice in the well-known studio of Domenico Ghirlandaio. After only a year in the studio, Lorenzo de Medici of the renowned Florentine art patronage family asked Ghirlandaio for two of his best students. Michelangelo, along with Francesco Granacci, were chosen to attend the Medici family's Humanist academy. It was a thriving time in Renaissance Florence when artists were encouraged to study the humanities, accentuating their creative endeavours with knowledge of ancient Greek and Roman art and philosophy. Art was departing from Gothic iconography and devotional work and evolving into a grand celebration of man and his importance in the world. Michelangelo studied under the famous sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni, earning exposure to the great classical sculptures in the palace of Lorenzo.
During this time, Michelangelo obtained permission from the Catholic Church of Santo Spirito to study cadavers in their hospital so that he would gain an understanding of anatomy. In return, he carved them a wooden cross. His ability to precisely render the realistic muscular tone of the body resulted from this early education as evidenced in two sculptures that survive from that time; Madonna seated on a Step (1491) and Battle of the Centaurs (1492).
Early Training and Work
Following the death of Lorenzo di Medici in 1492 Michelangelo remained with relative security in Florence. But when the Florentine city became embroiled in political turmoil, the Medici family was expelled and the artist moved to Bologna. It was in Bologna that he received a commission to finish the carving of the Tomb of St. Dominic, which included the addition of a statue of St. Petronius, a kneeling angel holding a candlestick, and St. Proculus.
Michelangelo returned to Florence in 1494 after the threat of the French invasion abated. He worked on two statues, St. John the Baptist, and a small cupid. The Cupid was sold to Cardinal Riario of San Giorgio, passed off as an antique sculpture. Although annoyed at being duped, the Cardinal was impressed enough by Michelangelo's workmanship to invite him to Rome for another commission. For this commission, Michelangelo created a statue of Bacchus, which was rejected by the Cardinal who thought it politically imprudent to be associated with a pagan nude figure. Michelangelo was indignant - so much so that he later asked his biographer Condivi to deny the commission was from the Cardinal and instead to record it as a commission from his banker, Jacopo Galli. The artist's impetuous nature was already garnering him the reputation of being one who indignantly did what he wanted, oftentimes eschewing his patron's wishes or failing to complete work once started.
Michelangelo remained in Rome after completing the Bacchus, and in 1497 the French Ambassador, Cardinal Jean Bilhères de Lagraulas commissioned his Pietà for the chapel of the King of France in St Peter 's Basilica. The Pietà was to become one of Michelangelo's most famous carvings, which the 16th-century biographer Giorgio Vasari, described as something "nature is scarcely able to create in the flesh." His acuity with emotional expression and lifelike realism in the piece, garnered the artist much awe and attention.
Although his status as one of the period's most talented artists following the completion of the Pietà was secure, Michelangelo didn't receive any major commissions over the next two years. Financially, however this absence of work wasn't of much concern. Wealth didn't seem to affect the artist's lifestyle. As he would say to Condivi towards the end of his life, "However rich I may have been, I have always lived like a poor man."
In 1497, the puritanical monk Girolamo Savonarola became famous for his Bonfire of the Vanities, an event in which he and his supporters burned art and books in Florence, causing a cease to what had been a thriving period of the Renaissance. Michelangelo would have to wait until Savonarola's ousting in 1498 before returning to his beloved Florence.
In 1501, his most notable achievement was born through a commission from the Guild of Wool to complete an unfinished project begun by Agostino di Duccio some 40 years earlier. This project, finally completed in 1504, was a majestic, 17-foot tall nude statue of the biblical hero David. The work was a testament to the artist's unparalleled excellence at carving breathtakingly precise depictions of real life out of inanimate marble.
Several painting commissions followed after David's completion. In particular, Michelangelo's only known finished painting that has survived, Doni Tondo (The Holy Family) (1504).
During this time of the High Renaissance in Florence, rivalries between Michelangelo and his artist peers abounded, each fighting for prime commissions and revered social status as noted masters of their fields.
Leonardo da Vinci had quickly risen to fame and the competition between he and Michelangelo was legendary. In 1503, Piero Soderini, the lifetime Gonfalonier of Justice (senior civil servant akin to a Mayor), commissioned them both to paint two opposing walls of the Salone dei Cinquecento in the Palazzo Vecchio. Both paintings were never finished and are unfortunately lost. Leonardo's The Battle of Anghiari was painted over when Vasari later reconstructed the Palazzo. Michelangelo's work on The Battle of Cascina was interrupted in the preparatory drawing stage when Pope Julius II summoned him to Rome. Michelangelo was seduced by the flamboyant reputation of the patron Pope who was luring other artist peers such as Donato Bramante and Raphael to create exciting new projects. Never one to be bested by his rivals, he accepted the invitation.
Mature Period
In Rome, Michelangelo started work on the Pope's tomb, work that was to be completed within a five-year timeline. Yet, the artist would abandon the project after being cajoled by the Pope for another commission. The project was the painting of the Sistine Chapel's ceiling and rumor has it that Bramante, the architect in charge of rebuilding St. Peter's Basilica, was the one to convince the Pope that Michelangelo was the man for the job. Bramante was notoriously consumed by envy, and knowing that Michelangelo was better known for his sculptures rather than paintings, was certain that his rival would fail. He hoped this would cause the artist to fall out of popular favor. Michelangelo reluctantly accepted the commission.
Michelangelo would work on the Sistine Chapel for the next four years. It was a difficult job of extraordinary endurance, especially since the tempestuous artist had sacked all of his assistants save one who helped him mix paint. What resulted was a monumental work of great genius illustrating stories from the Old Testament including the Creation of the World and Noah and the Flood. Contrary to Bramante's hopes, it became (and remains) one of the greatest masterpieces of Western Art.
Another noted rival was the young 26-year-old Raphael who had burst upon the scene and was chosen in 1508 to paint a fresco in Pope Julius II's private library, a commission vied for by both Michelangelo and Leonardo. When Leonardo's health began to fail, Raphael became Michelangelo's greatest artistic adversary. Because of Raphael's acuity with depicting anatomy and his finesse for painting nudes, Michelangelo would often accuse him of copying his own work. Although influenced by Michelangelo, Raphael resented Michelangelo's animosity toward him. He responded by painting the artist with his traditional sulking face in the guise of Heraclitus in his famous fresco The School of Athens (1509-1511).
Following Pope Julius II's death in 1513 Michelangelo was commissioned by the new Pope Leo X to work on the façade of the Basilica San Lorenzo, the largest church in Florence. He spent the next three years on it before the project was cancelled due to lack of funds. In 1520, he received another commission for a Medici chapel in the Basilica of San Lorenzo on which he worked intermittently for the next twenty years. During those two decades, he would also complete an architectural commission for the Laurentian Library.
After the sack of Rome by Charles V in 1527, Florence was declared a republic and stayed under siege until 1530. Having worked prior to the siege for the defense of Florence, Michelangelo feared for his life and fled back to Rome. Despite his support for the republic, he was welcomed by Pope Clement and given a new contract for the tomb of Pope Julius II. It was also during this time he was commissioned to paint the fresco of the Last Judgement on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel, a project that would take seven years.
Although a late bloomer relationship wise, at age 57, Michelangelo would establish the first of three notable friendships, sparking a prolific poetic output to add to his cadre of artistic talents. The first in 1532 was a 23-year-old Italian nobleman, Tommaso dei Cavalieri, who was not only the artist's young lover but remained a lifelong friend. The art historian, Howard Hibbard, quotes Michelangelo describing Tommaso as the "light of our century, paragon of all the world." The passionate affair provoked Michelangelo to produce a number of love poems so homoerotic in nature that his grandnephew, upon publishing the volume in 1623, changed the gender pronouns to disguise their homosexual context.
In 1536, Michelangelo found another lifelong object of affection, the widow, Vittoria Colonna, the Marquise of Pescara, who was also a poet. The majority of his prolific poetry is devoted to her, and his adoration continued until her death in 1547. He also gave her paintings and drawings, and one of the most beautiful to have survived is the black chalk drawing Pietà for Vittoria Colonna of 1546. She was the only woman who played a significant part in Michelangelo's life and their relationship is generally believed to have been platonic. During this period, he also worked on a number of architectural commissions including the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli and the Sforza Chapel in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, as well as the Capitoline Hill. He also received commissions for two frescos in the Cappella Paolina; the Conversion of St Paul, and the Crucifixion of St Peter.
In 1540, Michelangelo met Cecchino dei Bracci, son of a wealthy Florentine banker, at the Court of Pope Paul III, who was only 12 years old. The epitaphs Michelangelo wrote following Cecchino's death four years later reveal the extent of their relationship, suggesting they were lovers. In particular one, which includes the graphic allusion, "Do yet attest for him how gracious I was in bed. When he embraced, and in what the soul doth live."
Late Period
It was Pope Julius II who, in 1504, proposed demolishing the old St Peter's Basilica and replacing it with the "grandest building in Christendom." Although the design by Donato Bramante had been selected in 1505, and foundations lain the following year, not much progress had been made since. By the time Michelangelo reluctantly took over this project from his noted rival in 1546 he was in his seventies, stating, "I undertake this only for the love of God and in honour of the Apostle."
Michelangelo worked continuously throughout the rest of his life on the Basilica. His most important contribution to the project was his work upon the dome in the eastern end of the Basilica. He combined the design ideas of all the prior architects who had given input on the work, which imagined a large dome comparable to Brunelleschi's famous dome in Florence, and coalesced them with his own grand visions. Although the dome was not finished until after his death, the base on which the dome was to be placed was completed, which meant the design of the dome could not be altered significantly in its completion. Still the largest church in the world, it remains a testament to his genius and his devotion. He continued to sculpt but did so privately for personal pleasure rather than work. He completed a number of Pietàs including the Disposition (which he attempted to destroy), as well as his last, the Rondanini Pietà, on which he worked until the last weeks before his death.
It's been said that it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become world class in any field. Michelangelo epitomized this ideal as he started his career as a mere boy and continued working until his death at 88 years old.
His great love Tommaso remained with him until the end when Michelangelo died at home in Rome following a short illness in 1564. Per his wishes, his body was taken back to Florence and interred at the Basilica di Santa Croce.
Legacy
Along with Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael, Michelangelo is regarded as one of the three giants of the Renaissance, and a major contributor to the Humanist movement. Humanity, in both its relationship to the divine and non-secular reality was central to his painting and sculpture. He was a master at depicting the body with such technical accuracy that marble was seemingly transformed into flesh and bone. His adeptness with human emotionality and expression inspired humility and veneration. The psychological insight and physical realism in his work had never been portrayed with such intensity before. His Pieta, David, and the Sistine Chapel have been maintained and preserved and continue to draw crowds of visitors from all over the world. His lifetime achievements give credence to the title commonly bestowed to him of Il Divino (The Divine).
Michelangelo's influence on other artists was profound and has continued from Raphael in his time to Rubens, through to Bernini, and the last great sculptor to follow his tradition of realism, Rodin.
His fame, established when he was in his early twenties, has continued to our time. As for his genius look to Galileo, who claimed he was born a day earlier, to coincide with the day Michelangelo died, alluding to the assertion that genius never dies."

FYI LTC Stephen C. LTC (Join to see) Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Lt Col Charlie Brown Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. 'Bill' Price Maj Marty Hogan SCPO Morris Ramsey SFC William Farrell SGT Mark Halmrast Sgt Randy Wilber Sgt John H. SGT Gregory Lawritson CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins SSgt Brian Brakke 1stSgt Eugene Harless SSG William Jones SSG Diane R.

One word - Genius!

If you want an interesting read about Michelangelo (even though it is a novel) try The Agony and the Ecstasy by James Michner.