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MICHELANGELO (MICHELAGNIOLO BUONARROT...

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 364 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MICHELANGELO (MICHELAGNIOLO BUONARROTI) (1475-1564) , the most famous of the See also:great Florentine artists of the See also:Renaissance,, was the son of Ludovico Buonarroti, a poor See also:gentle-See also:man of that See also:city, and of his wife Francesca dei See also:Neri. The Buonarroti Simoni were an old and pure Florentine stock of the Guelf See also:faction: in the days of Michelangelo's fame a connexion of the See also:family with the See also:counts of See also:Canossa was imagined and admitted on both sides, but has no See also:foundation in fact. Ludovico was barely able to live on the income of his See also:estate, but made it his boast that he had never stooped to add to it by See also:mercantile or See also:mechanical pursuits. The favour of the See also:Medici procured him temporary employment in See also:minor offices of See also:state, among them that of See also:podesta or See also:resident See also:magistrate for six months, from the autumn of 1474, at See also:Castello di See also:Chiusi and Caprese in the Casentino. At Caprese, on the 6th of See also:March 1475, his second son Michelagniolo or Michelangelo was See also:born. Immediately afterwards the family returned to See also:Florence, and the See also:child was put to See also:nurse with a See also:marble-worker's wife of Settignano. His See also:mother's See also:health had already, it would seem, begun to fail; at all events in a few years from this See also:time, after she had See also:borne her See also:husband three more sons, she died. While still a See also:young boy Michelangelo determined, in spite of his See also:father's opposition, to be an artist. He had sucked in the See also:passion, as he himself used to say, with his See also:foster-mother's See also:milk. After a See also:sharp struggle his stubborn will overcome his father's See also:pride of gentility, and at thirteen he got himself articled as a paid assistant in the workshop of the See also:brothers Ghirlandaio Domenico Ghirlandaio, bred a jeweller, had become by this time the foremost painter of Florence. In his service the young Michelangelo laid the See also:foundations of that skill in See also:fresco with which twenty years afterwards he confounded his detractors at See also:Rome. He studied also, like all the Florentine artists of that See also:age, in the Brancacci See also:chapel, where the frescoes of See also:Masaccio, painted some sixty years before, still victoriously held their own; and here, in reply, to a taunt he had flung at a See also:fellow-student, See also:Torrigiano, he received the See also:blow on the See also:nose which disfigured him to his dying See also:day.

Though Michelangelo's earliest studies were directed towards See also:

painting, he was by nature and predilection much more inclined to See also:sculpture. In that See also:art he presently received encouragement and training under the See also:eye of an illustrious See also:patron, Lorenzo dei Medici. On the recommendation, it is said, of Ghirlandaio, he was transferred, before the See also:term of his See also:apprenticeship as a painter had expired, to the school of sculpture established by Lorenzo in the Medici gardens. Here he could learn to match himself against his great predecessor, See also:Donatello, one of whose pupils and assistants, the aged Bertoldo, was director of the school, and to compare the See also:works of that See also:master and his Tuscan contemporaries with the antiques collected for the instruction of the scholars. Here, too, he could listen to discourses on See also:Platonism, and steep himself in the doctrines of an enthusiastic See also:philosophy which sought to reconcile with See also:Christian faith the See also:lore and the doctrines of the See also:Academy. Michelangelo remained a Christian Platonist to the end of his days; he was also from his youth up a devoted student of See also:Dante. His See also:powers of mind and See also:hand soon attracted See also:attention, and secured him the regard and favour of his patrons in spite of his rugged exterior and scornful unsociable See also:temper. Michelangelo had been attached to the school and See also:household of the Medici for barely three years when, in 1492, his great patron Lorenzo died. Lorenzo's son See also:Piero dei Medici inherited the position but not the qualities of his father; Florence soon chafed under his authority; and towards the autumn of 1494 it became apparent that disaster was impending over him and his adherents. Michelangelo was constitutionally subject to dark and sudden presentiments : one such seized him now, and without awaiting the popular outbreak, which soon followed, he took See also:horse with two companions and fled to See also:Bologna. There, being now in his twentieth See also:year, he was received with kindness by a member of the Aldovrandi family, on whose See also:commission he executed two figures of See also:saints and one of an See also:angel for the See also:shrine of St See also:Dominic in the See also:church of St See also:Petronius. After about a year, See also:work at Bologna failing, and his name having been included in his See also:absence on the See also:list of artists appointed to provide a new See also:hall of See also:assembly for the great See also:council of Florence, Michelangelo returned See also:home.

The See also:

strange See also:theocracy established by See also:Savonarola was now in force, and the whole See also:character of civic See also:life at Florence was for the time being changed. The See also:influence of the fervent Dominican upon the mind and character of the young Michelangelo became as profound as that of the Platonists and of Dante. He was not See also:left without employment. He found a friend in another Lorenzo, the son of Pierfrancesco dei Medici, for whom he at this time executed a statue of the boy St See also:John. Having also carved a recumbent See also:Cupid in See also:imitation of the See also:antique, it was suggested to him by the same patron that it should be so tinted and treated as to look like a real antique, and sold accordingly. Without increasing the See also:price he put upon the work, Michelangelo for amusement See also:lent himself to the counterfeit, and the piece was then actually sold for a large sum, as a genuine work of antiquity, to a See also:Roman See also:collector, Rai-ladle Riario, See also:cardinal di See also:San Giorgio; the dealer appropriating the profits. When the cardinal discovered the See also:fraud he caused the dealer to refund; but as to Michelangelo himself, it was represented to the young sculptor that if he went to Rome the See also:amateur who had just involuntarily paid so high a See also:tribute to his skill would certainly befriend him. He set forth accordingly, and arrived at Rome for the first time at the end of See also:June 1496. Such hopes as he may have entertained of countenance from the cardinal di San Giorgio were quickly dispelled. Neither did the banished Piero dei Medici, who also was now living at Rome, do anything to help him. On the other hand Michelangelo won the favour of a Roman nobleman, Jacopo Galli, and through him of the See also:French cardinal See also:Jean de See also:Villiers de la Grolaie, See also:abbot of St See also:Denis. From the former he received a commission for a " Cupid " and a " Bacchus," from the latter for a " Pieta " or " See also:Mary lamenting over the See also:body of See also:Christ "—works of which the two last named only are preserved.

Equal originality of conception and magnificence of technical See also:

execution See also:mark the two contrasted subjects-one as See also:noble and the other as nearly ignoble as any-thing Michelangelo ever did—of the mother with the dead son on her See also:lap, indicating with a contained but eloquent gesture of her left hand a tragedy too great for outcries, and the titubant sensual young See also:wine-See also:god (a See also:condition in which See also:ancient art would never have exhibited the god himself, but only his satellites). Michelangelo's stay in Rome at this time lasted five years —from the summer of 1496 till that of 1501. The See also:interval had been one of extreme See also:political See also:distraction at Florence. The excitement of the French invasion, the mystic and ascetic regimen of Savonarola, the reaction which led to his overthrow, and finally the See also:external See also:wars and See also:internal dissidences which preceded a new See also:settlement, had all created an See also:atmosphere most unfavourable to art. Nevertheless Ludovico Buonarroti, who in the troubles of 1494 had lost a small permanent See also:appointment he held in the customs, and had come to regard his son Michelangelo as the mainstay of his See also:house, had been repeatedly urging him to come home. A spirit of family See also:duty and family pride was the ruling principle in all Michelangelo's conduct. During the best years of his life he submitted himself sternly and without a murmur to pinching hardship and almost super-human labour for the See also:sake of his father and brothers, who were ever selfishly ready to be fed and helped by him. Having now, after an illness, come home in 1501, Michelangelo was requested by the cardinal See also:Francesco See also:Piccolomini to adorn with a number of sculptured figures a shrine already begun in the See also:cathedral of See also:Siena in See also:honour of the most distinguished member of his house, See also:Pope See also:Pius II. Four only of these figures were ever executed, and those not apparently, or only in small See also:part, by the master's hand. A work of greater See also:interest in Florence itself had diverted him from his engagement to his Sienese patrons. This was the execution of the famous See also:colossal statue of See also:David, popularly known as " the See also:Giant." It was carved out of a huge See also:block of marble on which another sculptor, See also:Agostino d'See also:Antonio, had begun unsuccessfully to work See also:forty years before, and which had been lying idle ever since. Michelangelo had here a difficult problem before him.

Without much regard to the traditional treatment of the subject or the See also:

historical character of his See also:hero, he carved out of the vast but cramped See also:mass of material an adolescent, frowning See also:colossus, tensely watchful and self-balanced in preparation for his great See also:action. The result amazed every beholder by its freedom and See also:science of execution and its victorious See also:energy of expression. All the best artists of Florence were called in council to determine on what site it should be set up, and after much debate the See also:terrace of the See also:palace of the Signory was chosen, in preference to the neighbouring Loggia dei See also:Lanzi. Here accordingly the colossal " David " of Michelangelo took, in the See also:month of May 1504, the See also:place which it continued to hold until in 1882 it was removed for the sake of See also:protection to a hall in the Academy of See also:Fine Arts, where it inevitably looks crushed and cabined. Other works of sculpture belong to the same See also:period: among them a second " David," in See also:bronze and on a smaller See also:scale, commissioned by the marechal See also:Pierre See also:Rohan and left by the young master to be finished by Benedetto da Rovezzano, who despatched it to See also:France in 1508; a great rough-hewn " St See also:Matthew " begun but never completed for the cathedral of Florence; a " Madonna and Child " executed on the commission of a See also:merchant of See also:Bruges; and two unfinished bas-reliefs of the same subject. Neither was Michelangelo idle at the same time as a painter. Leaving disputed works for the moment out of sight, he in these days at any See also:rate painted for his and See also:Raphael's See also:common patron, Angelo Doni, the " See also:Holy Family " now in the Uffizi at Florence. In the autumn of 1504, the year of the completion of the " David," he received from the Florentine state a commission for a work of monumental painting on a heroic scale. Leonardo da See also:Vinci had been for some months engaged on his great See also:cartoon of the " See also:Battle of Anghiari," to be painted on the See also:wall of the great hall of the municipal council. The gonfaloniere Piero See also:Soderini now procured for Michelangelo the commission to See also:design a See also:companion work. Michelangelo See also:chose an incident at the battle of Cascina during the See also:Pisan See also:war of 1364, when the Florentine soldiery had been surprised by the enemy in the See also:act of bathing. He dashed at the task with his accustomed fiery energy, and had carried a great part of the cartoon to completion when, in the See also:early See also:spring of 1505, he See also:broke off the work in See also:order to obey a See also:call to Rome which reached him from Pope See also:Julius II.

Ilis unfinished cartoon, in its See also:

power over the varieties and contrasts of energetic and vitally significant action, showed how greatly Michelangelo had profited by the example of his See also:elder See also:rival, Leonardo, little as, personally, he yielded to Leonardo's See also:charm or could bring himself to See also:respond to his See also:courtesy. The work of Michelangelo's youth is for the most part comparatively tranquil in character. His early sculpture, showing a degree of science and perfection unequalled since the antique, has also something of the antique serenity. It bears strongly the See also:stamp of intellectual See also:research, but not by any means that of See also:storm or See also:strain. In the cartoon of the " Bathers " the qualities afterwards proverbially associated with Michelangelo—his feria, his terribilitd, the See also:tempest and See also:hurricane of the spirit which accompanied his unequalled technical mastery and knowledge—first found expression. With Michelangelo's departure to Rome early in 1505 the first part of his See also:artistic career may be said to end. It will be convenient here to recapitulate its See also:principal results in sculpture and painting, both those preserved and those recorded but lost.

End of Article: MICHELANGELO (MICHELAGNIOLO BUONARROTI) (1475-1564)

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