Michelangelo

By Jack Murray

Vital Statistics• Full name is Michelangelo

di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

• Gender is male• Born March 6, 1475 and

died February 18, 1564• Born in Arezzo, Tuscany• His mother’s name was

Francesca Neri and his father’s name was Ludovico di Leonardo di Buonarroto Simoni

Personal Background• Michelangelo was placed with a wet nurse in

a family of stonecutters• Mother died when he was seven• Sent to grammar school, befriended

Francesco Grannaci who was studying art and encouraged his friend to also do so

• When he was thirteen he agreed to apprentice in the workshop of the artist Domenico Ghirliando

• After about one year, Michelangelo went to study sculpture in the Medici gardens and was shortly thereafter invited into the household of Lorenzo de’ Medici, the Magnificent

• Michelangelo created his first artworks when he was sixteen, which were the “Battle of the Centaurs” and “Madonna of the Stairs”

Key Historical Events• In 1492 Lorenzo the Magnificent

died, his death had major repercussions on politics in Florence

• A priest by the name of Savonarola took power

• Began “Bonfire of the Vanities”• With Lorenzo Medici’s death also

came the collapse of the Medici family’s power, and a change in Michelangelo’s status

• On June 25, 1496, Michelangelo arrived in Rome

• Christianity was a major source of inspiration for Michelangelo

Influences of the Art world• Attempts at imitating his style of

Terribilita have resulted in the art of Mannerism

• In his return to Florence, Michelangelo created a statue of David

• Murals of the Sistine Chapel represent most of the doctrine of the Catholic Church

• A way that the art world influenced Michelangelo was through his rivalry with Leonardo Da Vinci

Stylistic Traits• Terribilita• Frescoes• Human Ornaments• Stories• Focal Point• Human Detail• Architecture• Human Emotion• Sculpture

• Frescoes

• Human Ornaments

• Stories

• Terribilita

Stylistic Traits Example Art #1: The Sistine Chapel

Stylistic Traits Example #2:The Dome of St. Peter’s Basilica

• Architecture• Human ornaments• Focal point • Human detail

• Human emotion• Human detail• This is another of Michelangelo’s

many sculptures• Story

Stylistic Traits Example #3: The Pieta

The Ascension of Christ

• Terribilita• Focal Point

• Human Ornaments • Human Detail

Conclusion

• Michelangelo was an architect, a painter, a sculptor, poet, and engineer

• His art inspired a new Western form of art known as Mannerism

• His intensity and dedication were evidenced in all of his works, but particularly in the Sistine Chapel, which took him four years to create and during which he painted the ceiling on his back

• To this day he is one of the grandest and most well known artists of our time

Questions?