MICHELANGELO - ITALIAN SCULPTOR AND PAINTER - PIETA AND DAVID

 

 

                                                                  CREATION

 

MICHELANGELO  - ITALIAN SCULPTOR AND PAINTER  -  PIETA AND DAVID

Michelangelo (full name: Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni) was born at Caprese, a village in Florentine territory, where his father, named Ludovico Buonarroti Simoni was the resident magistrate.

 

Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was inspired by models from classical antiquity and had a lasting influence on Western art.

   

What makes MIchelangelo so famous -

The frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (1508–12) in the Vatican, which include the iconic depiction of the creation of Adam interpreted from Genesis, are probably the best known of Michelangelo’s works today, but the artist thought of himself primarily as a sculptor. His famed sculptures include the David (1501), now in the Accademia in Florence, and the Pietà (1499), now in St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.

 

 

                                                           PIETA 

 

This famous work of art depicts the body of Jesus on the lap of his mother Mary after the Crucifixion. Michelangelo's interpretation of the Pietà is unprecedented in Italian sculpture.   It is an important work as it balances the Renaissance ideals of classical beauty with naturalism.

 

Pietà, as a theme in Christian art, depiction of the Virgin Mary supporting the body of the dead Christ. Some representations of the Pietà include John the Apostle, Mary Magdalene, and sometimes other figures on either side of the Virgin, but the great majority show only Mary and her Son. The Pietà was widely represented in both painting and sculpture, being one of the most poignant visual expressions of popular concern with the emotional aspects of the lives of Christ and the Virgin.

 

 

The theme, which has no literary source but grew out of the theme of the lamentation over Christ’s body, first appeared in the early 14th century in Germany. It soon spread to France and enjoyed great popularity in northern Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries. Although the Pietà remained mostly a Franco-German theme, its supreme representation is that completed by Michelangelo in 1499 and housed in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Influenced by the northern style, Michelangelo draped the figure of Christ across Mary’s lap. Through this pyramidal design and the details of his figures, Michelangelo created a scene that displayed at once agony, solemnity, and heroic resignation.

The Pieta is now in St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City.  

The statue was commissioned for the French Cardinal Jean de Bilhères, who was the French ambassador in Rome. The sculpture, in Carrara marble, was made for the cardinal's funeral monument, but was moved to its current location, the first chapel on the north side after the entrance of the basilica, in the 18th century.  It is the only piece Michelangelo ever signed.

 

 

                                

                     

                       David at its current location in the Galleria dell'Accademia

 

David is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture, created in marble between 1501 and 1504 by the Italian artist Michelangelo. David is a 5.17-metre (17 ft 0 in) marble statue of the Biblical figure David, a favoured subject in the art of Florence.

 

The statue was commissioned for one of the buttresses of the cathedral of Florence and was carved from a block of marble that had been partially blocked out by other sculptors and left outdoors. After Michelangelo completed the sculpture, the Florentine government decided instead to place it in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. The original is now in the Accademia, and copies have been installed in the Piazza della Signoria and the Piazzale Michelangelo, which overlooks Florence.

The artist’s prominence, established by this work, was reinforced at once by the commission (1501) of the David for the cathedral of Florence. For this huge statue, an exceptionally large commission in that city, Michelangelo reused a block left unfinished about 40 years before. The modeling is especially close to the formulas of classical antiquity, with a simplified geometry suitable to the huge scale yet with a mild assertion of organic life in its asymmetry. It has continued to serve as the prime statement of the Renaissance ideal of perfect humanity. Although the sculpture was originally intended for the buttress of the cathedral, the magnificence of the finished work convinced Michelangelo’s contemporaries to install it in a more prominent place, to be determined by a commission formed of artists and prominent citizens. They decided that the David would be installed in front of the entrance of the Palazzo dei Priori (now called Palazzo Vecchio) as a symbol of the Florentine Republic. It was later replaced by a copy, and the original was moved to the Galleria dell’Accademia.

 

Sistine Chapel :

Michelangelo painted the frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel not lying down as sometimes described but standing on an extensive scaffold, reaching up and craning his neck. Because he had never worked in fresco before, Michelangelo and his assistants worked from hundreds of his sketches to transfer outlines onto a freshly plastered surface. Once he became comfortable with the medium, however, he abandoned the sketches. To add colour, Michelangelo used the buon fresco technique, in which the artist paints quickly on wet plaster before it dries. Some scholars believe that for detailed work, such as a figure’s face, Michelangelo probably used the fresco secco technique, in which the artist paints on a dry plaster surface.

 

The work is part of a larger scheme of decoration within the chapel that represents much of the doctrine of the Catholic Church. 

 

Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which took approximately four years to complete (1508–1512).

 

During his life time two biographies of him was published.

 

Michelangelo preferred young and youthful men to girls. 

 

 A summary of Michelangelo's biography :

Michelangelo (di Lodovico Buonarroti), (born March 6, 1475, Caprese, Republic of Florence—died Feb. 18, 1564, Rome, Papal States), Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet. 

 

He served a brief apprenticeship with Domenico Ghirlandaio in Florence before beginning the first of several sculptures for Lorenzo de’Medici. After Lorenzo’s death in 1492, he left for Bologna and then for Rome. There his Bacchus (1496–97) established his fame and led to a commission for the Pietà (now in St. Peter’s Basilica), the masterpiece of his early years, in which he demonstrated his unique ability to extract two distinct figures from one marble block. 

 

His David (1501–04), commissioned for the cathedral of Florence, is still considered the prime example of the Renaissance ideal of perfect humanity. On the side, he produced several Madonnas for private patrons and his only universally accepted easel painting.

 

The Holy Family (known as the Doni Tondo). Attracted to ambitious sculptural projects, which he did not always complete, he reluctantly agreed to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (1508–12). The first scenes, depicting the story of Noah, are relatively stable and on a small scale, but his confidence grew as he proceeded, and the later scenes evince boldness and complexity. His figures for the tombs in Florence’s Medici Chapel (1519–33), which he designed, are among his most accomplished creations. 

 

He devoted his last 30 years largely to the Last Judgment fresco in the Sistine Chapel, to writing poetry (he left more than 300 sonnets and madrigals), and to architecture. He was commissioned to complete St. Peter’s Basilica, begun in 1506 and little advanced since 1514. Though it was not quite finished at Michelangelo’s death, its exterior owes more to him than to any other architect. 

 

Michelangelo, with Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael, is one of the three giants of the Florentine High Renaissance. Although their names are often cited together, Michelangelo was younger than Leonardo by 23 years, and older than Raphael by eight. Because of his reclusive nature, he had little to do with either artist and outlived both of them by more than forty years.

 

Michelangelo is regarded today as among the most exalted of artists.