Michelangelo

Michelangelo

Michelangelo Buonarrotti, although considered by many a Florentine, was actually born in Caprese, Italy in 1475. Michelangelo was an inspired artist of the Renaissance period. He and Leonardo DaVinci were considered to be the two greatest figures of this highly artistic movement. Michelangelo was a highly versatile artist and was involved in sculpting, architecture, painting, and even poetry. .At the age of 13, he was apprenticed to Domenico Ghirlandaio, who at the time was painting a chapel in the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. Here, the young Michelangelo learned the technique of fresco (painting on fresh plaster before it dries); He would use this technique many years later in his work in the Sistine Chapel in Rome. At the age of fifteen, Michelangelo began to spend time in the home and in the gardens of Lorenzo de' Medici, where he studied sculpture under Bertoldo di Giovanni. It was during this time that he completed the Madonna of the Stairs and the Battle of the Centaurs. The political climate in Florence following the death of Lorenzo de' Medici may have led Michelangelo to leave the city, going first to Bologna and, after a brief return to Florence, to Rome. In Rome, he carved the Bacchus and then the Pietà which is in St. Peter's basilica in Rome.

Michelangelo returned to Florence where he began work on the David. Called the "Giant" by his fellow Florentines, this statue was completed in 1504. Later that year, ...