Master of all arts

Father and Master of all Arts

Michelangelo Buonarroti is one of the most well know artists of the Renaissance

Period. He was a master painter, sculptor, architect and poet. He was the ideal

Renaissance man. Michelangelo produced many masterpieces during his lifetime. The

famous Pieta sculpture in Saint Peter’s Basilica, the dome on Saint Peter’s Bascilica,

and The Last Judgment Fresco in the sistine chapel are just a few examples of his

many works. The Last Judgement Fresco is a piece that I chose to analyze.

Michelangelo was born into a middle class family in Carprese, Italy on

March 6, 1475. His Father, Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, was Mayor of Carprese. The

Buomarroti family was a noble family from Florence that had lost most of it’s wealth and

social status. His family returned to Florence once his father’s term as mayor was

finished. Michelangelo was described as someone who was unyielding, emotional, and

arrogant. He was ashamed of his family’s decline in social status and his father’s

irrationally behavior. He was also embarrassed by his lack of formal education.

Michelangelo began to apprentice under Domenico and David Ghirlandaio when he was

13 years old. Domenico and David were both distinguished painters in Florence. He

began to hone his painting and drawing skills at their studio. Because of Michelango’s

difficult personality he began to have issues with Domenico Ghirlandaio. He left the

Ghirlandio’s studio and began to sharpen his sculpting skills at Bertoldo di Giovanni’s

Sculpture school. Lodovico Buonarroti did not approve of Michelangelo’s interest in art

until both he and Michelangelo started to gain profit from it.

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...ght) Michelangelo shows the dead

rising from ground, some with the help of angels, ascending towards heaven. There is

also a dark fiery cave that is believed to be purgatory. Just to the left of the cave you

see an angel and a demon fighting over a person, each trying to pull him away from the

other. On the bottom right of the painting (Christ’s left) The damned are shown being

dragged into hell. Most look terrified and ashamed. Angels are shown punching and

pushing the unforgiven down while demons grab them and pull them down into a boat.

The boatman Charon from Dante’s Divine Comedy is shown swinging his oar to beat

people off the boat so they can enter hell. One of the most disturbing elements of the

piece is the way he portrays the demons.They look like they are enjoying tormenting

and ushering the unsaved into their eternal punishment.