MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI 



3779 



MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI 



A tablet in one of the rooms of a castle ruin 

 at Caprese, in Tuscany, Italy, indicates that 

 this mountain town was the birthplace of Mi- 

 chelangelo. He was a member of the ancient 

 family of the Counts of Canossa, and studied 

 drawing under Ghirlandajo and sculpture under 

 Bertoldo, at Florence. Later Lorenzo de' Me- 

 dici, the celebrated patron of art, became at- 

 tracted to Michelangelo, and the young sculp- 

 tor was permitted many privileges as a member 

 of his household. 



When twenty-four years of age he executed a 

 wonderful statue of the dead Christ in the arms 

 of His mother, the Pieta of Saint Peter's 

 Church. Then followed David, a masterpiece 

 in sculpture eighteen feet high and so heavy 

 that it took forty men to roll it from the work- 

 shop to the great central square in Florence. 

 There it remained until 1874, when it was trans- 

 ferred to the Academy, where it still stands in 

 glory and majesty. To aid him in, this work 

 Michelangelo constructed a tower around the 

 immense block of stone and worked inside, 

 quite undisturbed. 



His Moses is the chief surviving figure of a 

 magnificent tomb which was to have been 

 placed in Saint Peter's in honor of Pope Julius 

 II. Had he been able to carry out his ideas 

 this would have been the most stupendous 

 monument of sculpture in the world. So en- 

 thusiastic was he over the plans that he spent 

 eight months at the Carrara marble quarries 

 selecting suitable blocks. For forty years this 

 tomb occupied his thoughts, but because of 

 the Pope's superstitious fears about its com- 

 pletion the work was retarded. Only the 

 Moses, now in the little Church of San Pietro 

 in Rome, and the Bound Captives, in the 

 Louvre, represent the accomplishments of Mi- 

 chelangelo's dream; and in the'fiery expression 

 which he chiseled in the face of his Moses one 

 can read his own keen disappointment. (See 

 MOSES, for illustration.) 



However, Pope Julius II had another great 

 assignment for him. This time it was to be a 

 creation from his brush, the painting of the 

 frescoes for the ceiling of his Sistine Chapel, in 

 the Vatican. Michelangelo drew inspiration for 

 these colossal paintings from Bible stories the 

 early stages of creation intermingled with his- 

 torical scenes from the principal events in sa- 

 cred history. In all there are 343 figures, of 

 which more than 200 are important. Nothing 

 in the history of painting excels the boldness 

 and grandeur of this decoration in its entirety. 

 Much of the painting .had to be done while he 



was lying flat on his back on a staging of his 

 own design. He was forced to look up so con- 

 stantly that for many years after the ceiling 

 was completed he could read only with his- head 

 thrown back. Michelangelo's next great work 



HOME OF MICHELANGELO IN FLORENCE 



was the execution of statues for the tombs of 

 the Medici family in San Lorenzo, their Flor- 

 entine church. The one known as II Penseroso, 

 from the pensive attitude of his subject, is 

 counted among this genius's masterpieces. 



When sixty years old Michelangelo was again 

 summoned to Rome to paint the altar for the 

 Sistine Chapel. This painting, The Last Judg- 

 ment, his largest and most comprehensive can- 

 vas, is crowded with hundreds of figures; and 

 although time has cracked the plaster and 

 dimmed the coloring, it is still counted among 

 the world's greatest paintings. Toward the end 

 of his life he turned to architecture. He was 

 appointed architect for the rebuilding of Saint 

 Peter's ; for this labor he would accept no pay, 

 saying that he was doing all for the glory of 

 God. He lived only to see the completion of 

 the splendid gilded dome, but so faultless was 

 his model for the building that his plans were 

 perfectly carried out. 



Michelangelo died at the age of eighty-nine, 

 and was buried in the Church of Santa Croce 



