The Art and Life of Michelangelo - Essay Example

The Art and Life of Michelangelo The word ‘Renaissance’ literally means ‘rebirth’, but most people today associate the term with the Italian middle ages. This is because this revival of art and science, which happened roughly between the years 1400 and 1600, started within the major city-states of Italy. “The term ‘Renaissance’ might now be defined as a model of cultural history in which the culture of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Europe is represented as a repudiation of medieval values in favor of the revival of the culture of ancient Greece and Rome” (Campbell, 2004, v-vi). The period is characterized primarily by a renewed focus on the symbolism and skill represented in the artworks and achievements of the ancient world – the Greeks and early Romans. To the people that faced the ruins of the past every day, the remains of buildings and statuary from the ancient world seemed to represent a golden age of shared culture, reason and creativity throughout the region that had somehow been lost to time. This refocus on the classic styles, subjects and artistic knowledge are exemplified in the works of Michelangelo Buonarroti who learned his art in the capital of this flowering rebirth, the city of Florence. An understanding of his life helps to indicate the great sensitivity he had in undertaking his many works of art, including painting, sculpture and architecture, reflecting in each the nature of the creative process. Michelangelo Buonarroti was actually born in the town of Caprese in 1475. His father lost the governorship of Caprese one month after Michelangelo was born and the family moved to Florence. Because of his mother’s constitutional frailty, Michelangelo was given to a wet nurse who turned out to be the daughter and wife of stonecutters. This gave the small Michelangelo his first introduction to the stone and tools that would one day make him famous, a beginning he would never forget. “If I have anything good in my talent, this has come to me from having been born in the purity of the air of your Arezzo countryside; and also from having received with the milk of my wet nurse, the chisel and hammer with which I make my figures,” Michelangelo told his friend and biographer (cited in Labella, 1990, p. 44). His mother died when Michelangelo was only six, and he remained distanced from the rest of his family throughout the remainder of his life as his brothers born both before and after him were raised separately. In addition, his father, doomed to live a life of mediocrity following his return to Florence, remained negatively inclined toward Michelangelo’s interest in art, considering it the work of common laborers (Labella, 1990). This history reveals how the creative process begins within the soul of the individual as well as the difficulty one might have in attempting to suppress it. Michelangelo was described by others as being “touchy and quick to respond with fierce words, he tended to keep to himself, out of shyness according to some but also, according to others, a lack of trust in his fellows” (Bonner, 2001). Despite his father’s reluctance, Michelangelo was placed at an early age under the instruction of Domenico Ghirlandaio, the painter, where he quickly outpaced his master and caused some resentment among his fellow students. From there he moved on to the household of Lorenzo de’ Medici, the Magnificent, whom he had met through his accomplishments within a sculpting school sponsored by the Magnificent (Bonner, 2001). It was this relationship with the powerful Medici family that would govern a great deal of Michelangelo’s future career as an artist, sculptor and architect as he was forced throughout his life to live both in and out of Florence and pressed to work in one or another form of art regardless of his own preferences. Thus, the creative process was tempered by the human needs of the man as well as the need to acquire appropriate materials by submitting to the desires of the sponsors or patrons. Throughout the Renaissance, artists such as Michelangelo were required to depend almost exclusively upon the financial support, as well as political position and aesthetic tastes, of their patrons and Michelangelo was no exception. His work represents a life full of opposites. With Lorenzo Medici, he was a favored son of Florence, encouraged to explore his many ideas and develop his studies into Humanism, anatomy and art, yet the death of Lorenzo would bring him much more limited options (Bonner, 2001). Two of the pieces he created during this early period reflect another of his conflicts – the Madonna of the Stairs and The Battle of the Centaurs. “Already at 16, my mind was a battlefield: my love of pagan beauty, the male nude, at war with my religious faith. A polarity of themes and forms … one spiritual, the other earthly” (Michelangelo, cited in Bonner, 2001). This pattern is further emphasized in the slightly later sculpted works of Bacchus and the Pieta. However, in these later works, he demonstrates his mastery of the conflict he felt between the past and the present in his sculpture by including the classic construction in each while still incorporating the human reality of imperfection in the first and emotion in the second, traits that he would only continue to perfect in later art. His preference remained throughout his life upon working in sculpture, and he often worked to secure employment in this region, but was just as often disappointed in his patrons’ lack of financing or changing opinions. Perhaps the greatest sculptural work he imagined was never realized as the result of a capricious patron. His switch from sculpture in the creation of David to painting in the work of the Sistine Chapel represents this slavery to the patrons who supported him, as his conversion to painting at this time was demanded by Pope Julius II. However, thanks to the unique working relationship that existed between himself and the Pope, Michelangelo was granted the freedom to create what he envisioned upon the ceiling rather than the specific illustrations envisioned by the Pope, greatly surprising the artisans who had instigated the commission in malice, hoping to end Michelangelo’s rising fame (Bonner, 2001). This represents the fusion of the creative talent with its need to be supported as Michelangelo was not able to work in the medium he chose, but was given leisure to determine the final results largely on his own. A lot of study has been devoted to analysis and appreciation of the fabulous paintings of the Sistine Chapel, but not as much attention has been given to the story behind the art. Although already recognized as a highly talented and well-respected artist with a keen eye for emotion and a sensitive treatment of religious topics, there were several requirements and special challenges regarding the undertaking of this particular masterpiece. Because of the sheer difficulty of the project, requiring the artist to spend years painting in wet plaster rather than working on his sculpture or other projects, to more fully appreciate the process that contributed to the creation of the Sistine Ceiling, it is necessary to understand the details regarding the commission of the project, why it was commissioned, why Michelangelo accepted the commission given the difficulties involved, how he met these challenges given the media and subject involved as well as his final assessment of the results. During the height of the Italian Renaissance, it was extremely important for the ruling and wealthy families to put up some sort of architecture that would stand as a long-lasting personal monument to the power and prestige of the family line and the church fathers were no exception to the rule (Martines, 1979, p. 236). It was true that Michelangelo much preferred sculpture to painting and that he was exceedingly unfamiliar with both the fresco technique and the foreshortening necessary to make the figures on the ceiling appear as if they were truly above those observing them from below (King, 2003, p. 27). However, the ceiling, once finished, delighted most of those who came to see it. “The pope was delighted with the unveiled fresco, surveying it ‘with immense satisfaction.’ Everyone visiting the Sistine Chapel in the days after the fresco’s completion was equally dazzled with Michelangelo’s work” (King, 2003, p. 299). Despite his pleasure with the work, though, it is reported that Julius II was somewhat dissatisfied with the final image because of its lack of ‘the final touch.’ Previous works of great artists had included the use of gold and ultramarine to add a certain touch of richness and opulence to the painting. Although the pope argued vociferously with Michelangelo regarding these extra touches, Michelangelo won out by arguing that the men depicted were not rich men and that the fresco would last longer without such unnecessary additional touches. However it was accepted or rejected by others, Michelangelo seemed to have taken a rather pessimistic attitude toward the entire work. His letters home complain more of his physical suffering in carrying out the painting as well as his lack of payments than the beauty that was emerging from his paint pots. The mentions made of the artwork itself are usually oblique, in statements such as “my work is not progressing in such a way as to make me think that I deserve anything” (Stone, 1962, p. 46). However, within the painting, he was able to answer many of the objections originally raised against him being the selected artist for the ceiling. A foreshortened image of Jonah satisfactorily answered the complaints of Bramante regarding Michelangelo’s ability to understand the relationship between the contours of the surface and the vantage point of his audience while the overall awe-inspiring effect he achieved within the ceiling itself proved to everyone that this inexperienced painter was as gifted with a brush as he was with a chisel. With fame and admiring support from the Pope to many other leaders of Renaissance Italy, Michelangelo turned architect in his later years, smoothly incorporating his sculptural ideas of communicating through the stone with his natural ideas concerning his paintings to create unique works of art in things as utilitarian as a set of stairs for the Laurentian Library (Bonner, 2001). While impressive and highly decorative, modern interpretations of this staircase criticize it for its massive use of space and for the nearly unusable aspects of the two outer lower stairways (Fletcher, 1996). However, Michelangelo’s architectural work demonstrates that he wasn’t as firmly entrenched in the Classical ideals of his time as his contemporaries. “Michelangelo generated sculptural detailing that marked the beginning of the Baroque and the end of purely classical architecture. Michelangelo emphasized visual effect over the structural logic of a design. He always subordinated invention to the needs of overall composition” (Sharp, 1991, p. 108). He died in Rome in 1564 without having realized many of his architectural conceptions. Throughout all of these artistic achievements and dreams of achievements, Michelangelo expressed his feelings and desire in words through the medium of poetry. Although not many people today realize that the sculptor, painter and architect also wrote verse, there are more than 100 poems of his still existing today, preserved through the painstaking work of numerous scholars and admirers. Recognized among these individuals as superb examples of the written medium, “for the most part, for all its complexity of content, what he wrote was blunt, direct, plainspoken; in some of his poems, though not in the loftiest sonnets) there are even patches of the rough street-talk of his youth” (Nims, xix). What makes Michelangelo’s poetry so difficult for modern readers is not only understanding the ‘common’ words he chooses to use to hide his sometimes blasphemous ideas, but also in the very complicated way in which he structures the metrical beat of his verse and his inclusion of his own uniquely Tuscan dialect. Thus, the creative process is revealed again as a combination of the common everyday activities and desires of a human being fusing with the loftier aesthetic of the refined artist. Demonstrating through his own body of work that one artist did not necessarily need to feel pigeon-holed into a single medium in which to express himself, Michelangelo has served as an inspiration for generations of artists. Proving himself equally competent in sculpture, fresco, paint, architecture and poetry, he is still known as one of the greatest artistic innovators of his time. His willingness to dispense with contemporary traditions and concepts in order to pursue his own ideas of design theory and composition enabled him to achieve mastery far beyond that of many artists before or since while also encouraging others to explore their own abilities to fullest extent. Works Cited Bonner, Neil R. (Ed.). Michelangelo Buonarroti [Website]. December 14, 2001. Michelangelo.com, Inc. May 27, 2009 Campbell, Gordon. Renaissance Art and Architecture. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. King, Ross. Michelangelo & The Pope’s Ceiling. New York: Walker & Company, 2003. Labella, Vincenzo. A Season of Giants: 1492-1508. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990. Martines, Lauro. Power and Imagination: City-States in Renaissance Italy. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979. 236. Nims, John Frederick (Ed.). “Prelude.” The Complete Poems of Michelangelo. Michelangelo Bounarroti. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998. Sharp, Dennis. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Architects and Architecture. New York: Quatro Publishing, 1991. Stone, Irving (Ed.). I, Michelangelo, Sculptor: An Autobiography Through Letters. New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1962. Read More