Life and Works of Michelangelo - Essay Example

Michelangelo: His Life and Works The word ‘Renaissance’ literally means ‘rebirth’, but most people today associate the term with a specific time period in Western European culture. Many of these go even further to think specifically of Italy, or perhaps more specifically still, of Florence. This is because this cultural revival, which happened roughly between the years 1400 and 1600, had its start earlier than other countries in Western Europe 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 of the ancient world. To the people that faced these remnants every day, such as the people who lived in Rome and other parts of Italy, the remains of buildings and statuary from the ancient world represented a golden age of shared culture, reason and creativity throughout the region. 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. Michelangelo Buonarroti was actually born in the town of Caprese in 1475, but was moved to Florence soon after his birth when his father lost the governorship of Caprese one month after his birth. 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, giving 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). 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. 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). 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. The project was started by necessity. According to Waldemar Januszczak (1990), the chapel ceiling had been thrown up in haste between 1477 and 1483 to please Sixtus IV, who rightfully felt he hadn’t long to live and wanted to see the completed chapel prior to his death. However, this haste led to faulty building, leading to a major collapse in 1504. This collapse resulted in a large crack in the ceiling of the chapel, making restoration necessary by Sixtus’ nephew, now Pope Julius II. “This was the most important chapel in Christiandom: it had to be repaired. Sixtus’ nephew, Julius II, who owed his entire religious career to his uncle’s nepotistic largesse, must have decided almost immediately that the roof should be restored and that the existing ceiling, a blue one decorated with a galaxy of twinkling silver stars, must be replaced” (Januszczak, 1990, p. xiii). 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). As a monument to the Della Rovere family at large, Julius knew he must make any necessary repairs to the chapel prior to any self-aggrandizement in the form of his tomb and must make them in such a fashion that the chapel, as the Pope’s chapel, stood out still as being the first among churches as it had been intended. Finally, the idea to hire Michelangelo for the project probably came as a combination of the Pope’s previous high opinion of Michelangelo’s work along with the urging or discouragement of Bramante, who in some instances is said to have encouraged the commission and in others is said to have discouraged it as a work completely above and beyond the scope of Michelangelo’s powers to carry it off respectably. “Holy Father,” he is reported as having said, “I believe he does not have enough courage and spirit for it, because he has not done too many figures and, above all, the figures are high and in foreshortening, and this is another thing from painting at ground level” (King, 2003, p. 21). Given the history of his relationship with the Pope and the unfulfilled contract the two men had between them regarding the sculptures for the tomb as well as Michelangelo’s preference for marble, it is surprising to many that he accepted the commission for the Sistine Chapel. Although he might have felt slurred by Bramante’s estimate of his skills and courage, it was true that he had not previously worked on a fresco since he’d left his apprenticeship with Ghirlandaio. It was also true that he 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. Finally, ceilings were often given to lesser known artists or apprentices, making Michelangelo feel as if the commission were beneath his talents as an artist (King, 2003, p. 27). After four summons sent from the Pope to Michelangelo, the last coming from Bologna, Michelangelo finally presented himself and was told to set work on a bronze statue of the Pope to commemorate his success in returning that city-state to the Papal states. It wasn’t until after this work was completed that Michelangelo was again summoned to Rome, this time to focus on the ceiling for which he was paid a handsome sum. Having just returned to the Pope’s good graces and facing a Pope with more authority and power than any before or since, he had little desire to anger him further and still nourished hope for work on the tomb (King, 2003, pp. 43-45). 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. 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 and architecture, 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. April 23, 2007 < http://www.michelangelo.com/buon/bio-index2.html> Campbell, Gordon. Renaissance Art and Architecture. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Fletcher, Sir Bannister. Sir Bannister Fletcher’s A History of Architecture. Dan Cruickshank (Ed.). Oxford: Architectural Press, 1996. Januszczak, Waldemar. Sayonara Michelangel: The Sistine Chapel Restored and Repackaged. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1990. 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. 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. West, Shearer. The Bulfinch Guide to Art History: A Comprehensive Survey and Dictionary of Western Art and Architecture. Boston: Bulfinch Press, 1996. Read More