Biography of Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)

Michelangelo Buonarroti was born on March 6, 1475 at Caprese, the second son of the Podesta, Ludovico Buonarroti and Francesca, daughter of Neri di Miniato del Serra and Bonda Rucellai.

As an infant, Michelangelo lived with a wet nurse in the village. It was common practice in Florence at that time to place a child with a nurse for his or her first few years.

In 1485, he was sent to Latin school to learn reading, writing and mathematics.

In 1488, Michelangelo entered the workshop of Domenica Ghirlandaio in Florence, where he remained only one year. He was attracted to the artistic and intellectual circles surrounding Lorenzo de’Medici.

Having recognized the boy’s talent, ‘Lorenzo Magnificent’ de Medici invited him to join the informal sculpture school he set up in his garden. His new life as a sculpture in the Medici garden truly inspired Michelangelo. Michelangelo studied classic Greek and Roman sculptures in the Medici garden.

Among the works Michelangelo created in these years were his Madonna of the Stairs (1480-192), begun at the age 14, and the Battle of the Lapiths and the Centaurs (1492).

In 1492, Lorenzo died and Michelangelo moved form the Medici household. From 1536, he dedicated himself entirely to the execution of the Last Judgment on the wall over the altar in the Sistine Chapel.

In 1504-1506, Michelangelo worked alongside Leonardo da Vinci in the Sal del Consiglio of the Palazzo Vecchio, where he painted his Battle of Cascina and Leonardo Battle of Anghiari.

Michelangelo painted the Conversion of St. Paul and The Crucifixion of St. Peter in the Pauline Chapel in 1542 a commission given to him by Paul III.
Biography of Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)

Ancient Sculpture

Sculpture may be defined as the art of representation in solid material and in three dimension.

The oldest surviving art objects are sculptures made from bones, ivory, stone or antlers. These were either engraved by incising an outlined figure with a sharp tool, craved in deep relief, or fully rounded three dimensional sculpture.

This art includes also casting or founding, which is subdivided into the art of making figures of wax, and that of casting them in all sorts of metals. The method employed have changed with the progress of civilization. Perhaps the most universally used material is clay. This moistened to proper degree of softness, then molded with the hands into the desired shape.

Historians proposes that the art of sculpture originated among the Egyptians, the Etruscans and Greeks, independently of each other; and that their first attempts were introduced and characterized by their public worship or political establishments.

In Egypt the sculpture was largely connected with the temple and the tomb. The tombs called for the most extensive use of the sculptor’s art.

In examining the ruins of Persepolis, sufficient evidence occurred, that sculpture was known in Persia in the period of its earliest kings. In Assyria, the art of sculpture flourishes under Queen Semiramis.
Ancient Sculpture