Michelangelo facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Michelangelo
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Portrait by Daniele da Volterra, c. 1545
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Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni
6 March 1475 Caprese, Republic of Florence
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| Died | 18 February 1564 (aged 88) |
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Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (March 6, 1475 – February 18, 1564), known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer. He was a true "Renaissance man" because he was talented in many different areas, just like Leonardo da Vinci.
Michelangelo created many famous artworks during his busy life. Some of his most well-known pieces include two marble statues. These are the Pieta in Saint Peter's Basilica and David. The David statue once stood in a public square in Florence. It is now in the Accademia Gallery.
His most famous paintings are huge frescos. These are the Sistine Chapel Ceiling and the Last Judgement. His most famous work of architecture is the east end and dome of Saint Peter's Basilica.
We know a lot about Michelangelo's life. He left behind many letters, poems, and journals. He was so famous that he was the very first artist to have his biography (life story) published while he was still alive. His biographer, Giorgio Vasari, said he was the greatest artist of the Renaissance. People sometimes called him Il Divino ("the divine one").
Other artists said his works had terribilità. This meant his art was so grand and full of strong emotion that it could be awe-inspiring. Many artists tried to create the same emotional feeling in their own work. This idea of terribilità led to a style of art called Mannerism.
Contents
Michelangelo's Early Life
Childhood and Learning
Michelangelo was born on March 6, 1475, in Caprese, near Arezzo, Tuscany. His father was Lodovico di Leonardo di Buonarroti di Simoni. His mother was Francesca di Neri del Miniato di Siena. The Buonarrottis were a banking family from Florence.
Michelangelo's father had lost most of the family's money. He worked for the local government in the town of Chiusi. When Michelangelo was a baby, his family moved back to Florence. Because he was often sick, Michelangelo was sent to live on a small farm. He lived with a stonecutter and his family. The stonecutter worked at a marble quarry owned by Michelangelo's father.
Many years later, Michelangelo said two things helped him become a good artist. One was being born in the gentle countryside of Arezzo. The other was being raised in a house where he learned to use a chisel and hammer. His mother died when he was only seven years old.
Michelangelo’s father brought him back to Florence. He sent him to study with a tutor, Francesco da Urbino. But Michelangelo was not interested in school lessons. He loved to explore the great churches of the city. He drew copies of the frescos he saw there.
When he was thirteen, he became an apprentice to the painter Domenico Ghirlandaio. Ghirlandaio had a large, busy art studio. He had rich supporters called patrons, who worked for the Medici family. Ghirlandaio painted frescos in their family chapels. Michelangelo learned the art of fresco painting very well from him.
In a large workshop like Ghirlandaio’s, artists worked with many different materials. These included sculpture, metalwork, and painting altarpieces. Michelangelo learned about all these things. When Michelangelo was only fourteen, his father convinced Ghirlandaio to pay his apprentice. This was very unusual at that time.
Working for the Medici Family
The Medici family was the richest and most powerful family in Florence. They had an academy where famous philosophers, poets, and artists met to share their ideas. The Medici family were important patrons (supporters) of the arts.
In 1489, Lorenzo de' Medici, the head of the family, asked Ghirlandaio to send his two best students to the academy. Michelangelo was one of the students chosen. He attended the academy from 1490 to 1492. He listened to the teachings of Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, and Angelo Poliziano. Their ideas were called Humanism. This was based on the philosophy of the ancient Greek Plato. These teachings influenced Michelangelo’s ideas and his art.
Michelangelo and another young sculptor, Pietro Torrigiano, studied sculpture under Bertoldo di Giovanni. Michelangelo had an argument with Torrigiano. Torrigiano punched him on the nose, breaking it badly. This affected Michelangelo's appearance for the rest of his life.
Michelangelo sculpted some reliefs. These are flat panels with raised figures on them. One was ‘’the Battle of the Centaurs’’. He made it for Lorenzo de Medici.
In 1492, Lorenzo de' Medici, Michelangelo’s patron, died. This changed Michelangelo’s life a lot. He went back to live at his father’s house. Michelangelo asked the leader at the Church of Santo Spirito to let him study the anatomy of bodies from the church’s hospital. In 1493, as a "thank-you" gift, Michelangelo carved a large wooden Crucifix. This crucifix still hangs in the church today.
In January 1494, there was a very heavy snowfall. Lorenzo de’ Medici’s son, Piero de Medici, asked Michelangelo to make a snow statue. So Michelangelo started working for the Medici family again.
In 1494, a new leader appeared in Florence. He was a Dominican friar named Savonarola. His strong speeches made people burn their books and throw away their jewelry. They also chased rich families out of the city. The Medici family had to leave. For Michelangelo, it was a good time to travel. He stayed for a while in Venice, then moved to Bologna.
In Bologna, he soon found work sculpting three figures. These were for the large marble Shrine of Saint Dominic. When things calmed down in Florence, Michelangelo returned. He worked for another member of the Medici family, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici.
Michelangelo made a marble statue of Cupid asleep. Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco told Michelangelo that it looked just like a real Ancient Roman statue. He said that if Michelangelo made it look old and chipped, someone would pay a lot of money for it. Lorenzo sold it to a Cardinal. The Cardinal later found out it was a new statue, not an ancient one. But he thought Michelangelo’s work was so good that he told the pope about it. The pope then invited Michelangelo to go to Rome and work for him.
Michelangelo in Rome
Michelangelo arrived in Rome on June 25, 1496, when he was 21. He lived near the church of Santa Maria di Loreto.
In 1496, he received an important "commission." This means he was given a paid job. Cardinal Raffaele Riario asked him to make a marble statue, larger than life-size. It was to be of Bacchus, the Ancient Roman God of wine. Michelangelo worked hard on the statue. He carved Bacchus as a young man who was quite drunk. He looked as if he was staggering as he raised his cup to make a toast. The cardinal did not like the drunken Bacchus and would not pay for it. A banker named Jacopo Galli bought it for his garden.
Michelangelo’s next important commission came from the French Ambassador. He asked Michelangelo to make a statue of the Virgin Mary mourning over the dead body of her son Jesus. This type of artwork, whether a painting or a statue, is called a “Pieta” (say: “Pe-ay-ta”). Michelangelo’s Pieta is the most famous Pieta ever made. It is now in Saint Peter's Basilica. Thousands of people visit it every day. Giorgio Vasari wrote that it was a miracle that a shapeless block of stone could become something so perfect.
Famous Artworks
The Statue of David
In 1499, Michelangelo returned to Florence. The priest Savonarola had made many people angry. He had been put to death in 1498. Life in Florence started to return to normal. Many years earlier, the Guild of Woolworkers had asked some artists to make statues of the city's heroes. A sculptor named Agostino di Duccio had started carving a huge statue of David. David is the hero of the Bible story of David and Goliath.
For 40 years, the Guild of Woolworkers owned the huge block of marble. The statue was barely started. In 1501, they commissioned the young Michelangelo to carve it. It took him three years to complete.
Once again, Michelangelo made a statue that became world-famous. The statue shows a young man, naked like ancient gods were often shown. He is pausing for a moment, looking with fierce eyes at the huge soldier Goliath. David is about to kill Goliath. The statue is 5.17 meters (17 feet) tall. It was placed in the piazza (public square) outside the Palazzo Vecchio, where the town council met. After many years, the statue was moved to an art gallery, the Accademia. A copy now stands in the piazza. People still travel great distances to see the statue he made.
The Sistine Chapel Ceiling
In 1505, Pope Julius II invited Michelangelo to Rome. Pope Julius was an old man. He wanted Michelangelo to design a grand tomb for him. It was to stand inside a church and have many carved figures. These figures were to include several slaves holding up part of the tomb and Old Testament prophets sitting in niches (openings in the walls). Michelangelo started work. He made a magnificent statue of Moses. This statue is now in the Church of S. Pietro in Vincoli (St Peter in Chains) in Rome. Many people visit this statue. The slave figures were only partly carved. Four of them are now in the Accademia in Florence. The rest of the grand plan for the tomb was never finished.
The main reason Pope Julius' tomb was not finished was that the Pope had an idea for another artwork. The Sistine Chapel near St. Peter's Basilica had its walls painted by famous artists from Florence. The Pope decided that Michelangelo should paint the ceiling. Michelangelo did not want to. He said he was not a painter. But the Pope pushed Michelangelo until he agreed to do it. Michelangelo told the Pope he would do it "for God." He also said he would only do it if the Pope let him paint it "in his own way."
The chapel was long and wide. Its curved ceiling was held up by twelve fan-shaped pieces of wall called "pendentives." Pope Julius told Michelangelo to paint one of the twelve apostles of Jesus on each pendentive. Michelangelo started this. Then he got a different idea and scraped off the work he had done. Instead of apostles, he painted twelve prophets. Seven of them were men from the Old Testament. But the other five were women and did not come from the Bible. They were five prophets from the Classical world. Like the prophets in the Bible, they had all told people about the birth of Jesus.
In the middle of the ceiling, instead of a starry sky, Michelangelo painted scenes from the Bible. These scenes tell the story of Creation and the downfall of humanity. The most famous scene is the picture of God creating Adam. The ceiling became so famous that many artists tried to copy how Michelangelo arranged and painted the figures.
Buildings and Tombs in Florence
In 1513, Pope Julius II died. The next pope was Pope Leo X, a member of the Medici family. He gave Michelangelo several jobs in Florence. These included designing the Medici Chapel. This chapel was meant to hold the tombs of his family members. Not all the tombs were built. But Michelangelo finished seven large statues, including a "Madonna and Child." His students later completed the chapel.
In 1527, the people of Florence became angry at the Medici family. They felt the Medici were acting too much like princes. This was not the right way for a family to act in a city that was a republic. The people forced the Medici out. But the Medici came back with an army and took over the city again. Michelangelo was so upset by the Medici's actions that he left his beloved city. He never went back.
The Last Judgement
Pope Clement VII called Michelangelo back to the Sistine Chapel. He wanted Michelangelo to paint the wall behind the altar. This huge scene was to be The Last Judgement. Michelangelo worked on it from 1534 to 1541.
In the center, it shows Jesus. He is surrounded by saints, sitting in judgment over the people of the Earth. To the left, people are rising from their graves. Many are welcomed into Heaven. To the right, other people are being sent to Hell. There, they are dragged down by demons. It is a huge painting with many figures in it.
Like Adam and Eve on the ceiling, all the figures in The Last Judgement were shown naked. Some of the cardinals in the church said it was wrong to paint saints, including the Virgin Mary, with no clothes on. They called Michelangelo "the painter of rude bits." There was a long argument about this. Some people said that God created everyone naked, so clothes would not be needed in Heaven. After Michelangelo's death, another artist, Daniele da Volterra, was asked to paint drapes on the figures. For the rest of his life, he was known as "the painter of pants."
St Peter's Basilica
In 1546, when Michelangelo was in his seventies, he received one of his most important jobs. The old St Peter's Basilica had been partly torn down. A new one was designed by Bramante. But many architects had worked on it, and it was still in its early stages. Michelangelo was made the architect.
He immediately improved the plan. He made important parts much stronger. He also designed a huge dome, taller than any other dome in the world. He died before it was completed. But he left drawings and models. This allowed the next architect, Giacomo della Porta, to finish what he had started. The dome of St. Peter's Basilica still stands as one of the greatest monuments of Christianity. It is also a symbol of the city of Rome.
When Michelangelo died, his body was taken back to Florence. He was buried in the Basilica of Santa Croce (Church of the Holy Cross). On his tomb are three mourning figures. They symbolize Architecture, Painting, and Sculpture.
Images for kids
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Pietà, St Peter's Basilica (1498–99)
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Tomb of Julius II, 1505–1545
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Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel; the work took approximately four years to complete (1508–1512)
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The Last Judgment (1534–1541)
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The dome of St Peter's Basilica
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Ignudo fresco from 1509 on the Sistine Chapel ceiling
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Michelangelo, drawn from sight by Francisco de Holanda in the late 1530s.
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Drawing showing Tommaso dei Cavalieri by Michelangelo
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The Sistine Chapel Ceiling (1508–1512)
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Tomb of Michelangelo (1578) by Giorgio Vasari in the Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence.
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Madonna and Child. Bruges, Belgium (1504)
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Angel by Michelangelo, early work (1494–95)
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The Creation of Adam (1510)
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Studies for The Libyan Sibyl
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The Libyan Sibyl (1511)
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The Prophet Jeremiah (1511)
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The Crucifixion of St. Peter
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The vestibule of the Laurentian Library has Mannerist features which challenge the Classical order of Brunelleschi's adjacent church.
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Michelangelo's redesign of the ancient Capitoline Hill included a complex spiralling pavement with a star at its centre.
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Michelangelo's design for St Peter's is both massive and contained, with the corners between the apsidal arms of the Greek Cross filled by square projections.
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The exterior is surrounded by a giant order of pilasters supporting a continuous cornice. Four small cupolas cluster around the dome.
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Design for a window in the Palazzo Farnese.
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Second design for wall tomb of Pope Julius II
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Self-portrait of the artist as Nicodemus
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The Pietà of Vittoria Colonna (c. 1540)
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See also
- Renaissance
- List of Renaissance artists
- Italian Renaissance art
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Raphael
- St. Peter's Basilica
- Sistine Chapel
See also
In Spanish: Miguel Ángel para niños
