Michelangelo was born in 1475 during the Renaissance, a period of time in history in which people began to rediscover the great artistic achievements of ancient cultures. It lasted for two hundred years, beginning in the fifteenth century, and was a profound awakening. People began to appreciate great art, the printing press was invented, and many major scientific discoveries were made.
Michelangelo’s family was from a small town near Florence called Caprese. His father was a nobleman, but was unable to hold a steady job. His mother was very ill and was unable to properly care for a baby. So, soon after his birth, Michelangelo’s parents sent him to be fostered by a local stonecutter’s wife. Later, when Michelangelo became famous, he would joke that his love for carving stone was a result of being nursed by this stonecutter’s wife. When Michelangelo was six years old, his mother died and his father remarried and moved the family to Florence.
The young Michelangelo showed a keen interest in art, and eventually his father permitted him to join a bottega, which is a studio where young artists apprentice with a prominent master to learn the trade. At the bottega Michelangelo learned the technique of fresco painting, a skill that became very useful later in his life. This technique was very difficult to master and required the artist to paint quickly on wet plaster before it dried. This way the colors became part of the wall itself and would remain vivid for hundreds of years.
In 1490, when Michelangelo turned fifteen years old, he met a man who greatly changed his life. This man, Lorenzo de Medici, also known as Lorenzo the Magnificent, was a rich nobleman and ruler of Florence. He was also a great admirer of art and had a sculpture academy at his palace. Lorenzo immediately took a liking to the young talented artist and became his first patron. He invited Michelangelo to live at his palace and learn to sculpt marble. Michelangelo’s talent for sculpture soon became obvious to everyone. He was able to turn cold slabs of marble into amazingly lifelike figures. Unfortunately Michelangelo’s time at the Medici palace was cut short when Lorenzo died in 1492.
Deeply saddened by his patron’s death, Michelangelo returned home to his father and three brothers. He continued to sculpt and became more and more interested in the human body. He often visited a local hospital and was allowed to study anatomy in the morgue. He would spend hours dissecting dead bodies, memorizing the positions of the veins, muscles, and bones. This was a difficult task, but it helped him to carve a realistic human from a block of stone.
Life in Florence became unbearable for artists after Lorenzo de Medici’s son Piero came to power. He didn’t support the arts like his father and even made fun of Michelangelo’s talents by summoning him to the palace to make a snowman! Hurt, Michelangelo headed for Rome in 1497 in search of other patrons who would actually appreciate his talent. At that time Pope Julius II was the spiritual leader of the Roman Catholic Church and the ruler of Rome. He was a passionate patron of the arts who commissioned works from artists to build up the image of the Church and spread its message. The pope lived in a large palace, called the Vatican, and had his own private chapel. Michelangelo knew that he wanted to work for the pope because the church was very rich and powerful.
In Rome Michelangelo met the man who would make him famous, Cardinal Jean de Lagraulas. The Cardinal commissioned the artist to make a statue for the Pope’s private chapel. Michelangelo created a marble sculpture of Mary holding the dead Christ in her arms. He purposefully made Mary appear far too young to be Christ’s mother because he felt that she was so pure that she could never age. The statue became known as Pieta, which means "pity" in Italian. When Michelangelo’s Pieta was finished in 1500, he became the toast of Rome. Pilgrims flocked from all over Europe to see the sentimental figures, and nobody could believe that the sculptor who made them was just 25 years old. Some people even questioned whether Michelangelo really was the artist who made the sculpture. Enraged, Michelangelo snuck into the chapel late one night with his tools and carved his signature in Mary’s sash. To this day, if you look closely, you can see the words he carved in Italian: "Michelangelo from Florence made this."
During his time in Rome, Michelangelo’s friends wrote to him that life in Florence was becoming better. Piero de Medici was gone, and Florence was now an independent republic with no rich family or religious leader ruling the city. Once again Florence was becoming a flourishing place for artists. Michelangelo decided to return and was soon commissioned to sculpt a large block of marble for the main square of the city. He chose to portray the figure of David just before his battle with the evil giant Goliath. It symbolized the determination of the people of Florence to survive during difficult times. The sculpture was 17 feet high and showed Michelangelo’s remarkable knowledge of human anatomy. He worked with no assistants and didn’t even make a clay model first. He attacked the giant piece of marble with rigorous energy and passion. Michelangelo was already well known for his Pieta, but after he completed David, he became truly famous.
Upon hearing of his successes, Pope Julius II summoned Michelangelo back to Rome. He wanted to commission the artist to create a masterpiece that would serve as a monument to his fame. He wanted Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the most prestigious and important place in the pope’s palace. The Sistine Chapel was already beautifully decorated by other artists, but its ceiling was not very interesting. It was pale blue and covered with gold stars. Michelangelo was nervous about this new task. He considered himself a sculptor, not a painter, and the only experience he had in fresco painting was the time he had spent in the bottega. But nobody could argue with the pope, so Michelangelo set to work. First, he sketched out a design for the entire ceiling, breaking it down into nine individual biblical scenes. Then, after six months of preparation, Michelangelo was ready to start painting the ceiling.
Michelangelo spent the next four years sixty feet up in the air on top of scaffolding, painting the ceiling. He hired five assistants to help him, but fired them soon after because they did not meet his high standards. He worked standing up, bent over backward in a very uncomfortable position. He barely ate, only enough to keep his body going. Often he would collapse in bed with his clothes on, only to get up again the next morning and return straight to work. After four exhausting years, the ceiling was complete. On October 31, 1512, the Sistine Chapel was opened to the public. Everyone was astonished by Michelangelo’s masterpiece. He was able to portray, in nine separate panels, the biblical story of creation and destruction. There are three hundred figures painted so realistically that they look as if they will spring out of the painting. The Sistine Chapel ceiling is considered to be one of the artistic wonders of the world.
Michelangelo spent the rest of his life creating memorable sculptures and painting more frescoes, but he would be remembered most for his masterpiece on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo died in 1564 at the age of 89. He had lived a full and turbulent life, creating some of the most astounding works of art ever seen. He never stopped challenging himself through his art, and as a result, he left a lasting legacy in his paintings and sculptures.