"Michelangelo was without doubt one of the most inspirational and talented artists in modern history .One of the leading lights of the Renaissance,his extraordinary talents emerged in early works such as Pieta for the Vatican,and the statue of David commissioned for the city of Florence.
Michelangelo Buonarroti was born on 6 March 1475 at Caprese in Tuscany.He lived for almost a century and died on 18 February 1564.In 1481 when M. was 6 his mother died.that year he also had his first drawing lesson from a local artist named Francesco Granacci.
In 1488 he moved to Florence and began working as an assistant for Domenico Ghirlandaio.In 1489 Michelangelo came to the attention of Lorenzo de' Medici,who summoned the boy to his court.This is how Michelangelo was in contact with the most brilliant thinkers,atists and writers of his day.
He was not only an artist ,architect and sculptor;he also wrote proficiently,producing countless poems and letters in his lifetime.
By age of 16,Michelangelo had begunto produce his own works.At the age of 21 he made his first trip to Rome.He spent five years in the city,creating some of his best-known works.
In 1497-98 Michelangelo created the Pieta, a masterpiece of sculpture.On 16 August 1501 the new republic commissioned Michelangelo to make the statue of David.He was asked to sculpt from a single block of marble;one that had been worked on 40 years previously by Agostino di Duccio,but had been left unfinished.On 8 September 1504,the completed sculpture was taken to the Piazza della Signoria in the cnetre of Florence,where it was placed in front of the Palazzo Vecchio.Such was the impact of Michelangelo's creation that it changed the law - becoming the first naked statue to be allowed on public display since Classical times.
In 1508 the pope commissioned Michelangelo to fresco the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.Michelangelo had to learn the art of painting and he found this ardous and disheartening :
"...my work does not seem to go ahead...This is due to the difficulty of the work and also because it is not my profession.In consequence,I lose my time fruitlessly.May God help me."
The ceiling was eventually completed on 21 October 1512;a task that was ardous in the extreme.
The year 1530 also saw a new commission for Michelangelo.The result of this commission was teh work that has become known as David(Apollo),owing the uncertainty about which figure it represents.
In 1532,Michelangelo paid one of his frequent visits to Rome.Here,at the age of 57,he fell in love with a young nobleman called Tommaso de' Cavalieri.Two yars later,he decided to leave Florence and settle in Rome.much of their corespondence survives,as does the poetry that the sculptor wrote to his lover.
Michelangelo's time in Rome was filled with commissions - alongside which he was still attempting to finish the long-term project of the tomb of Pope Julius II.This was eventually unveiled in 1547(it had taken 42 years to reach completion).
The works of Mihcelangelo are an intimate insight into the superb mind of a remarkable man;a man who,even in his own lifetime,was revered as a genius.
He lived for almost 89 years.In 1557 he had been forced to move out of Rome because of the threat of invasion by Spain.he returned to Rome after the threat had passed and it was here that his life ended.
His body lays in the church of Santa Croce,in a magnificent marble tomb.the tomb bears a bust of Michelangelo,below which are sculptures of three sorrowing women:Architecture,Painting and Scultpure.