How Did Michelangelo Contribute To The Renaissance

Michelangelo
Many people have contributed something to what we know as the renaissance era, whether it was art, music, or poetry; But few have contributed to the renaissance era what Michelangelo has. Examples of this can be seen throughout history with his many famous paintings, sculptures, or his lesser known poetry. These examples include the Sistine chapel paintings and his David sculptures, these contributions alone prove that Michelangelo was one of the major contributors to the renaissance era. Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was born on March 6, 1475, in Caprese, Italy. His father was employed by the Florentine government, and soon after Michelangelo’s birth his family returned to the city of Florence. Michelangelo’s new
home of Florence had a very rich art environment. This was the perfect environment for Michelangelo to showcase and develop his many talents.
At the age of six Michelangelo’s mother passed away and initially his father did not approve of his chose career path. At the young age of thirteen, Michelangelo became an apprentice of the painter Domenico Ghirlandaio who was well known for his murals. After a year of apprenticing Mr. Ghirlandaio, Michelangelo begin to catch the eye of Lorenzo de Medici, who was known as Florence’s leading art patron and citizen. Lorenzo de Medici, who was often accompanied by the city’s most intellectual and artistic men, gave an invitation to Michelangelo to occupy a room at his palatial home. It was here that Michelangelo was able to learn from and be inspired by the many scholars and talented writers in Lorenzo’s intellectual circle. The time spent in Lorenzo de Medici’s home would forever
influence Michelangelo’s later work because of what he learned about philosophy and politics in those years. While staying in Lorenzo’s home his was also able to refine his technique under the teachings of Bertoldo di Giovanni, who was the keeper of Lorenzo’s collection of ancient sculptures and was also a renowned sculptor himself. Despite the fact that Michelangelo expressed his artistic genius in many different outlets, his time under Bertoldo di Giovanni caused him to view his self as a sculptor first. By the year 1498, Michelangelo was working in Rome when he received a career defining opportunity from French cardinal Jean Bilheres de Lagraulas, ambassador of King Charles VIII to the pope.
Lagraulas wanted to create a large statue of the Virgin Mary with her dead son resting in her arms that was intended to be used as a Pieta to grace his own future grave. What Michelangelo created was a five foot nine inch tall intricate masterpiece, created from a single block of marble. Even to this day, 500 years later, people still flock to see this beautiful statue. In 1501 Michelangelo returned to his home of Florence and was hired to create a huge male figure made of marble. This figure was intended to enhance the city’s famous cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. He chose to model this statue after a young David from the Old Testament. This statue depicts David as powerful and larger than life figure at over 17 feet tall. This sculpture still remains in Florence to this day at the Galleria dell’Accademia. This statue is a world renowned symbol of the city of Florence’s artistic heritage and is considered by scholars to be almost
perfect. In 1508, Pope Julius II called Michelangelo to Rome for a large scale painting project. He instructed Michelangelo to depict the twelve apostles on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which is a sacred part of the Vatican where new popes are elected into power. Michelangelo took this project head on and it took him four years to complete. But instead of using the twelve apostles, he painted seven prophets and five sibyls around the borders of the ceiling and used the central space to depict scenes from the book of Genesis. This painting became famous around the world and still draws people to it today. Michelangelo continued to work on sculptures and paintings until the day he died, but as he aged he began to take on more architectural projects. From the years 1520 to 1527 he created wall designs, windows, and cornices for the Medici Chapel in Florence. All of these designs were unusual in their designs and proportions at the time. Michelangelo also created the famous dome of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. From the 1530s on, Michelangelo began to write poetry. His poems incorporate the philosophy of Neo-Platonism ideas that he learned from his time living with Lorenzo de Medici. About three hundred of the poems survive. In the year 1564 at the age of 88 passed died after coming down with a short illness. A pieta he began sculpting in the 1540s that was intended to be his own tomb remained unfinished. This pieta is on display at the Museo dell’Opera, which is not far from where he was buried, in the Basilica di Santa Croce. In conclusion, if you were to make a list of influential people to the history of the Renaissance, Michelangelo should definitely be on that list. He was a jack of all trades, a sculptor, a painter, a poet, and an architect. He created many famous works that still draw people to see them five hundred years later. From the statue of David to the paintings of the Sistine chapel ceiling, there is no doubt that Micheangelo was one of the major contributors to the Renaissance era.