Michelangelo
Jessica Stephens
Professor Carol Eckert
Art History 210
13 November 2012
An Assortment of
Michelangelo’s oeuvres
Some know of him, some praise him, some confuse him with another. A Renaissance man and an appreciator of the Classical and Hellenistic Greek styles, Michelangelo Buonarroti is the man of his century. Unlike many other artists of his similar day and time, Michelangelo was born into a reasonable state in the community of Caprese in Italy. His father, Lodovico di Lionardo Buonarroti Simoni, documented his birth as the 6th of March 1475, a few hours before dawn (Symonds 5). His father was a sort of “local governor of the small towns of Caprese…” thus giving him a more graced chance at making it somewhere higher in the world. When his father moved his family back to Florence, Michelangelo was “first exposed to stone carving,” and besides that fact, was enrolled in a Latin school. As he continued in this, he found that he was drawn more to art, than to other professions; this realization, of course as it would any, upset his father. But, eventually, his father conceded and put him in an apprenticeship with Ghirlandaio (Wallace 13-14). Ghirlandaio owned a workshop and regularly took boys as apprentices and taught them the basics of art, mixing colors, etc. (Davies). After his apprenticeship was over, he moved in on a notable connection to the Medici family, where he could flourish as a student of art. The Medici family connection was very distant to Michelangelo, but none-the-less; it could be taken to his advantage (Wallace 15). Florence was basically ruled by the Medici family and at this time Lorenzo di Medici was in charge. Michelangelo was only there by Lorenzo’s personal invitation. During the time that the Medici family held power, Florence became the center of the Italian Renaissance because of the cultivation of the arts and sciences in the household of Medici (Luchinat and Strozzi 1). Even after the Medici family was exiled,
Professor Carol Eckert
Art History 210
13 November 2012
An Assortment of
Michelangelo’s oeuvres
Some know of him, some praise him, some confuse him with another. A Renaissance man and an appreciator of the Classical and Hellenistic Greek styles, Michelangelo Buonarroti is the man of his century. Unlike many other artists of his similar day and time, Michelangelo was born into a reasonable state in the community of Caprese in Italy. His father, Lodovico di Lionardo Buonarroti Simoni, documented his birth as the 6th of March 1475, a few hours before dawn (Symonds 5). His father was a sort of “local governor of the small towns of Caprese…” thus giving him a more graced chance at making it somewhere higher in the world. When his father moved his family back to Florence, Michelangelo was “first exposed to stone carving,” and besides that fact, was enrolled in a Latin school. As he continued in this, he found that he was drawn more to art, than to other professions; this realization, of course as it would any, upset his father. But, eventually, his father conceded and put him in an apprenticeship with Ghirlandaio (Wallace 13-14). Ghirlandaio owned a workshop and regularly took boys as apprentices and taught them the basics of art, mixing colors, etc. (Davies). After his apprenticeship was over, he moved in on a notable connection to the Medici family, where he could flourish as a student of art. The Medici family connection was very distant to Michelangelo, but none-the-less; it could be taken to his advantage (Wallace 15). Florence was basically ruled by the Medici family and at this time Lorenzo di Medici was in charge. Michelangelo was only there by Lorenzo’s personal invitation. During the time that the Medici family held power, Florence became the center of the Italian Renaissance because of the cultivation of the arts and sciences in the household of Medici (Luchinat and Strozzi 1). Even after the Medici family was exiled,
Cited: Davies, Gerald Stanley. Ghirlandaio. London: Methuen and Co., 1908. ebook. Esaak, Shelley. "Art History." 2012. About.com. internet. 8 November 2012. Kim, Elice. ART HISTORY PRESENTATION ARCHIVE. 11 September 2007. internet. 8 November 2012. Luchinat, Cristina Acidini and Palazzo Strozzi. Medici, Michelangelo, and the art of late Renaissance Florence. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002. ebook. Symonds, John Addington. The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti. Vol. I. New York: Charles Scribner 's Sons, 1911. II vols. Book. Wallace, William E. Michelangelo The Complete Sculpture Painting Architecture. Hong Kong: Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc., 1998. book.