MICHAELANGELO

Michelangelo's full name was Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni. He was born at Caprese, a village in Florentine territory, where his father, named Ludovico Buonarroti Simoni was the resident magistrate. The family returned to Florence after his birth. He formally apprenticed to Domenico Ghirlandaio for a term of three years. Michelangelo tried to suppress this fact, probably to make it seem that he had never had an ordinary workshop training; for it was he more than anyone else who introduced the idea of the 'Fine Arts' having no connection with the craft that painting had always previously been.

Among his works are:

1. Bacchus-The statue of Bacchus was commissioned by the banker Jacopo Galli for his garden and he wanted it fashioned after the models of the ancients. The body of this drunken and staggering god gives an impression of both youthfulness and of femininity.

2.Known as "Vesperbild" it shows the seated Madonna holding Christ's body in her arms. Michaelangelo was only 23 years old then but there was no artist in his time who had presented an image of the Madonna with Christ's body.

Sistine Chapel ceiling


David