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Michelangelo Buonarroti Facts

Michelangelo Buonarroti Facts
Michelangelo Buonarroti is considered by many to be the greatest artist of his time, and one of the greatest artists of all time. He was born Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni on March 6th, 1475 in Caprese near Arezzo, in the Republic of Florence (today known as Tuscany in Italy). His father was Ludovico di Leonardo Buonarroto, a judicial administrator, and his mother was Francesca di Neri del Miniato di Siena. Michelangelo began to apprentice under Domenico Ghirlandajo, a painter, when he was 12. He was later sent to work with a sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni, where his passion for sculpting emerged.
Interesting Michelangelo Buonarroti Facts:
Michelangelo gained notoriety as a sculptor when Florence's most powerful family the Medici purchased his work.
When Michelangelo was 21 he went to Rome. On July 4th, 1496 that same year he began a commissioned piece for Cardinal Raffaele Riario. It was a larger-than-life-size statue of Bacchus, the Roman wine god.
In 1497 Michelangelo was commissioned to carve a sculpture of the Virgin Mary grieving over Jesus Christ's body. Michelangelo was 24 when he completed the work. The sculpture is located in St. Peter's Basilica today.
In 1499 Michelangelo returned to Florence, and was asked by the Guild of Wool to complete a project that had been started 40 years before by Agostino di Duccio. It was marble statue that he completed in 1504 called the Statue of David. The statue was meant to be a symbol of Florentine freedom. The Statue of David is now located in the Academia.
In 1504 Michelangelo was commissioned to paint the Battle of Cascina, only shortly after Leonardo da Vinci had been commissioned to paint the Battle of Angiari. The paintings were not completed and both works were destroyed when the Palazzo Vecchio's council chamber was refurbished. Copies of the works remain.
Michelangelo was commissioned by Angelo Doni to create a gift for his wife Maddalena Strozzi. It was a painting of the 'Holy Family'. The painting hangs in the Uffizi Gallery in its original frame.
In 1505 Michelangelo was commissioned by Pope Julius II to build the Pope's tomb. The project was supposed to be completed in five years, and included 40 statues, but Michelangelo worked on the project for 40 years due to continuous interruptions. He never considered it complete to his satisfaction.
While working on the tomb Michelangelo completed the painting of the Sistine Chapel's ceiling. It took him four years, from 1508 to 1512 to complete the painting.
For much of the 1520s and 1530s Michelangelo worked on the Medici Chapel, a family funeral chapel in San Lorenzo's Basilica.
In 1524 Michelangelo was commissioned to design the interior of Laurentian Library of San Lorenzo's Church, and the vestibule. Although the library eventually opened in 1571, the vestibule was not completed until 1904.
Michelangelo worked on the fresco of The Last Judgement on the Sistine Chapel's alter wall from 1534 to 1541.
Michelangelo, Raphael, and Leonardo da Vinci are considered to be the three giants of Florentine high renaissance.
Michelangelo was 88 when he died, and was responsible for creating some of the world's most renowned and treasured art.


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