Микеланджело (1475 - 1564), итальянский скульптор, живописец, архитектор, поэт.
Michelangelo Buonarroti, Italian painter/sculptor
Как вспоминает Вазари, биограф и поклонник Микеланджело, "в любой момент, когда он оставался один, он посвящал рисункам, за что на него кричали, а то и колотили отец и все старшие, возможно, считая, что эта прихоть, мало им понятная, была низменной и недостойной их древнего рода".
Проходит время, но ситуация, по мнению отца, не улучшается: ведь Микеланджело, к тому же, завёл дружбу с мальчиком-сверстником, Франческо Граначчи, который посещал мастерскую Доменико Гирландайо.
Он, по словам Вазари, "ежедневно настолько развивал свой юный талант на рисунках мастера, что смог их копировать".
И тогда, продолжает Вазари, отец Микеланджело "мессер Лудовико не в состоянии отвратить юношу от рисования ... решил ... отдать его на обучение Доменико Гирландайо".
Когда Микеланджело пришёл в мастерскую флорентийского художника, ему было двенадцать лет, но период его обучения продлился менее предполагаемого срока, поскольку маэстро оценил талант молодого практиканта.
Слава, завоёванная рисунками, открывает ему двери в учебное заведение, которое можем назвать "Академией Медичи".
Кондиви вспоминает, что Лоренцо Великолепный "выделил Микеланджело хорошую комнату в своём дворце, устроив его с всяческим комфортом и относясь к нему, как к собственному сыну".
He was one of the greatest exponents of late-Renaissance art and, together with Raphael, founder of the styles of Classicism and Mannerism.
He learned the basic rudiments of painting and sculpture with Domenico Ghirlandaio and Bertoldo di Giovanni, a pupil of Donatello respectively.
He quickly threw himself into his artistic work, creating his first noteworthy statues: the "Virgin of the Steps" and the "Battle of the Centaurs" at the Buonarroti house in Florence.
He then moved to Bologna for a time, and in the сhurch of St Dominic he sculpted "St Petronius", "St Proclus" and an "Angel" (1494...95) as the crowning part of a marble arch.
He then went to Rome, where he created "Bacchus" (1496...97), now at the Bargello Museum in Florence, and the world famous "Pietа" {1336}.
From a slightly later date is the "Virgin and Child" {4739}, and the "Pitti Virgin" (1503) at the Bargello Museum, an excellent example of bas-relief on a tondo, the circular shape he later used for some of his paintings, such as the famous "Doni tondo" or "Holy Family with St Giovannino" {1337}.
This last work, along with the no longer surviving frescos of the "Battle of Cascina" in the palazzo Vecchio, worked on alongside Leonardo da Vinci's "Battle of Anghiari" cartoons, also lost, and the "Taddei tondo" in the Royal Academy in London is one of his most perfect painted works, an artform he later concentrated on after having mastered the art of sculpture.
The later work, the "Deposition in the sepulchre" (1511) now at the NGA in London, has been attributed to him, despite much uncertainty.
He also worked on the extraordinary frescos in the Sistine chapel, Rome, painting the "Scenes of the Genesis, Prophets, Sybil and the Naked" (1508...12) and the "Last Judgment" {1483}.
Then in the Paolina chapel he painted the "Martyrdom of St Peter" and the "Conversion of Saul" (1542...50).
In these admirable examples of his maturity Michelangelo created monumental figures of great plasticity, realistic giants with emotions, feelings and pain, with their twisted bodies in accordance with the Mannerist style, and pastel-toned robes wrapped around their bodies as if they were Greek statues.
His works of sculpture include the magnificent "David", a worthy heir to the classical athletes of Polycletus, Praxiteles or Lisippo, "St Paul", "St Peter" and "St Pius" (1503...04) in Siena cathedral.
For Pope Julius II he sculpted "The dying slave" (1513), now at the Louvre, "Moses" (1515) in St Peter in Chains church in Rome, with its solemn power, and the "Prisons" (1530...34) at the Accademia in Florence.
The great artist reached the peak of his splendour with the the tombs of Giuliano and Lorenzo de' Medici in the church of San Lorenzo (1525...34), where he also architected the new vestry (also in Florence he built the Laurenziana Library), with the "Pietа" (1550...55) in Florence cathedral and the "Rondanini Pietа" (1552...66) at the castello Sforzesco in Milan, as well as with the Campidoglio piazza and the Farnese palace in Rome (both were built between 1544 and 1550) and with the building of St Peter (from 1546 on).