Michaelangelo essays

Michaelangelo essays I was born on March 6th, 1475, in Caprese, a village where my father was briefly a Florentine government agent. I came from a family of higher rank than most other artists during my time. My father was a banker, however he was too genteel for trade and instead of being aggressive, he made a living from his land and a few appointments. My mother died when I was six so my memory of her is very weak. After grammar school I was taught by Domenico Ghirlandaio, one of the best painters in Florence. My work was known for the simple, solid forms and proportions of figures, which some say, added intensity to their violent interaction. My artwork consisted of paintings and sculptures that showed humanity in its natural state. I was called to Rome in 1505 by Pope Julius II to create a monumental tomb for him. (We currently have no clear sense of what the tomb was to look like, since over the years it went through at least five revisions.) The tomb was to have three levels; the bottom level was to have sculpted figures representing Victory and bond slaves. The second level was to have statues of Moses and Saint Paul as well as symbolic figures of the active and contemplative life-representative of the human striving for, and reception of, knowledge. The third level was to have an image of the deceased pope. The tomb of Pope Julius II was never finished. I had hardly begun work on the popes tomb when Julius commanded me to fresco the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel to complete the work done in the previous century under Sixtus IV. The overall organization consists of four large triangles at the corner; a series of eigh t triangular spaces on the outer border and nine central panels, all bound together with architectural motifs and nude male figures. The corner triangles depict heroic action in the Old Testament, while the other eight triangles depict the biblical ancestors of Jesus Christ. I conceived and execu ...