Michelangelo biography: Michelangelo life story, Education, Work, Death and Legacy

According to the Michelangelo Buonarroti biography, his full name was Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni and was popularly known by his first name Michelangelo. He was a famous Italian poet, sculptor, architect and painter and even today he is considered one of the finest and brilliant Italian Renaissance artists. He is believed to have an extended and unparalleled influence on the Western art that we find today. He was a trainee and a learner under another great painter before he moved to study in sculpture gardens of the famous Medici Family.

He was known for his brilliant mind and plentiful talent that eventually earned him a lot of admirers and regards for his works where he was even sponsored by many wealthy figures in Italy where he also had his share of critics as well. He also had an intense fierce nature with short-temper that resulted in his fractured relationships. This has also led him into a prevalent dissatisfaction in his own work that he strived for perfection but never got satisfied with the result. As time passed by, he started developing extreme physical pains and weaknesses because of his rigorous work to achieve the perfection that he endured through his paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (as he wrote in one of his poems). But he has been the best-documented artist of the 16th century who had an enormous contribution in the field of art, architecture and literature that is reflected through the reminiscences and sketches. Michelangelo's biography was published when he was alive and that made him the first-ever western artist who witnessed his own biography.

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Image: Portrait of Michelangelo by Daniele da Voltera, 1545  

Michelangelo Early Life

Michelangelo was born in Caprese, Italy on March 6, 1475, and was the second of the five sons his parents had. His father Leonardo di Buonarroti Simoni served as a magistrate in a small village in Caprese when he was born. In Michelangelo's early life his family moved to Florence while he was still an infant and was raised there by his parents until his mother fell ill and died in the year 1481 when he was just 6 years old. His mother's name was Francesca di Neri del Miniato di Siena. After his mother’s death, he started living with his nanny and her husband where his father also owned a marble mine and a small farm from where he developed his interest in sculpting the marbles.   

Education and Medici Family

As a young boy, he was sent to Florence to study grammar but he showed not much interest in the subject. He was keener in copying the paintings on the wall of churches and sought the company of the other painters. At that time Florence was Italy’s hub for art and architecture. The art was then sponsored either by the town council, merchant guides or the wealthy financiers like Medici and their other bank associates. In 1488, when he was 13 he became an apprentice under a famous painter named Ghirlandaio but the next year Michelangelo’s father persuaded the painter to pay Michelangelo money for his work during his internship which was an odd proposal for a fourteen years old boy. In the year 1489, the ruler of Florence named Lorenzo di Piero de Medici when asked the painter to send two of his best students he referred to Michelangelo and Francesco. 

From the year 1490 to 1492 he attended the 15th-century discussion group called Platonic Academy that was basically a Humanists Academy founded by Medici. Slowly his work and writing started getting influenced by many great writers and philosophers of that time. He then sculpted the reliefs that were suggested by Poliziano and were then commissioned by the Medici family. He then worked with another great sculptor of that time named Bertoldo di Giovanni as his pupil.    

Michelangelo’s Personal Life

He was a devoted catholic and his beliefs deepened as he approached his old age. He was a solidarity and a melancholic person that reflects from many of his poems. Convidi, who was one of his appendices said he was indifferent to food and drinks and often ate or drank out of necessity and not out of pleasure and he often used to sleep with all his clothes and boots unchanged or undone. One of his biographers named Paolo Giovio while putting Michelangelo life summary said that he was so tempered, awkward and uncultured in his manners that his domestic life was also grubby and that deprived him of the following of pupils who eventually wanted to follow him. He always withdrew himself from any sort of human company.  He was also often involved in feuds with many artists. But many of his poems were a great reflection of his romantic feelings. One of his longest sequences he wrote in 1532 that displayed his romantic feelings for Tommaso Dei Cavalieri who was 23 years of age and met Michelangelo when he was 57 years old.  

Michelangelo Work and Poetry

Michelangelo fled to Bologano due to the political tension that rose with the death of Lorenzo di Piero de Medici. He continued with his studies there and finally returned to Florence in 1495 where he independently started to work as a sculptor adopting the style influenced by the masterpieces of classic antiquity. 

Poetry influenced by personal life

Most of his poetic expression that was reflected in his sculptures, paintings and in architects began to turn into a more literary form during his later years of life. Though he never married and always preferred a solitary life, his unending fondness and admiration for a religious and noble widow named Vittoria Colonna had been reflected and was the main subject of his more than 300 poems and sonnets. Their friendship was a great relief and comfort to him until the death of Colonna happened in 1547.  

Sculptures

As he moved to Rome in the year 1948, one of the prime representatives of French king Charles Vlll commissioned the pope to build a sculpture of mother mary holland the dead body of his son Jesus across her lap that they named “Pieta”. At that time Michelangelo was 25 years of age and when he was asked to sculpt the statue he finished it in less than a year. The statue was about 6 feet tall and 6 feet wide and was erected in the church of Cardinal’s tomb that was then moved around several times and is now finally placed in Saint Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.  the entire sculpture was crafted out of a single Carrara marble but the fine detailing of the fabrics, positioning of the figures and movement of the skin has mesmerized its first viewers and had the same effect on its viewers even today.

The statue of David that was commissioned two times prior then was finally handed over to Michelangelo between the years 1501 and 1504. But the initial sculptors have left the crafting mid-way and abandoned the 17 feet of marble turning it into a dominating structure before it was taken up the former. But the way he finally sculpted the structure “David” that symbolizes the brawniness of masculinity and strength with the vulnerability of its nakedness along with the expression of humanity made it one of the highly-priced structures of the city Florence. Initially, it was planned to be placed in the Cathedral of Florence but then it was finally placed in front of Palazzo Vecchio.

Paintings

When pope Julius ll asked him to switch from sculpting to painting so as to decorate the wall of the ceilings of Sistine Chapel, this has greatly powered the imagination of Michelangelo and the plan of 12 apostles have turned to be 300 plus figures on the ceilings of the chapel. The artist ended up firing all his assistants and completed the work by himself and ended up devoting endless hours on his back painting and then protecting it till the project ended. It was finally revealed on 31st October 1512. The Sistine ceiling that was painted by the artist has vivid pictures that have a Kaleidoscopic effect where the portrayal of God’s hands reaching down to touch the finger of a man has the most iconic portrayal and is called “ Creation of Adam”. 

He continued to paint and sculpt throughout his life but he turned his rigorous physical work for painting the Sistine chapel, he turned his focus into crafting sculpture. He worked for many years on the tomb of Julius ll despite the fact that he was interrupted by the pope of the chapel for commissioning him then to Michelangelo. Among his great sculptural work includes designing of Medici chapel and Laurentian library. They are considered as the turning point of style and sculpture of english architecture and designs. 

Death and Legacy

On February 18, 1564, Michelangelo died just a few days before he could turn 89 due to a brief illness period in his Marcel De Corvi home situated in Rome. One of his nephews then brought him to Florence to bury him where he got a title of “master and father of all arts” by the common people. He was laid down at the Basilica di Santa Croce, the final burial place of the great artist. 

He in his entire lifetime earned a lot of fame and wealth. But despite it, he had a very strangely distinctive way of living his life that has been revealed in Michelangelo short biography separately written by Giorgio Vasari and Ascanio Condivi while he was alive. His mastery and fine work of art and sculpture are appreciated throughout many centuries to an extent that his name is considered as a synonym of the humanist tradition of the finest Renaissance.  

Michelangelo Biography Summary

He was the greatest artist in the history of English art and sculpture because of his greatest artistic expressions and portrayal in the Italian Renaissance period. Though he was reputed to be short-tempered and a person who loves to be in solidarity. Though he earned a lot of fame and wealth because of his indispensable arts and sculptures that attracts a lot of tourists around the globe and its mesmerizing effect on everyone, he was awkward and uncultivated in his manners that his domestic life was also grubby and that deprived him of the following of pupils who eventually wanted to follow him. He always had a strong romantic and affection towards few people in his life who were the subject of inspiration for his large number of poems and sonnets.