March 6 – Happy Birthday, Michelangelo

nPostednon March 6, 2014

n
n

Onenof the most famous sculptors of all times, one of the most famousnpainters of all times, and one of the most famous architects of allntime was born on this date in 1475.

n
n

nOfncourse, as you probably guessed, they were the same guy. He was alsona poet and an engineer. So, yeah: a true “Renaissance Man”!

n
n

nOfncourse, we’re talking about Michelangelo. Actually, his full name wasnMichelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni! He was born in thenRepublic of Florence, which is now part of Italy.

n
n

Michelangelo’snstory is not one of those typical starving-artist,nonly-discovered-after-he’s-dead stories. Instead, Michelangelo wasnhighly praised even during his lifetime. As a matter of fact, duringnhis lifetime he was sometimes called “the divine one” (but innItalian).

nHe inspired the Mannerist movement, and he created piecesnthat were considered masterpieces during his lifetime and still arentoday, centuries later.

Michelangelonsculpted two of his most famous pieces, Pieta andnDavid, before he was thirty years old. One of hisngreatest architectural works is the dome and western end of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, and one of his greatest paintings isnthe ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

n
n

nOnenmight think that, with so many of his works being so large-scale andnamazing, Michelangelo didn’t make a LOT of works. I mean, can younhave quality and quantity? Well…with Michelangelo, yes, youncan. He did create many works, and he made a lot of sketches andnwrote a lot of letters to others and journaled about his ownnmemories. With all of these sketches and writing, he is thenbest-documented artist of the 1500s.
n

n
n

nOkay,nso he was a genius. Do you ever wonder how geniuses get their start? n

n
n

nWhennMichelangelo was quite young, his mother fell ill, and Michelangelonwas sent to live with a stonecutter and his wife. The boy remainednthere for a while after his mother died, when he was just six yearsnold. There he learned how to handle a chisel and hammer.

n
n

nMichelangelonjust so happened to grow up in the greatest cultural center of Italy,nat the time (Florence) so he was surrounded by art. He used to skipnhis school assignments in order to copy paintings from churches andntalk to painters. One of these Florentine painters, a man namednDomenico Ghirlandaio, was called to the Vatican to decorate the wallsnof the Sistine Chapel. When Michelangelo was just thirteen years old,nhe was apprenticed to Ghirlandaio. When he was fourteen,nMichelangelo’s father convinced the established artist to paynMichelangelo as an artist (rather than just feed and house him as annapprentice), and soon after than Ghirlandaio chose Michelangelo, asnone of his two best pupils, to go to the university-like academy thatnthe ruler of Florence had established. n

n
n

nSonthe answer to the question, how do geniuses get their start is (innthis case at least): young! n

n
n