Michelangelo Buonarroti was a sculptor, painter, architect and poet, the undisputed protagonist of the Italian Renaissance. Sublime, complicated, humoral, brilliant, lonely, he was (and still is) one of the greatest artists of all time. With his works he left an indelible mark on the world of the history of art and humanity. The titanic frescoes of the Sistine Chapel leave you amazed, his sculptures move souls to contemplation and admiration, as well as his vibrant architecture. Michelangelo, the 10 most significant works of the Renaissance artist
Michelangelo was born on: 6 March 1475 in Caprese Michelangelo and died in Rome on 18 February 1564, Rome. On the occasion of his anniversary we retrace together, proposed in chronological order, some of the main works of the titanic artist. MADONNA DELLA SCALA
The work is an evident homage to Donatello’s “stiacciato”, as noted by Vasari, both in the technique that grades the planes with millimeter-thick variations, and in the iconography, starting from the motif of the staircase with pronounced steps and a foreshortened handrail, visible for example in Herod’s Banquet in Lila, which break through spatially, opening up a path of dramatic perspective escape. THE VATICAN PIET
Dated to 1497-1499 and preserved in the Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican in Rome, this is the first masterpiece of the then twenty-year-old Michelangelo, considered one of the greatest works of art that the West has ever produced. And also the only work he signed, on the shoulder band holding the Virgin’s mantle:
MICHEL.A [N] GELVS BONAROTVS FLORENT [INVS] FACIEBAT
(‘The Florentine Michelangelo Buonarroti did it’). DAVID
It is undoubtedly one of the most famous works in the world, made of marble (height 516 cm excluding the base, which measures approximately 200 cm) datable between 1501 and the beginning of 1504 and preserved in the Accademia Gallery in Florence. Widely considered a masterpiece of world sculpture, and one of the emblems of the Renaissance, as well as a symbol of Florence and Italy abroad. David portrays the biblical hero as he prepares to face Goliath; originally the statue was placed in Piazza della Signoria as a symbol of the Florentine Republic, vigilant and victorious against its enemies. David has always been considered the perfect ideal of male beauty in art. As well as Botticelli’s Venus it is considered the canon of female beauty.TONDO DONI
The Tondo Doni is a tempera painting on wood (diameter 120 cm) datable to around 1503-1504 and kept in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Preserved in the original frame, probably designed by Michelangelo himself, and the only work on a mobile support, certain and complete, by the artist. The painting is also of fundamental importance in the history of art, since it lays the foundations for what mannerism will be: it is certainly one of the most emblematic and important paintings of the Italian sixteenth century. MADONNA DI BRUGES
It is a marble sculpture (h 128 cm) by Michelangelo, datable to around 1503-1505 and preserved in the right side aisle of the Church of Our Lady (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk) in Bruges, Belgium. THE VAULT OF THE SISTINE CHAPEL
The vault of the Sistine Chapel contains the famous cycle of frescoes made in 1508-1512 and considered one of the absolute masterpieces of Western art. Commissioned by Pope Julius II, it was a huge challenge for the artist who, in addition to not feeling painting as an art more congenial to him (I always declare himself a sculptor), finished the complex decoration, of almost 500 m², in record time and almost alone. The cycle of frescoes iconologically completed the Stories of Jesus and Moses made by a team of painters (including Botticelli, Ghirlandaio and Perugino) in 1481-1482, at the time of Sixtus IV; In fact, Michelangelo painted the stories of humanity ante legem on the vault, that is, before God sent the Tablets of the Law to Moses. MOSES
and a marble sculpture (height 235 cm) by Michelangelo, datable to about 1513-1515, retouched in 1542, and preserved in the basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome, in the statuary complex conceived as Tomb of Julius II (in fact the pope and buried in San Pietro together with his uncle Sixtus IV). Among the first sculpted for the pope’s mausoleum project, it was also the only one among those conceived from the beginning to be used in the resized final result, which saw the light only after forty years of tormented events. The Mose, thanks to its vigor, anatomical virtuosity and its grandeur (proportional to the double of the natural) is one of the most famous sculptural works of Michelangelo and of Western sculpture in general, a paradigmatic example of that ‘terrible’ that is found in his better works.NEW SACRESTY
Built by Michelangelo on several occasions between 1521 and 1534, it is accessed from a corridor from the Chapel of the Princes, while the door that allows you to enter the basilica is now closed. Commissioned by Pope Leo X and by Cardinal Giulio de ‘Medici (future Clement VII), Michelangelo Buonarroti created it starting from the same plan as Brunelleschi’s Old Sacristy and divided the space into more complex forms, with triumphal arches that open onto species of apses. Enclosed in the two side walls I create the monumental tombs dedicated to Giuliano Duca di Nemours and his nephew Lorenzo Duca d’Urbino, for which I sculpt three sculptures each: the Allegories of Time, lying above the tombs, and the portraits of the Dukes above. For the tomb of Giuliano de ‘Medici, seated in a proud posture, he chose Day and Night; for that of Lorenzo, in a melancholy and thoughtful pose, the Twilight and the Dawn. Both statues look towards the center of the chapel where Michelangelo created and placed a Madonna with Jesus on his lap. Turning their gaze to the sacred representation, the dukes express the artist’s religious inclinations, according to which, when the earthly glories pass, only spirituality and religion are able to relieve the anxieties of men. The set is completed by the statues of Saints Cosma and Damiano, by followers of Michelangelo. Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano de ‘Medici are also buried under the altar, for whom there was never time to build a monumental burial: in 1534, in fact, Michelangelo left Florence definitively and left the work unfinished. Twilight and Dawn. Both statues look towards the center of the chapel where Michelangelo created and placed a Madonna with Jesus on his lap. Turning their gaze to the sacred representation, the dukes express the artist’s religious inclinations, according to which, when the earthly glories pass, only spirituality and religion are able to relieve the anxieties of men. The set is completed by the statues of Saints Cosma and Damiano, by followers of Michelangelo. Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano de ‘Medici are also buried under the altar, for whom there was never time to build a monumental burial: in 1534, in fact, Michelangelo left Florence definitively and left the work unfinished. Twilight and Dawn. Both statues look towards the center of the chapel where Michelangelo created and placed a Madonna with Jesus on his lap. Turning their gaze to the sacred representation, the dukes express the artist’s religious inclinations, according to which, when the earthly glories pass, only spirituality and religion are able to relieve the anxieties of men. The set is completed by the statues of Saints Cosma and Damiano, by followers of Michelangelo. Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano de ‘Medici are also buried under the altar, for whom there was never time to build a monumental burial: in 1534, in fact, Michelangelo left Florence definitively and left the work unfinished. Both statues look towards the center of the chapel where Michelangelo created and placed a Madonna with Jesus on his lap. Turning their gaze to the sacred representation, the dukes express the artist’s religious inclinations, according to which, when the earthly glories pass, only spirituality and religion are able to relieve the anxieties of men. The set is completed by the statues of Saints Cosma and Damiano, by followers of Michelangelo. Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano de ‘Medici are also buried under the altar, for whom there was never time to build a monumental burial: in 1534, in fact, Michelangelo left Florence definitively and left the work unfinished. Both statues look towards the center of the chapel where Michelangelo created and placed a Madonna with Jesus on his lap. Turning their gaze to the sacred representation, the dukes express the artist’s religious inclinations, according to which, when the earthly glories pass, only spirituality and religion are able to relieve the anxieties of men. The set is completed by the statues of Saints Cosma and Damiano, by followers of Michelangelo. Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano de ‘Medici are also buried under the altar, for whom there was never time to build a monumental burial: in 1534, in fact, Michelangelo left Florence definitively and left the work unfinished. Turning their gaze to the sacred representation, the dukes express the artist’s religious inclinations, according to which, when the earthly glories pass, only spirituality and religion are able to relieve the anxieties of men. The set is completed by the statues of Saints Cosma and Damiano, by followers of Michelangelo. Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano de ‘Medici are also buried under the altar, for whom there was never time to build a monumental burial: in 1534, in fact, Michelangelo left Florence definitively and left the work unfinished. Turning their gaze to the sacred representation, the dukes express the artist’s religious inclinations, according to which, when the earthly glories pass, only spirituality and religion are able to relieve the anxieties of men. The set is completed by the statues of Saints Cosma and Damiano, by followers of Michelangelo. Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano de ‘Medici are also buried under the altar, for whom there was never time to build a monumental burial: in 1534, in fact, Michelangelo left Florence definitively and left the work unfinished.UNIVERSAL JUDGMENT
It is a fresco (13.7 × 12.2 m) made between 1536 and 1541 to decorate the wall behind the altar of the Sistine Chapel (Vatican Museums, Rome). It is one of the most grandiose representations of the parousia, or the event of the last coming at the end of the time of Christ to inaugurate the Kingdom of God, as well as a masterpiece of Western art in general, loved and celebrated all over the world. . The Last Judgment marks the end of an era and constitutes a watershed in the history of art and human thought: the strong and confident man of Humanism and the early Renaissance, whom Michelangelo himself had exalted in the Ignudi of the vault, was replaced by a chaotic and anguished vision that affects both the damned and the blessed, in the total lack of certainty that reflects the drift and insecurities of the new era.PIAZZA CAMPIDOGLIO – Rome
In 1534-38 Michelangelo Buonarroti completely redesigned the square, drawing it in all its details and turning it no longer towards the Roman Forum but towards St. Peter’s Basilica, which represented the new political center of the city. It is said that the rearrangement of the square was commissioned by the then Pope Paul III, who was ashamed of the state of the famous hill (since the Middle Ages the place was in such a state of neglect that it was also called ‘hill caprino ‘, as it was used for grazing goats) after the triumphal route organized in Rome in honor of Charles V in 1536.
Michelangelo retained the oblique orientation of the pre-existing buildings, obtaining an open space with a slightly trapezoidal plan (the Palazzo Senatorio and that of the Conservatories form an angle of 80 °), on which I align the new facades, in order to expand the perspective towards the visual focus. consisting of the Palazzo Senatorio. For this purpose I am thinking of building a new building, called for this Palazzo Nuovo, to close the perspective towards the Basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli and to pave the square thus obtained by eliminating the existing dirt road; he redesigned the Palazzo dei Conservatori by eliminating all the previous structures and harmonizing it with the Palazzo Senatorio, to which he added a double staircase that was used to access the new entrance, no longer facing the forum but towards the square.
He also modifies the facade to make it uniform to that of the conservatories building (and therefore also to that of the new building towards the church of Santa Maria dell’Aracoeli), inserting giant pilasters (which appears for the first time in public buildings), a cornice with a balustrade (new element), and a tower. To the Palazzo dei Conservatori he adds a porticoed facade, and here too he inserts pilasters of a giant order (which punctuates it in a rhythmic and regular way), and a balustrade cornice with statues; finally he creates a building symmetrical to it on the opposite side of the square. Buonarroti also designed the staircase of the Cordonata and the balustrade from which one faces the underlying Piazza d’Aracoeli. PIETA RONDANINI
It is considered the last marble sculpture (h. 195 cm) by Michelangelo, sculpted in 1552-1553 (first version) and reworked from around 1555 to 1564; today it is kept in the Castello Sforzesco in Milan. It is a sort of testament of the author who, according to the sources, I work there until a few days before his death.
“The world has many kings and only one Michelagnolo”
(Pietro Aretino)
