David (Michelangelo)
David is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture created in marble between 1501 and 1504 by the Italian artist Michelangelo. "David" is a marble statue of a standing male nude. The statue represents the Biblical hero David, a favoured subject in the art of Florence. Michelangelo
Michelangelo returned to Florence in 1499. The republic was changing after the fall of its leader, anti-Renaissance priest Girolamo Savonarola, who was executed in 1498, and the rise of the "gonfaloniere" Piero Soderini. Michelangelo was asked by the consuls of the Guild of Wool to complete an unfinished project begun 40 years earlier by Agostino di Duccio: a colossal statue of Carrara marble portraying David as a symbol of Florentine freedom to be placed on the gable of Florence Cathedral. Michelangelo responded by completing his most famous work, the statue of David, in 1504. The masterwork definitively established his prominence as a sculptor of extraordinary technical skill and strength of symbolic imagination. A team of consultants, including Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci, was called together to decide upon its placement, ultimately the Piazza della Signoria, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. It now stands in the Academia while a replica occupies its place in the square.
Sculpture
Michelangelo was an active sculptor from about 1500 to 1520, and his great masterpieces including his "David", "Pietà", "Moses", and pieces for the Tomb of Pope Julius II and Medici Chapel could not be ignored by subsequent sculptors. His iconic David (1504) has a "contrapposto" pose, borrowed from classical sculpture. It differs from previous representations of the subject in that David is depicted before his battle with Goliath and not after the giant's defeat. Instead of being shown victorious, as Donatello and Verocchio had done, David looks tense and battle ready. Michelangelo
In 1546, Michelangelo was appointed architect of St. Peter's Basilica, Rome. The process of replacing the Constantinian basilica of the 4th century had been underway for fifty years and in 1506 foundations had been laid to the plans of Bramante. Successive architects had worked on it, but little progress had been made. Michelangelo was persuaded to take over the project. He returned to the concepts of Bramante, and developed his ideas for a centrally planned church, strengthening the structure both physically and visually. The dome, not completed until after his death, has been called by Banister Fletcher, "the greatest creation of the Renaissance". Cast Courts (Victoria and Albert Museum)
Michelangelo's David was the museum's first major cast of Italian figure sculpture. It was acquired in 1857 when it was sent as a gift from the Grand Duke of Tuscany to Queen Victoria — apparently in an attempt to placate English anger at his refusal to allow the National Gallery to export Domenico Ghirlandaio's "Madonna Enthroned". The gift was entirely unexpected and the Queen promptly gave the cast to the then South Kensington Museum which is now the Victoria and Albert Museum. Michelangelo and the Medici
The new Pope Leo X was no stranger to Michelangelo, being no other than his old schoolmate Giovanni de Medici, the second son of Lorenzo the Magnificent. Since Leo was a Medici, one of the projects that naturally occurred to him was the decoration of the unfinished front of his family’s church, San Lorenzo, in Florence. His predecessor Brunelleschi, finished the interior and he had to finish the façade. In fact, Leo X invited several architects to do so and he was not among the first. However, when he made the woodcut in December 1516, in January 1518 he was given Leo’s approval. In anticipation of the project, he went out the quarries in Carrara, Italy to excavate granite and he spent two years building the road to it, supervising the extraction, and transporting the marble to Florence. The church facade was actually his first architectural task, and he had no experience of producing the working plans and measurements needed for his project. The blocks of marble used in columns, cornices, and other architectural features were different from the ones he used in his sculptures. Madonna del cardellino
Raphael is considered to be a “master” of the High Renaissance, a title he shares with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. He was born in 1483 and died in 1520, living a mere thirty-seven years. Despite his relatively short lifespan, he was highly influential throughout his time on earth. He produced a vast quantity of work in a variety of media. He was active in architecture, printmaking, painting, and drawing. During the first half of his career, he spent years traveling across Northern Italy and was influenced by the Florentine styles he saw there, causing this stage to be called his Florentine Period. After which, in 1508, he moved to Rome where he continued to work. Many of his commissions came from the Vatican, including the Apostolic Palace, which brought about one of his most famous works, School of Athens. Due to his relationship with the church, he and Michelangelo were fierce rivals throughout both of their careers, and often competed for the same commissions. 
During his Florentine period, this work, The Madonna Del Cardellino, was painted along with several other well-known Madonnas: The Madonna of the Meadow and La Belle Jardinière. All three share several characteristics: Madonna is clothed in red and blue, the same three subjects are painted, the pyramidal composition, the natural background, and the connection to the church through the representation of books, crosses, or, indeed, the goldfinch. Italian art
In his sculptures, Donatello tried to portray the dignity of the human body in realistic and often dramatic detail. His masterpieces include three statues of the Biblical hero David. In a version finished in the 1430s, Donatello portrayed David as a graceful, nude youth, moments after he slew the giant Goliath. The work, which is about 5 feet (1.5 meters) tall, was the first large free-standing nude created in Western art since classical antiquity. Michelangelo
In the same year, the Medici were expelled from Florence as the result of the rise of Savonarola. Michelangelo left the city before the end of the political upheaval, moving to Venice and then to Bologna. In Bologna, he was commissioned to carve several of the last small figures for the completion of the Shrine of St. Dominic, in the church dedicated to that saint. At this time Michelangelo studied the robust reliefs carved by Jacopo della Quercia around main portal of the Basilica of St Petronius, including the panel of "The Creation of Eve" the composition of which was to reappear on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Towards the end of 1494, the political situation in Florence was calmer. The city, previously under threat from the French, was no longer in danger as Charles VIII had suffered defeats. Michelangelo returned to Florence but received no commissions from the new city government under Savonarola. He returned to the employment of the Medici. During the half year he spent in Florence, he worked on two small statues, a child "St. John the Baptist" and a sleeping "Cupid". According to Condivi, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, for whom Michelangelo had sculpted "St. John the Baptist", asked that Michelangelo "fix it so that it looked as if it had been buried" so he could "send it to Rome ... pass [it off as] an ancient work and ... sell it much better." Both Lorenzo and Michelangelo were unwittingly cheated out of the real value of the piece by a middleman. Cardinal Raffaele Riario, to whom Lorenzo had sold it, discovered that it was a fraud, but was so impressed by the quality of the sculpture that he invited the artist to Rome. This apparent success in selling his sculpture abroad as well as the conservative Florentine situation may have encouraged Michelangelo to accept the prelate's invitation. Michael Hirst (art historian)
David Michael Geoffrey Hirst was born on 5 September 1933 and studied at New College, Oxford, and the Courtauld Institute of Art. Lecturer, Reader and Professor of Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, and a Fellow of the Academy since 1983, Hirst has been one of the foremost specialists on the drawings of Michelangelo. Indeed, such was his international standing in the world of Michelangelo studies that he was made a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Restoration of the Sistine Chapel's ceiling in 1987, and the following year curated an exhibition on Michelangelo as Draftsman for the National Gallery of Art in Washington. Apollo (Michelangelo)
Hallmarks of his style and methods exist on the unfinished work that support the attribution of the statue to Michelangelo. The subject of the unfinished statue was never noted by Michelangelo, however, and contemporary historical sources disagree about the subject. According to Vasari it is an "Apollo", perhaps in the act of taking an arrow from a quiver. In the inventory of Cosimo I of 1553, however, it is identified as, "David", by whoever drew up the historic catalogue. Art critics therefore identify the sculpture as one or the other, or, by showing a hyphenated title, "Apollo-David" or "David-Apollo", to note the uncertainty. Factors favoring the identity as Apollo are: the body is stocky and mature, as Apollo often was portrayed, rather than the typical portrayal of a youthful David; no bow is represented in the carving and, no unfinished portion of the statue allows enough area for one. David (Michelangelo)
Just the colossal size of the statue impressed Michelangelo's contemporaries. Vasari described it as "certainly a miracle that of Michelangelo, to restore to life one who was dead," and then listed all of the largest and most grand of the ancient statues that he had ever seen, concluding that Michelangelo's work surpassed "all ancient and modern statues, whether Greek or Latin, that have ever existed." Apollo (Michelangelo)
When Cosimo came into possession of the collection containing the most important statues of Michelangelo (the Bacchus or the Genius of Victory), the "Apollo-David" was placed in the Boboli Gardens, where it decorated a long niche of its amphitheater. In 1824 the statue was transported to the Uffizi, and later placed into the collection at the Bargello. Now it is in the National Gallery of Art Museum, part of the Renaissance wing complete with European paintings and sculptures. Michelangelo
Pope Leo X died in 1521 and was succeeded briefly by the austere Adrian VI, and then by his cousin Giulio Medici as Pope Clement VII. In 1524 Michelangelo received an architectural commission from the Medici pope for the Laurentian Library at San Lorenzo's Church. He designed both the interior of the library itself and its vestibule, a building utilising architectural forms with such dynamic effect that it is seen as the forerunner of Baroque architecture. It was left to assistants to interpret his plans and carry out instruction. The library was not opened until 1571, and the vestibule remained incomplete until 1904. Michelangelo
With the completion of the "David" came another commission. In early 1504 Leonardo da Vinci had been commissioned to paint "The Battle of Anghiara" in the council chamber of the Palazzo Vecchio, depicting the battle between Florence and Milan in 1440. Michelangelo was then commissioned to paint the "Battle of Cascina". The two paintings are very different: Leonardo depicts soldiers fighting on horseback, while Michelangelo has soldiers being ambushed as they bathe in the river. Neither work was completed and both were lost forever when the chamber was refurbished. Both works were much admired, and copies remain of them, Leonardo's work having been copied by Rubens and Michelangelo's by Bastiano da Sangallo. David (Donatello)
David continued to be a subject of great interest for Italian patrons and artists. Later representations of the Biblical hero include Antonio del Pollaiuolo's "David" (Berlin, Staatliche Museen, c. 1470, panel painting), Verrocchio's "David" (Florence, Bargello, 1470s, bronze), Domenico Ghirlandaio's "David" (Florence, S. Maria Novella, c. 1485, fresco), Bartolomeo Bellano's "David" (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1470s, bronze), Michelangelo's "David" (Florence, Accademia, 1501-1504, marble), and Bernini's "David", (Rome, Galleria Borghese, 1623–24, marble). The Creation of Adam
During the same period, Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which took approximately four years to complete (1508–1512). According to Condivi's account, Bramante, who was working on the building of St Peter's Basilica, resented Michelangelo's commission for the Pope's tomb and convinced the Pope to commission him in a medium with which he was unfamiliar, in order that he might fail at the task. The Creation of Adam
Michelangelo was originally commissioned to paint the Twelve Apostles on the triangular pendentives that supported the ceiling, and cover the central part of the ceiling with ornament. Michelangelo persuaded Pope Julius to give him a free hand and proposed a different and more complex scheme, representing the Creation, the Fall of Man, the Promise of Salvation through the prophets, and the genealogy of Christ. The work is part of a larger scheme of decoration within the chapel which represents much of the doctrine of the Catholic Church. Michelangelo
The composition stretches over 500 square metres of ceiling and contains over 300 figures. At its centre are nine episodes from the Book of Genesis, divided into three groups: God's creation of the earth; God's creation of humankind and their fall from God's grace; and lastly, the state of humanity as represented by Noah and his family. On the pendentives supporting the ceiling are painted twelve men and women who prophesied the coming of Jesus, seven prophets of Israel, and five Sibyls, prophetic women of the Classical world. Among the most famous paintings on the ceiling are The Creation of Adam, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the Deluge, the Prophet Jeremiah, and the Cumaean Sibyl. Michelangelo and the Medici
Although the construction of the monument of Pope Julius did not go according to plan, it was officially unveiled in February 1545. The original design had been cut down to something small and manageable with only?three sculptured done by Michelangelo. Michelangelo, at seventy years old, had set a high standard for the following artists to come. People were already attempting to sum up his accomplishments and considering his place in history. From this time on, he was known as the ‘Divine Michelangelo’, a living legend, the master of Renaissance. Yet old though he was, in 1547, Pope Paul III appointed him chief architect of St. Peter's Basilica, which he would work on for the rest of his life. Michelangelo died of old age, leaving the project unfinished. Though he devoted the last seventeen years of his life to this task, Michelangelo refused to accept anything. He said he did it for the good of his soul. Years later his body was brought back from Rome for interment at the Basilica di Santa Croce, fulfilling his last request to be buried in his beloved Tuscany. David (Verrocchio)
Andrea del Verrocchio's bronze statue of David was most likely made between 1473 and 1475. It was commissioned by the Medici family. It is sometimes claimed that Verrocchio modeled the statue after a handsome pupil in his workshop, the young Leonardo da Vinci. Christ on the Mount of Olives (Caravaggio)
Christ on the Mount of Olives (1604-1606) was a painting by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (Italian, 1571-1610), formerly in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum painting gallery, Berlin, but destroyed in 1945. Leonardo da Vinci
Although usually named together as the three giants of the High Renaissance, Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael were not of the same generation. Leonardo was twenty-three when Michelangelo was born and thirty-one when Raphael was born. Raphael lived until the age of only 37 and died in 1520, the year after Leonardo died, but Michelangelo went on creating for another 45 years. Sistine Chapel
Michelangelo used bright colours, easily visible from the floor. On the lowest part of the ceiling he painted the ancestors of Christ. Above this he alternated male and female prophets, with Jonah over the altar. On the highest section, Michelangelo painted nine stories from the Book of Genesis. He was originally commissioned to paint only 12 figures, the Apostles. He turned down the commission because he saw himself as a sculptor, not a painter. The Pope offered to allow Michelangelo to paint biblical scenes of his own choice as a compromise. After the work was finished, there were more than 300. His figures showed the creation, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and the Great Flood. Michelangelo Celesia
He was born Pietro Geremia Celesia in Palermo in 1814, the son of Lancellotto Celesia, Marchese of Sant'Antonino, and Giuseppa Caruso Azzolini. As a teenager, he felt called to become a monk of the Monastery of San Martino della Scala in his native city, which belonged to the Cassinese Congregation of the Order of Saint Benedict. He was received as a candidate of the monastery in 1833 and, at admission into the novitiate, he was given the religious name of Michelangelo. He made his solemn profession on January 15, 1835, and was ordained to the priesthood on July 24, 1836. David (Donatello)
The figure has been interpreted in a variety of ways. One has been to suggest that Donatello was homosexual and that he was expressing that sexual attitude through this statue. A second is to suggest that the work refers to homosocial values in Florentine society without expressing Donatello's personal tendencies. However, during the time of the Renaissance, when the statue was created, sodomy was illegal, and over 14,000 people had been tried in Florence for this crime. So this homosexual implication was very risky and dangerous. A third interpretation is that "David" represents Donatello's effort to create a unique version of the male nude, to exercise artistic license rather than copy the classical models that had thus far been the sources for the depiction of the male nude in Renaissance art. Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Unlike sculptures done by his predecessors, these focus on specific points of narrative tension in the stories they are trying to tell: Aeneas and his family fleeing the burning Troy; the instant that Pluto finally grasps the hunted Persephone; the precise moment that Apollo sees his beloved Daphne begin her transformation into a tree. They are transitory but dramatic powerful moments in each story. Bernini's "David" is another stirring example of this. Michelangelo's motionless, idealized "David" shows the subject holding a rock in one hand and a sling in the other, contemplating the battle; similarly immobile versions by other Renaissance artists, including Donatello's, show the subject in his triumph after the battle with Goliath. Bernini illustrates David during his active combat with the giant, as he twists his body to catapult toward Goliath. To emphasize these moments, and to ensure that they were appreciated by the viewer, Bernini designed the sculptures with a specific viewpoint in mind. Their original placements within the Villa Borghese were against walls so that the viewers' first view was the dramatic moment of the narrative. Apollo (Michelangelo)
Conjecture exists that the sculptor had started the work as David, perhaps toward 1525, and later finished it as Apollo. There also are those who have attempted to identify the work as the lost "Apollo Cupid" (Valentinier, 1958), carved in 1537 by Jacopo Galli in Rome. Angel (Michelangelo)
The statue of an "Angel" (1494–1495) was created by Michelangelo out of marble. Its height is 51.5 cm. It is situated in the Basilica of San Domenico, Bologna. Michelangelo Spada
The son of Marcantonio Spada, a merchant, he trained initially under Simone Brentana (1656 – 1742), then traveled to Bologna to work under Giovanni Giuseppe dal Sole. In Bologna, he painted for the palace of the count Ercole Giusti. He painted two canvases, now lost, depicting "David playing Harp with Angels" and "Angels playing music". Another lost painting was the main altarpiece for the church of the Filippini in Verona, depicting the "Assumption of the Virgin with the Holy Trinity, and San Phillip Neri". He also painted for the church of Santa Caterina della Ruota, including one depicting events of the Apocalypse by St John: the "Woman of Babylon on the seven headed beast"; but also the "Fall of Lucifer", an "Immaculate Conception"; and a "God the father". He painted lunette frescoes (now lost) in the Convent of Sant'Anastasia ( which became the Lyceum), with scenes from the life of St Dominic and St Peter Martyr. Michelangelo Spada's sister, Veronica, was a painter of still-life. David (Bernini)
The Baroque saw significant changes in the art of sculpture; Bernini was at the forefront of this. The statues of the Renaissance masters had been strictly frontal, dictating the spectator to view it from one side, and one side only. Bernini's "David" is a three-dimensional work that needs space around it and challenges the viewer to walk around it, in order to contemplate its changing nature depending on the angle from which it is seen. The sculpture relates to an unseen entity – in the form of Goliath, the object of David's aggression – as well as to the spectator, caught in the middle of the conflict. The warrior even literally oversteps the boundaries between life and art, putting his toes over the edge of the plinth. The conventions of time, as well as space, were challenged. Instead of the serene constancy of, for example, Michelangelo's "David", Bernini has chosen to capture a fraction of time in the course of a continuous movement. Thus the latent energy that permeates Michelangelo's "David" is here in the process of being unleashed. Michelangelo
Michelangelo arrived in Rome 25 June 1496 at the age of 21. On 4 July of the same year, he began work on a commission for Cardinal Raffaele Riario, an over-life-size statue of the Roman wine god "Bacchus". Upon completion, the work was rejected by the cardinal, and subsequently entered the collection of the banker Jacopo Galli, for his garden. David (Bernini)
For one thing, the sculpture is no longer self-contained, but interacts with the space around it. Not since the sculptures of the Hellenistic period, such as the Winged Victory of Samothrace, had sculptures been involved in their surroundings like those of Bernini. A likely source for Bernini's figure was the Hellenistic Borghese Gladiator. Another difference lies in the moment that Bernini has chosen to depict. Michelangelo's "David" differs from those of Donatello and Verrocchio in that it shows David preparing for the battle, rather than victorious afterwards. Bernini, on the other hand, chose to portray David in the act of throwing the stone. This represented a novelty; throwing figures were extremely rare in post-Antiquity sculptures. The motion motif did exist in painting, however, and one example was Annibale Carracci's fresco of the Cyclops "Polyphemus" throwing a stone. Bernini is likely to have known Carracci's "Polyphemus"; not only was it to be found in the Galleria Farnese in Rome, but Carracci was the painter Bernini ranked as fourth among the greatest ever. Michelangelo and the Medici
Lorenzo de' Medici's death on April 8, 1492, brought a reversal of Michelangelo's circumstances. Michelangelo left the security of the Medici court and returned to his father's house. In the following months he carved a wooden crucifix (1493), as a gift to the prior of the Florentine church of Santo Spirito, who had permitted him some studies of anatomy on the corpses of the church's hospital. Between 1493 and 1494 he bought a block of marble for a larger than life statue of Hercules, which was sent to France and subsequently disappeared sometime around the 18th century. On January 20, 1494, after heavy snowfalls, Lorenzo's heir, Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici commissioned a snow statue, and Michelangelo again entered the court of the Medici. The Medici sixty-year reign came to an end under the reign of Piero Medici. In the same year, the Medici were expelled from Florence as the result of the rise of Girolamo Savonarola. Michelangelo left the city before the end of the political upheaval, moving to Venice and then to Bologna, where he stayed for more than a year. In Bologna he was commissioned to finish the carving of the last small figures of the Shrine of St. Dominic, in the church dedicated to that saint. According to Condivi, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, for whom Michelangelo had sculpted St. John the Baptist, asked that Michelangelo "fix it so that it looked as if it had been buried" so he could "send it to Rome...pass [it off as] an ancient work and...sell it much better." Both Lorenzo and Michelangelo were unwittingly cheated out of the real value of the piece by a middleman. Cardinal Raffaele Riario, to whom Lorenzo had sold it, discovered that it was a fraud, but was so impressed by the quality of the sculpture that he invited the artist to Rome. This apparent success in selling his sculpture abroad as well as the conservative Florentine situation may have encouraged Michelangelo to accept the prelate's invitation. Michelangelo
In November 1497, the French ambassador to the Holy See, Cardinal Jean de Bilhères-Lagraulas, commissioned him to carve a "Pietà", a sculpture showing the Virgin Mary grieving over the body of Jesus. The subject, which is not part of the Biblical narrative of the Crucifixion, was common in religious sculpture of Medieval Northern Europe and would have been very familiar to the Cardinal. The contract was agreed upon in August of the following year. Michelangelo was 24 at the time of its completion. It was soon to be regarded as one of the world's great masterpieces of sculpture, "a revelation of all the potentialities and force of the art of sculpture". Contemporary opinion was summarised by Vasari: "It is certainly a miracle that a formless block of stone could ever have been reduced to a perfection that nature is scarcely able to create in the flesh." It is now located in St Peter's Basilica. David (Donatello)
Most scholars assume the statue was commissioned by Cosimo de' Medici, but the date of its creation is unknown and widely disputed; suggested dates vary from the 1420s to the 1460s (Donatello died in 1466), with the majority opinion recently falling in the 1440s, when the new Medici Palace designed by Michelozzo was under construction. The iconography of the bronze "David" follows that of the marble "David": a young hero stands with sword in hand, the severed head of his enemy at his feet. Visually, however, this statue is startlingly different. David is both physically delicate and remarkably effeminate. The head has been said to have been inspired by classical sculptures of Antinous, a favorite of Hadrian renowned for his beauty. The statue's physique contrasted with the absurdly large sword in hand, shows that David has overcome Goliath not by physical prowess, but through God. However, the intention of Donatello is still debated among scholars. The boy's nakedness further implies the idea of the presence of God, contrasting the youth with the heavily-armored giant. David is presented uncircumcised, which is generally customary for male nudes in Italian Renaissance art. Alfredo Battistini
In 2009 Alfredo Battistini’s sculpture “La Creazione”, an homage to Michelangelo’s creation of Adam in the Sistine Chapel in Rome, was installed in the “Museo Michelangiolesco”. This museum is located next to the master’s birthplace in the town of Caprese Michelangelo, Tuscany. Michelangelo Buonarroti was born there on 6 March 1475. Bearded Slave
The Bearded Slave (Italian: "Schiavo barbuto") is a marble sculpture by Michelangelo datable to around 1525–1530 and kept in the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence. It forms part of the series of "unfinished" Prigioni intended for the Tomb of Pope Julius II. Michelangelo
During the same period, Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which took approximately four years to complete (1508–1512). According to Condivi's account, Bramante, who was working on the building of St. Peter's Basilica, resented Michelangelo's commission for the pope's tomb and convinced the pope to commission him in a medium with which he was unfamiliar, in order that he might fail at the task. Michelangelo was originally commissioned to paint the Twelve Apostles on the triangular pendentives that supported the ceiling, and to cover the central part of the ceiling with ornament. Michelangelo persuaded Pope Julius to give him a free hand and proposed a different and more complex scheme, representing the Creation, the Fall of Man, the Promise of Salvation through the prophets, and the genealogy of Christ. The work is part of a larger scheme of decoration within the chapel that represents much of the doctrine of the Catholic Church. David (Bernini)
Another potential candidate as inspiration for Bernini's "David" is the celebrated 5th century BC "Discobolus" by Myron. However, the problem with this theory is that the "Discobolus" was in the early 17th century only known from literary sources; the torsos of copies that had survived were not correctly identified until 1781. Both Quintilian and Lucian wrote of the statue, but the descriptions were of a figure stretching or flexing, rather than being in the act of throwing. Andrea del Verrocchio
A bronze statue of "David" was commissioned by Piero de'Medici. On grounds of style and technique it was dated by Butterfield to the mid-1460s; he considered it a masterpiece of Verrocchio's early career. It was purchased by the Signoria of Florence from his heirs Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici in 1476 and is now at the Bargello in Florence. Verrocchio's David is a young lad, modestly clad, contrasting with Donatello's provocative "David". For this figure, the Master is purported to have used the young Leonardo, a newcomer to his workshop, as his model. Michelangelo
Shortly before his death in 1534 Pope Clement VII commissioned Michelangelo to paint a fresco of "The Last Judgement" on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel. His successor, Paul III, was instrumental in seeing that Michelangelo began and completed the project, which he laboured on from 1534 to October 1541. The fresco depicts the Second Coming of Christ and his Judgement of the souls. Michelangelo ignored the usual artistic conventions in portraying Jesus, showing him as a massive, muscular figure, youthful, beardless and naked. He is surrounded by saints, among whom Saint Bartholomew holds a drooping flayed skin, bearing the likeness of Michelangelo. The dead rise from their graves, to be consigned either to Heaven or to Hell. Greek love
During the Renaissance, artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo used Plato's philosophy as inspiration for some of their greatest works. The "rediscovery" of classical antiquity was perceived as a liberating experience, and Greek love as an ideal after a Platonic model. Michelangelo presented himself to the public as a Platonic lover of men, combining Catholic orthodoxy and pagan enthusiasm in his portrayal of the male form, most notably the "David", but his great-nephew edited his poems to diminish references to his love for Tommaso Cavalieri. Moses (Michelangelo)
Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to build his tomb in 1505 and it was finally completed in 1545; Julius II died in 1513 The initial design by Michelangelo was massive and called for over 40 statues. The statue of Moses would have been placed on a tier about 3.74 meters high (12 ft 3 in), opposite a figure of St. Paul. In the final design, the statue of Moses sits in the center of the bottom tier. David (Michelangelo)
On 25 January 1504, when the sculpture was nearing completion, Florentine authorities had to acknowledge there would be little possibility of raising the more than six-ton statue to the roof of the cathedral. They convened a committee of 30 Florentine citizens that comprised many artists, including Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli, to decide on an appropriate site for "David". While nine different locations for the statue were discussed, the majority of members seem to have been closely split between two sites. One group, led by Giuliano da Sangallo and supported by Leonardo and Piero di Cosimo, among others, believed that, due to the imperfections in the marble, the sculpture should be placed under the roof of the Loggia dei Lanzi on Piazza della Signoria; the other group thought it should stand at the entrance to the Palazzo della Signoria, the city's town hall (now known as Palazzo Vecchio). Another opinion, supported by Botticelli, was that the sculpture should be situated on or near the cathedral. In June 1504, "David" was installed next to the entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio, replacing Donatello's bronze sculpture of "Judith and Holofernes", which embodied a comparable theme of heroic resistance. It took four days to move the statue the half mile from Michelangelo's workshop into the Piazza della Signoria. Later that summer the sling and tree-stump support were gilded, and the figure was given a gilded loin-garland. History of Western civilization
The Medici became the leading family of Florence and fostered and inspired the birth of the Italian Renaissance along with other families of Italy, such as the Visconti and Sforza of Milan, the Este of Ferrara, and the Gonzaga of Mantua. Greatest artists like Brunelleschi, Botticelli, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Giotto, Donatello, Titian and Raphael produced inspired works – their paintwork was more realistic-looking than had been created by Medieval artists and their marble statues rivalled and sometimes surpassed those of Classical Antiquity. Michelangelo carved his masterpiece "David" from marble between 1501 and 1504. David (inspired by Michelangelo)
The sculpture is a subject of a 2010 film by Danila Cahen, "Friendly Enemies", and of a 2011 book, "Rise and Fall and Rise of David (inspired by Michelangelo)". Leonardo da Vinci
In Cesena in 1502, Leonardo entered the service of Cesare Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander VI, acting as a military architect and engineer and travelling throughout Italy with his patron. Leonardo created a map of Cesare Borgia's stronghold, a town plan of Imola in order to win his patronage. Maps were extremely rare at the time and it would have seemed like a new concept. Upon seeing it, Cesare hired Leonardo as his chief military engineer and architect. Later in the year, Leonardo produced another map for his patron, one of Chiana Valley, Tuscany, so as to give his patron a better overlay of the land and greater strategic position. He created this map in conjunction with his other project of constructing a dam from the sea to Florence, in order to allow a supply of water to sustain the canal during all seasons.
Leonardo returned to Florence, where he rejoined the Guild of Saint Luke on 18 October 1503. He spent two years designing and painting a mural of "The Battle of Anghiari" for the Signoria, with Michelangelo designing its companion piece, "The Battle of Cascina". In Florence in 1504, he was part of a committee formed to relocate, against the artist's will, Michelangelo's statue of "David". Vandalism of art
On 14 September 1991, a "deranged" man attacked the statue "David" by Michelangelo with a hammer he had concealed under his jacket, damaging the toes of the left foot before being restrained. The samples obtained from that incident helped scientists determine that the marble used was obtained from the Fantiscritti quarries in Miseglia, the central of three small valleys in Carrara. The statue was restored. David and Jonathan (Rembrandt)
David and Jonathan is a painting by the Dutch painter Rembrandt, made in 1642, now in the collection of the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Painted on oak, It is one of the works, together with the Hellenistic sculpture acquired in 1850, "The Venus de Taurida", with which the Hermitage began their collection in 1882. The Deposition (Michelangelo)
One of the more commendable theories about the Pietà's destruction is explained by the iconography of the hooded figure and the inclusion of Michelangelo's self-portrait as the face of the figure. The representation of Michelangelo's face on Nicodemus solidifies his ties to a specific belief of his known as Nicodemism. Michelangelo was introduced to a group known as the Spirituali by his friend Vittoria Colonna. This group practiced Nicodemism from the 1540s to the mid-1550s. Nicodemists agreed with Protestant beliefs on nearly all their bases except for the Protestants' need to break away from the Catholic Church. Nicodemists wanted to avoid a schism from the church at all costs. However, they also believed that salvation could be reached through baptism, communion, and faith alone. By 1555, Pope Paul IV had been elected head of the Catholic Church and almost instantly launched a Roman Inquisition. This inquisition persecuted anyone who spoke out against the Catholic Church, deeming them as heretics. Upon this inquisition, Michelangelo began to fear for not only his life but also for those he knew including those who were involved with the Spirituali. Michelangelo was forced into secrecy. Knowing that he would be questioned sooner or later by the Pope and that the self-portrait showing him as Nicodemus would be used as truly convicting evidence of his beliefs, he destroyed the work. Davidiad
The Davidiad (also known as the Davidias) is the name of a neo-Latin heroic epic poem by the Croatian national poet and Renaissance humanist Marko Marulić (whose name is sometimes Latinized as "Marcus Marulus"). Likely finished in AD 1517, the poem, as its Latin title suggests, details the ascension and deeds of David, the second king of the United Kingdom of Israel and Judah, who is said to have reigned 970 BC. David Plates
The David Plates are a set of nine silver plates, in three sizes, stamped between 613 and 630. The plates were created in Constantinople, each depicting a scene from the life of the Hebrew king David, and associated with the reign of Emperor Heraclius (610-641). Following their discovery in Karavas (northern Cyprus) in 1902, the David Plates have been considered key additions to early Byzantine secular art. It is also noted that the David Plates were found amongst the Second Cyprus Treasure. Casual laborers from the village of Karavas found the David Plates as they were quarrying the ruins for construction stones. The finders, however, failed to report what they had discovered to the Cypriot authorities. When authorities learned of their taking they confiscated three of the David Plates alongside a pair of cross-monogram plates, and other jewelry held today in the Museum of Antiquities in Nicosia. The rest of the discovery was smuggled from Cyprus and traded to a dealer located in Paris. Most of this hoard was bought by J. Pierpont Morgan and was later given to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City by his heirs in 1917, where they currently remain. Day (Michelangelo)
Day is a marble sculpture by Michelangelo, datable to 1526–31. It is a pair with Night on the tomb of Giuliano de' Medici in the Medici Chapel in San Lorenzo in Florence. Michelangelo phenomenon
The phenomenon was named after the Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet and engineer Michelangelo (1475–1564) who is said to have thought of sculpting as a process of revealing and uncovering the figures hidden in stone. The term was introduced in 1999 by the US psychologist Stephen Michael Drigotas ("et al")." The Creation of Adam
In 1505 Michelangelo was invited back to Rome by the newly elected Pope Julius II. He was commissioned to build the Pope's tomb, which was to include forty statues and be finished in five years. Galleria dell'Accademia
The Galleria dell'Accademia has housed the original "David" by Michelangelo since 1873. The sculpture was allegedly brought to the Accademia for reasons of conservation, although other factors were involved in its move from its previous outdoor location on Piazza della Signoria. The original intention was to create a 'Michelangelo museum', with original sculptures and drawings, to celebrate the fourth centenary of the artist's birth. Today, the gallery's small collection of Michelangelo's work includes his four unfinished "Prisoners", intended for the tomb of Pope Julius II, and a statue of Saint Matthew, also unfinished. In 1939, these were joined by a "Pietà" discovered in the Barberini chapel in Palestrina, though experts now consider its attribution to Michelangelo to be dubious. Madonna of the Caves
Its dating to 1488–1490 is based on Giorgio Vasari's description of Francesco I de' Medici's collections, which attributes it to Mantegna's time in Rome. Some have linked it to a work commissioned from Mantegna by Lorenzo de' Medici and mentioned in a letter from Lorenzo. Other historians date it differently due to its style and figuration. However, Mantegna's re-use of certain themes like rocky backgrounds throughout his career makes it difficult to date uncertain works definitively. Dusk (Michelangelo)
Dusk is a marble sculpture by Michelangelo, datable to 1524-34. It is a pair with Dawn on the tomb of Lorenzo II de' Medici in the Medici Chapel in San Lorenzo in Florence. Michelangelo
In 1546 Michelangelo produced the highly complex ovoid design for the pavement of the Campidoglio and began designing an upper storey for the Farnese Palace. In 1547 he took on the job of completing St Peter's Basilica, begun to a design by Bramante, and with several intermediate designs by several architects. Michelangelo returned to Bramante's design, retaining the basic form and concepts by simplifying and strengthening the design to create a more dynamic and unified whole. Although the late 16th-century engraving depicts the dome as having a hemispherical profile, the dome of Michelangelo's model is somewhat ovoid and the final product, as completed by Giacomo della Porta is more so. Piazzale Michelangelo
The square, dedicated to the Renaissance sculptor Michelangelo, has bronze copies of some of his marble works found elsewhere in Florence: the David and the four allegories of the Medici Chapel of San Lorenzo. The monument was brought up by nine pairs of oxen on 25 June 1873. David (Michelangelo)
Michelangelo's "David" has become one of the most recognized works of Renaissance sculpture, a symbol of strength and youthful beauty. Dawn (Michelangelo)
Dawn is a sculpture by Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo, executed for the Medici Chapel in the area of the tomb of Lorenzo de' Medici in Florence, Italy. 
It is part of a second pair (the second being "Dusk"), which followed "Day "and "Night "in his work on the Chapel. Michelangelo
The kneeling angel is an early work, one of several that Michelangelo created as part of a large decorative scheme for the Arca di San Domenico in the church dedicated to that saint in Bologna. Several other artists had worked on the scheme, beginning with Nicola Pisano in the 13th century. In the late 15th century, the project was managed by Niccolò dell'Arca. An angel holding a candlestick, by Niccolò, was already in place. Although the two angels form a pair, there is a great contrast between the two works, the one depicting a delicate child with flowing hair clothed in Gothic robes with deep folds, and Michelangelo's depicting a robust and muscular youth with eagle's wings, clad in a garment of Classical style.
Everything about Michelangelo's angel is dynamic.
Michelangelo's "Bacchus" was a commission with a specified subject, the youthful God of Wine. The sculpture has all the traditional attributes, a vine wreath, a cup of wine and a fawn, but Michelangelo ingested an air of reality into the subject, depicting him with bleary eyes, a swollen bladder and a stance that suggests he is unsteady on his feet. While the work is plainly inspired by Classical sculpture, it is innovative for its rotating movement and strongly three-dimensional quality, which encourages the viewer to look at it from every angle.
In the so-called "Dying Slave", Michelangelo has again utilised the figure with marked contraposto to suggest a particular human state, in this case waking from sleep. With the "Rebellious Slave", it is one of two such earlier figures for the Tomb of Pope Julius II, now in the Louvre, that the sculptor brought to an almost finished state. These two works were to have a profound influence on later sculpture, through Rodin who studied them at the Louvre.
The "Bound Slave" is one of the later figures for Pope Julius' tomb. The works, known collectively as "The Captives", each show the figure struggling to free itself, as if from the bonds of the rock in which it is lodged. The works give a unique insight into the sculptural methods that Michelangelo employed and his way of revealing what he perceived within the rock. Moses (Michelangelo)
The Moses ( ; c. 1513–1515) is a sculpture by the Italian High Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti, housed in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome. Commissioned in 1505 by Pope Julius II for his tomb, it depicts the biblical figure Moses with horns on his head, based on a description in chapter 34 of Exodus in the Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Bible used at that time. The Entombment (Michelangelo)
There is an anecdote that Michelangelo received a letter from his father saying that he should abandon whatever he was doing because a great piece of marble had arrived for him, which would become his "David" sculpture. Medici Chapel
In a statement in the Michelangelo's biography published in 1553 by his disciple, Ascanio Condivi, and largely based on Michelangelo own recollections, Condivi gives the following description: "The statues are four in number, placed in a sacristy . . . the sarcophagi are placed before the side walls, and on the lids of each there recline two big figures, larger than life, to wit, a man and a woman; they signify Day and Night and, in conjunction, Time which devours all things… And in order to signify Time he planned to make a mouse, having left a bit of marble upon the work (which [plan] he subsequently did not carry out because he was prevented by circumstances), because this little animal ceaselessly gnaws and consumes just as time devours everything”. Crucifix (Michelangelo)
One is a polychrome wood sculpture possibly finished in 1492 which had been lost from view by scholars until it re-emerged in 1962; in 2001 new investigations appeared to confirm the attribution to Michelangelo. It was perhaps made for the high altar of the Church of Santa Maria del Santo Spirito in Florence, Italy. The work is especially notable for the fact that this Christ is naked. Medici Madonna
The work, according to Michelangelo's letters and other documents, was one of the first works begun for the decoration of the "Sagrestia Vecchia" (Old Sacristy), as early as 1521. In 1526 it was still incomplete and in 1534, when Michelangelo moved to Rome, it was left in the current unfinished state and moved to the current location by Niccolò Tribolo. Risen Christ (Michelangelo, Santa Maria sopra Minerva)
The work was commissioned in June 1514, by the Roman patrician Metello Vari, who stipulated only that the nude standing figure would have the Cross in his arms, but left the composition entirely to Michelangelo. Michelangelo was working on a first version of this statue in his studio in Macello dei Corvi around 1515, but abandoned it in roughed-out condition when he discovered a black vein in the white marble, remarked upon by Vari in a letter, and later by Ulisse Aldrovandi. A new version was hurriedly substituted in 1519-1520 to fulfil the terms of the contract. Michelangelo worked on it in Florence, and the move to Rome and final touches were entrusted to an apprentice, Pietro Urbano; the latter, however, damaged the work and had to be quickly replaced by Federico Frizzi at the suggestion of Sebastiano del Piombo.
The first version, rough as it was, was asked for by Metello Vari, and given him in January 1522, for the little garden courtyard of his palazzetto near Santa Maria sopra Minerva, ' translated as "As his greatest honor, as if it were of gold", a mark of the esteem in which Michelangelo was held". There it remained, described by Aldrovandi in 1556, and noted in some contemporary letters as apparently for sale in 1607, following which it was utterly lost to sight. In 2000 Irene Baldriga recognized the lost first version, finished in the early seventeenth century, in the sacristy of the church of San Vincenzo Martire, at Bassano Romano near Viterbo; the black vein is clearly distinguishable on Christ's left cheek. It is now often called the Giustiniani Christ. The parts finished later are the "right hand, parts of the face and the back". Michelangelo and the Medici
Michelangelo (6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564) had a complicated relationship with the Medici family, who were for most of his lifetime the effective rulers of his home city of Florence. The Medici rose to prominence as Florence's preeminent bankers, some of which was used for patronage of the arts. Michelangelo's first contact with the Medici family began early as a talented teenage apprentice of the Florentine painter, Domenico Ghirlandaio. Following his initial work for Lorenzo de' Medici, Michelangelo's interactions with the family continued for decades including the Medici papacies of Pope Leo X and Pope Clement VII. Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni or more commonly known by his first name Michelangelo (; ; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564) was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet of the High Renaissance born in the Republic of Florence, who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. Considered by many the greatest artist of his lifetime, and by some the greatest artist of all time, his artistic versatility was of such a high order that he is often considered a contender for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man, along with his rival, the fellow Florentine and client of the Medici, Leonardo da Vinci.Pietà" and "David", before the age of thirty. Despite holding a low opinion of painting, he also created two of the most influential frescoes in the history of Western art: the scenes from Genesis on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, and "The Last Judgment" on its altar wall. His design of the Laurentian Library pioneered Mannerist architecture. At the age of 74, he succeeded Antonio da Sangallo the Younger as the architect of St. Peter's Basilica. He transformed the plan so that the western end was finished to his design, as was the dome, with some modification, after his death. Serkan Özkaya
In 2005, Özkaya created "David (inspired by Michelangelo)", a double-sized golden replica of Michelangeloʼs "David" based on a 3D computer model by Marc Levoy of Stanford University. The sculpture was first intended to be part of the 9th International Istanbul Biennial. Unfortunately, the statue crashed and was destroyed while in the process of being installed at Şişli Square. Özkaya created two new versions of the replica at a studio in Eskişehir, one of which was to be placed in the local Sazova Science, Art and Culture Park. The other was acquired by 21c Museum Hotels in Louisville, Kentucky. On its way to Louisville, the piece made a stop in New York City. Although just a mere copy, the statue made quite a spectacle, as the artist intended, attracting the attention of tourists and residents as it was transported uncovered lying horizontally on a semi-trailer truck. The giant 30-foot statue is currently featured in front of the museum hotel on West Main Street in Louisville. Italophilia
Michelangelo was born in Florence in 1475 and, like Leonardo, was a true Renaissance man. He was a sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. He was considered the greatest living artist in his lifetime and, since then, one of the greatest artists of all time. His two best-known sculptures, the Pietà and David, are famous throughout the world. Michelangelo also created two of the most famous and influential frescoes in the history of Western art: the scenes from Genesis covering the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and The Last Judgment on the altar wall of the Chapel. Tommaso dei Cavalieri
Tommaso dei Cavalieri (1509–1587) was an Italian nobleman, who was the object of the greatest expression of Michelangelo's love. Cavalieri was 23 years old when Michelangelo met him in 1532, at the age of 57. The young nobleman was exceptionally handsome, and his appearance seems to have fit the artist's notions of ideal masculine beauty, for Michelangelo described him as "light of our century, paragon of all the world." The two men remained lifelong lovers, and Cavalieri was present at the artist's death. David (Donatello)
Donatello, then in his early twenties, was commissioned to carve a statue of David in 1408, to top one of the buttresses of Florence Cathedral, though it was never placed there. Nanni di Banco was commissioned to carve a marble statue of Isaiah, at the same scale, in the same year. One of the statues was lifted into place in 1409, but was found to be too small to be easily visible from the ground and was taken down; both statues then languished in the workshop of the "opera" for several years. In 1416, the Signoria of Florence commanded that the "David" be sent to their Palazzo della Signoria; evidently the young David was seen as an effective political symbol, as well as a religious hero. Donatello was asked to make some adjustments to the statue (perhaps to make him look less like a prophet), and a pedestal with an inscription was made for it: PRO PATRIA FORTITER DIMICANTIBUS ETIAM ADVERSUS TERRIBILISSIMOS HOSTES DII PRAESTANT AUXILIUM ("To those who fight bravely for the fatherland the gods lend aid even against the most terrible foes"). Michelangelo and the Medici
It was then that Michelangelo first began writing down his deepest thoughts in poetry which he continued to do for the rest of his life.
From 1490 to 1492, Michelangelo attended the Humanist academy which the Medici had founded. He absorbed Renaissance Neoplatonism through his direct contact with some of the great Renaissance humanist philosophers of the Medici Court. Consequently, both Michelangelo's outlook and his art were subject to the influence of many of the most prominent philosophers and writers of the day including Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola and Angelo Poliziano. Michelangelo studied sculpture under Bertoldo di Giovanni. At this time Michelangelo sculpted the reliefs "Madonna of the Steps" (1490–1492) and "Battle of the Centaurs" (1491–1492). The latter was based on a subject suggested by Poliziano and was commissioned by Lorenzo de' Medici. David (Bernini)
David is a life-size marble sculpture by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The sculpture was one of many commissions to decorate the villa of Bernini's patron Cardinal Scipione Borghese – where it still resides today, as part of the Galleria Borghese. It was completed in the course of seven months from 1623 to 1624. The Deposition (Michelangelo)
Vasari noted that Michelangelo began to work on the sculpture around the age of 72. Without commission, Michelangelo worked tirelessly into the night with just a single candle to illuminate his work. Vasari wrote that he began to work on this sculpture to amuse his mind and to keep his body healthy. After 8 years of working on it, Michelangelo would go on and attempt to destroy the work in a fit of frustration. This marked the end of Michelangelo's work on the sculptural group, which found itself in the hands of Francesco Bandini, who hired an apprentice sculptor, by the name of Tiberio Calcagni, to restore the work to its current composition. The left leg of Christ is missing. Since its inception, the sculpture has been plagued by ambiguities and never ending interpretations, with no straightforward answers available. David (Michelangelo)
"David" has stood on display at Florence's Galleria dell'Accademia since 1873. In addition to the full-sized replica occupying the spot of the original in front of the Palazzo Vecchio, a bronze version overlooks Florence from the Piazzale Michelangelo. The plaster cast of "David" at the Victoria and Albert Museum has a detachable plaster fig leaf which is displayed nearby. Legend claims that the fig leaf was created in response to Queen Victoria's shock upon first viewing the statue's nudity, and was hung on the figure prior to royal visits, using two strategically placed hooks. David with the Head of Goliath (Caravaggio, Vienna)
The model for David in both versions appears to be a more mature version of the pubescent Cupid of "Amor Vincit Omnia" and the Capitoline and Pamphilij "John the Baptist", all painted around 1602. The model for these works has been identified by some, most notably Peter Robb, as Cecco, a boy known to have been Caravaggio's servant in Rome in the early 17th century and believed by Robb to be identical with Cecco del Caravaggio, an artist active in Rome in the period 1610–1625 and painting very much in Caravaggio's manner. There is no record of Cecco having been with Caravaggio after the artist's flight from Rome in 1606. The Creation of Adam
Under the patronage of the Pope, Michelangelo experienced constant interruptions to his work on the tomb in order to accomplish numerous other tasks. Although Michelangelo worked on the tomb for 40 years, it was never finished to his satisfaction. It is located in the Church of S. Pietro in Vincoli in Rome and is most famous for his central figure of "Moses", completed in 1516. Of the other statues intended for the tomb, two known as the "Rebellious Slave" and the "Dying Slave", are now in the Louvre. Donatello
Around 1430, Cosimo de' Medici, the foremost art patron of his era, commissioned from Donatello the bronze "David" (now in the Bargello) for the court of his Palazzo Medici. This is now Donatello's most famous work, and the first known free-standing nude statue produced since antiquity. Conceived fully in the round, independent of any architectural surroundings, and largely representing an allegory of the civic virtues triumphing over brutality and irrationality, it is arguably the first major work of Renaissance sculpture. Also from this period is the disquietingly small "Love-Atys", housed in the Bargello. Sistine Chapel
Between 1508 and 1512, under the patronage of Pope Julius II, Michelangelo painted the chapel's ceiling, a project which changed the course of Western art and is regarded as one of the major artistic accomplishments of human civilization. In a different climate after the Sack of Rome, he returned and between 1535 and 1541, painted "The Last Judgment" for Popes Clement VII and Paul III. The fame of Michelangelo's paintings has drawn multitudes of visitors to the chapel ever since they were revealed five hundred years ago. Michelangelo and the Medici
Clement VII had plans to make the private Medici library public and in doing so, the Pope proposed creating a new building. Michelangelo was contracted and produced an amazing design but it was not carried out until he moved to Rome in 1525. In this project, Michelangelo produced new styles such as pilasters tapering thinner at the bottom, and a staircase with contrasting rectangular and curving forms. Michelangelo worked on these two projects off and on for the next thirteen years. Ultimately, it was finished after his lifetime. Mere days before his own death, Clement VII commissioned Michelangelo to paint "The Last Judgment" in the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo
While Michelangelo's "David" is the most famous male nude of all time and destined to be reproduced in order to grace cities around the world, some of his other works have had perhaps even greater impact on the course of art. The twisting forms and tensions of the "Victory", the "Bruges Madonna" and the "Medici Madonna" make them the heralds of the Mannerist art. The unfinished giants for the tomb of Pope Julius II had profound effect on late-19th- and 20th-century sculptors such as Rodin and Henry Moore. Michelangelo
In 1513, Pope Julius II died and was succeeded by Pope Leo X, the second son of Lorenzo dei Medici. Pope Leo commissioned Michelangelo to reconstruct the façade of the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence and to adorn it with sculptures. He agreed reluctantly and spent three years creating drawings and models for the façade, as well as attempting to open a new marble quarry at Pietrasanta specifically for the project. In 1520 the work was abruptly cancelled by his financially strapped patrons before any real progress had been made. The basilica lacks a façade to this day. Medici Madonna
The Medici Madonna is a marble sculpture carved by Italian Renaissance master Michelangelo Buonarroti that measures about 88.98 inches (226 cm) in height. Dating from 1521–1534 the sculpture is a piece of the altar decoration of the "Sagrestia Nuova" in the Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence. Leda and the Swan
Also lost, and probably deliberately destroyed, is Michelangelo's tempera painting of the pair making love, commissioned in 1529 by Alfonso d'Este for his palazzo in Ferrara, and taken to France for the royal collection in 1532; it was at Fontainebleau in 1536. Michelangelo's cartoon for the work—given to his assistant Antonio Mini, who used it for several copies for French patrons before his death in 1533—survived for over a century. This composition is known from many copies, including an by Cornelis Bos, c. 1563; the marble sculpture by Bartolomeo Ammanati in the Bargello, Florence; two copies by the young Rubens on his Italian voyage, and the painting after Michelangelo, ca. 1530, in the National Gallery, London. The Michelangelo composition, of about 1530, shows Mannerist tendencies of elongation and twisted pose (the "figura serpentinata") that were popular at the time. In addition, a sculptural group, similar to the Prado Roman group illustrated, was believed until at least the 19th century to be by Michelangelo. David (Michelangelo)
"David" was originally commissioned as one of a series of statues of prophets to be positioned along the roofline of the east end of Florence Cathedral, but was instead placed in a public square, outside the Palazzo Vecchio, the seat of civic government in Florence, in the Piazza della Signoria where it was unveiled on 8 September 1504. The statue was moved to the Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence, in 1873, and later replaced at the original location by a replica.
Because of the nature of the hero it represented, the statue soon came to symbolize the defence of civil liberties embodied in the Republic of Florence, an independent city-state threatened on all sides by more powerful rival states and by the hegemony of the Medici family. The eyes of David, with a warning glare, were turned towards Rome. Separation of Light from Darkness
Several authors have proposed that Michelangelo concealed anatomical images in this fresco and that these anatomical images account for its unusual features. In an article published in the journal "Neurosurgery" in May 2010, Ian Suk, a medical illustrator, and Rafael Tamargo, a neurosurgeon, both from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, suggested that Michelangelo concealed three neuroanatomical images in the "Separation of Light from Darkness." Suk and Tamargo explained that Michelangelo started to dissect cadavers at the age of 17–19 years and continued his anatomical studies throughout his life. As a result of his dissections, Michelangelo probably developed a detailed understanding of gross anatomy of the brain and spinal cord. They showed that the anatomical details in God's neck are unlike those of either other necks painted by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel or of other necks painted by Michelangelo's contemporaries, such as Leonardo da Vinci and Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael). The unusual anatomy of God's neck is particularly evident when it is contrasted with the anatomy of the neck of the ignudo facing God in the upper left corner of the panel. The position of the neck of this ignudo is almost identical to that of God's neck, yet the ignudo's neck does not have any of the unusual lines found in God's neck. It is possible that Michelangelo placed these two analogous neck perspectives side by side to emphasize and contrast the hidden image in God's neck. Michelangelo Mattei
Michelangelo Mattei was born in Rome, Italy on 8 May 1628.
On 7 November 1689, he was appointed during the papacy of Pope Alexander VIII as Titular Archbishop of "Hadrianopolis in Haemimonto".
On 13 November 1689, he was consecrated bishop by Fabrizio Spada, Cardinal-Priest of San Crisogono with Francesco de' Marini, Titular Archbishop of "Teodosia", and Prospero Bottini, Titular Archbishop of "Myra", serving as co-consecrators.
On 18 May 1693, he was appointed during the papacy of Pope Innocent XII as Titular Patriarch of Antioch.
He served as Titular Patriarch of "Antioch" until his death on 22 December 1699. Medici Chapel
Though it was vaulted over by 1524, the ambitious projects of its sculpture and the intervention of events, such as the temporary exile of the Medici (1527), the death of Giulio, now Pope Clement VII and the permanent departure of Michelangelo for Rome in 1534, meant that Michelangelo never finished it. Though most of the statues had been carved by the time of Michelangelo's departure, they had not been put in place, being left in disarray across the chapel, and later installed by Niccolò Tribolo in 1545. By order of Cosimo I, Giorgio Vasari and Bartolomeo Ammannati finished the work by 1555. David with the Head of Goliath (Caravaggio, Vienna)
David with the Head of Goliath, c. 1607, in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Gemäldegalerie, Vienna, is a painting by the Italian artist Caravaggio (1571–1610). Peter Robb believes it to have been acquired by the conde de Villamediana in Naples between 1611 and 1617, as Giovanni Bellori records Villamediana as having returned to Spain with a half-figure of David by Caravaggio. Battle of the Centaurs (Michelangelo)
Michelangelo, at 17, was working under the patronage of Lorenzo de' Medici when he crafted the "Battle of the Centaurs", although the work was not commissioned but created for himself. The work reflected a then current fashion for reproducing ancient themes. Specifically, Michelangelo was inspired by a relief that had been produced for de' Medici by Bertoldo di Giovanni, a work in bronze that hung in the Medici palace. Michelangelo chose to work in marble rather than the more expensive bronze to keep down costs. Bertoldo's work, The "Equestrian Battle in the Ancient Manner"—also known as "Battle (with Hercules)"—was a recreation of a damaged Roman battle sarcophagus and required liberal imagination to fill in the gaps left by the damaged original. Bertoldo took other liberties with his source material and seems to have himself been inspired by the Antonio del Pollaiolo engraving "Battle of the Nudes". David (Donatello)
The marble "David" is Donatello's earliest known important commission, and it is a work closely tied to tradition, giving few signs of the innovative approach to representation that the artist would develop as he matured. Although the positioning of the legs hints at a classical contrapposto, the figure stands in an elegant Gothic sway that surely derives from Lorenzo Ghiberti. The face is curiously blank (curiously, that is, if one expects naturalism, but very typical of the Gothic style), and David seems almost unaware of the head of his vanquished foe that rests between his feet. Some scholars have seen an element of personality – a kind of cockiness -(contrapposto=relaxed stance, shifted weight) suggested by the twist of the torso and the akimbo placement of the left arm, but overall the effect of the figure is rather bland. However it was intended to be gilded and painted, set on a pedestal with mosaic, and also seen from a considerable distance below. Donatello distorted the proportions of the figure to allow for this angle of view. The head of Goliath, lying at David's feet, "is carved with great assurance and reveals the young sculptor’s genuinely Renaissance interest in an ancient Roman type of mature, bearded head". David and Jonathan
The Renaissance artists Donatello and Michelangelo both brought out strong homoerotic elements in their respective sculptures depicting the youthful David. Sebastiano del Piombo
The first result of this collaboration was one of Sebastiano's most important paintings, a "Pietà" in Viterbo. Here the composition is highly unusual for this common subject (which Michelangelo had famously sculpted in 1498–99), with Christ lying across the bottom of the picture space, at the feet of a Virgin looking up to Heaven, so that the two figures do not actually touch. Though no drawing survives, this was Michelangelo's conception, where "an idea of high tragic power is expressed with extreme simplicity in a structure of severe geometric rigour". The back of the panels have large sketches in charcoal that seem to be by both artists. In 1516 he painted a similar subject, the "Lamentation of Jesus" (now Hermitage Museum) using his own composition, and showing his awareness of Raphael's handling of groups of figures. Raffaello da Montelupo
Shortly thereafter, according to Vasari, Raffaello began work in Florence with Michelangelo, at the Medici Chapel (Sagrestia Nuova) of the Basilica di San Lorenzo, where he created "San Damiano" (c. 1534). "St. Cosmas" is also attributed to him, together with Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli, another assistant to Michelangelo. The Last Judgment (Michelangelo)
The work took over four years to complete between 1536 and 1541 (preparation of the altar wall began in 1535). Michelangelo began working on it twenty-five years after having finished the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and was nearly 67 at its completion. Michelangelo originally accepted the commission from Pope Clement VII, but it was completed under Pope Paul III, whose stronger reforming views probably affected the final treatment. Michelangelo (Stanley book)
Michelangelo is a 2000 children's biography by Diane Stanley. It covers Michelangelo's life, from his childhood to his death. The Creation of Adam
"The Creation of Adam" is generally thought to depict the excerpt "God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him" (). The inspiration for Michelangelo's treatment of the subject may come from a medieval hymn, "Veni Creator Spiritus", which asks the 'finger of the paternal right hand' ("digitus paternae dexterae") to give the faithful speech.