Michelangelo
Buonarroti

Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian: Michelangelo di Lodovico di Leonardo di Buonarroti Simoni, March 6, 1475, Caprese - February 18, 1564, Rome) - an outstanding Italian painter, sculptor, architect, thinker and poet, a vivid representative of the Renaissance and early Baroque. The work of Michelangelo Buonarroti was highly appreciated by his contemporaries and became an example of high art for many followers of the master, as well as representatives of other movements. Evidence of respect for Michelangelo is his biography, which was published during the life of the master.

Features of creativity: equally combining the talent of a sculptor, painter and thinker, Buonarroti created masterpieces filled with hidden passion - all of them were dedicated to the beauty of a person, both physical and spiritual. The sculptural and pictorial works of Michelangelo Buonarroti are characterized by dramatic images, plasticity and, at the same time, the complexity of the characters' poses, monumentalism and the diversity of images. The madrigals and sonnets belonging to his pen are examples of poetic art and are devoted to such philosophical topics as happiness, love, loneliness. Some of them, even during the lifetime of a genius, were put to music; Michelangelo's poems inspired composers from different eras up to our time.

Famous works of Michelangelo Buonarroti: fresco painting of the Sistine Chapel, including the mural "The Last Judgment", Fresco"Crucifixion of St. Peter", Picture"Madonna Doni", A statue of David, sculpture"Pieta", Sculptural decoration of the chapel of the Medici family, relief"Battle of the centaurs". Becoming a genius The boy's father was an impoverished Florentine nobleman from the family of small bankers. As the second son in a large family, the young Michelangelo from a young age met with the harsh reality: his father gave him to raise a nurse, because funds for the maintenance of a large family were sorely lacking. There Buonarroti learned to work with clay and learned the basics of handling a cutter. After some time, the boy was sent to school, but he was more interested in the drawing lessons that he received, communicating with artists and redrawing murals and icons in the church.

Michelangelo Buonarroti's first serious artwork was a drawing made from an engraving by Shongauer while studying in the workshop of the Ghirlandaio brothers. At first, the young man made a copy from the engraving, and then painted a picture from her, enlarged in size and painted it with paints. According to the recollections of one of the students, Michelangelo specially went to the fish ranks to examine in detail the structure of the fins, fish tails and other elements, and then transfer what he saw on paper.

After studying in the workshop for a year, Buonarroti went to an art school opened by Lorenzo Medici. Here, in addition to painting, he began to learn the secrets of sculptural art. Entering the Medici house, Buonarroti had the opportunity to get acquainted with a luxurious collection that included not only the works of Masaccio, Donatello, Giotto, but also ancient authors. What he saw had a huge impact on the subsequent work of Michelangelo Buonarroti: he realized that sculpture and painting significantly differ from each other not only in form, but also in internal content. If a painter, painting a picture, captures what he sees on the canvas, supplementing it with his inner emotions, then the sculptor relies primarily on his inner vision and gives the stone block the corresponding shape.

After receiving a decent art education, Buonarroti began to travel around the country. He received orders from representatives of the high society and the clergy: among his customers were Pope Julius II, Cardinal Riario, Pope Leo X, Pope Paul III, etc. Michelangelo Buonarroti paints, paints chapels with frescoes, and creates sculptural compositions to this day. remain unsurpassed masterpieces of world art. Michelangelo Buonarroti Paintings The paintings painted by this unsurpassed genius are very few: he preferred to create murals and sculptural compositions. Only a few paintings by Michelangelo Buonarroti have survived to this day, among them - "Madonna Doni","Coffin"," Manchester Madonna "and" The Torment of St. Anthony "(authorship of the last two is in doubt). Art critics also know the names of paintings that were lost for one reason or another: it is Venus and Cupid, Leda and the Swan, and the Battle of Kashin.

In addition to paintings, Michelangelo Buonarroti made many drawings and sketches: “Phaethon Fall","The Crucifixion","Titium","Cleopatra","Madonna and Child". All art lovers know the frescoes painted by him on the vaults of the Sistine Chapel, as well as the frescoes “The Last Judgment”, “Crucifixion of St. Peter"," Appeal ap. Paul "and others. Sculptures of Michelangelo Buonarroti The most famous sculpture of Michelangelo is the statue of David, which he created at the age of 26 years. In addition, among the sculptures of Michelangelo Buonarroti, preserved to this day, there are such masterpieces as Pieta, The Dying Slave, Moses, Madonna of the Medici, Risen Slave, a series of sculptures for the Medici chapel symbolizing four times days, as well as bas-reliefs "Madonna at the Stairs", "Tondo Pitti", "Battle of the Centaurs", etc.

Today, the works of Michelangelo Buonarroti adorn the Louvre, the Cathedral of St. Petra at the Vatican, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Florentine Academy of Fine Arts, as well as other museums and art galleries.