Michellangelo

alian Renaissance artist Michelangelo created the 'David' and 'Pieta' sculptures and the Sistine Chapel
and 'Last Judgment' paintings.

Who Was Michelangelo?

Michelangelo Buonarroti was a painter, sculptor, architect and poet widely considered one of the most
brilliant artists of the Italian Renaissance. Michelangelo was an apprentice to a painter before studying in
the sculpture gardens of the powerful Medici family.

What followed was a remarkable career as an artist, famed in his own time for his artistic virtuosity.
Although he always considered himself a Florentine, Michelangelo lived most of his life in Rome, where
he died at age 88.

Early Life

Michelangelo was born on March 6, 1475, in Caprese, Italy, the second of five sons.

When Michelangelo was born, his father, Leonardo di Buonarrota Simoni, was briefly serving as a
magistrate in the small village of Caprese. The family returned to Florence when Michelangelo was still
an infant.

His mother, Francesca Neri, was ill, so Michelangelo was placed with a family of stonecutters, where he
later jested, "With my wet-nurse's milk, I sucked in the hammer and chisels I use for my statues."

Education

Indeed, Michelangelo was less interested in schooling than watching the painters at nearby churches and
drawing what he saw, according to his earliest biographers (Vasari, Condivi and Varchi). It may have been
his grammar school friend, Francesco Granacci, six years his senior, who introduced Michelangelo to
painter Domenico Ghirlandaio.
Michelangelo's father realized early on that his son had no interest in the family financial business, so he
agreed to apprentice him, at the age of 13, to Ghirlandaio and the Florentine painter's fashionable
workshop. There, Michelangelo was exposed to the technique of fresco (a mural painting technique
where pigment is placed directly on fresh, or wet, lime plaster).

Medici Family

From 1489 to 1492, Michelangelo studied classical sculpture in the palace gardens of Florentine ruler
Lorenzo de' Medici of the powerful Medici family. This extraordinary opportunity opened to him after
spending only a year at Ghirlandaio’s workshop, at his mentor’s recommendation.

This was a fertile time for Michelangelo; his years with the family permitted him access to the social elite
of Florence — allowing him to study under the respected sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni and exposing him
to prominent poets, scholars and learned humanists.

He also obtained special permission from the Catholic Church to study cadavers for insight into anatomy,
though exposure to corpses had an adverse effect on his health.