ITALIAN PAINTER, sculptor and poet, one of the
greatest artists of the Renaissance and a forerunner of Mannerism.
Michelangelo was raised in Florence, where he trained briefly under
Ghirlandaio. Soon his obvious talent brought him to the notice of
important patrons. By 1490, he was producing sculpture for Lorenzo di
Medici and, a few years later, he began his long association with the
papacy
Michelangelo’s fame proved a double-edged
sword. He was often inveigled into accepting huge commissions, which
either lasted years or went unfinished. The most notorious of these
projects was the Tomb of Julius II, which occupied the artist for over
40 years.
Michelangelo always considered himself primarily a
sculptor, and he was extremely reluctant to take on the decoration of
the Sistine Chapel. Fortunately, he was persuaded, and the resulting
frescoes are among the greatest creations in Western art. The ceiling
alone took four years (1508–12), while the Last Judgment
(1536–41) was added later on the altar wall. In these,
Michelangelo displayed the sculptural forms and the terribiliui
(‘awesome power’), which made him the most revered artist
of his time.
Excerpt from Art. The World of Art, from
Aboriginal to American Pop, Renaissance Masters to Postmodernism.
