Michelangelo
1475-1564
The genius was born in Italy | Youth.
Years of study.
1488-1495 / Rome.
"Pieta".
1496-1501 / Florence.
"David".
1501-1505 / Rome.
Tomb of Pope Julius II.
1505-1545 / Rome.
Frescoes of the Sistine Chapel vault.
1508-1512 / Florence.
The Medici tombs.
1516-1534 / Rome.
Late works.
"The Last Judgment".
1534-1541 / Architecture.
The Cathedral of St. Peter.
1538-1564 | site map | home page
6.
Rome.
Frescoes of the Sistine Chapel vault (1508-1512)
The beginning of work on the ceiling frescoes of the Sistine Chapel (1508)
"When the pope returned to Rome, and Michelangelo was finishing this statue, in his absence, Bramante, who was a friend and relative of Raphael of Urbino and, due to this circumstance, was not very friendly with Michelangelo, seeing that the pope prefers and magnifies his sculptural works, decided to cool him down to them, so that upon Michelangelo's return, His Holiness would not insist on completing his tomb, saying that building a tomb during his lifetime is a bad omen and means inviting death, and on his return, Michelangelo persuaded him to commission him to paint the ceiling of the chapel built in the palace by Sixtus in memory of Sixtus, the uncle of His Holiness.
Bramante and other rivals of Michelangelo thought that in this way they would distract him from sculpture, in which the pope saw his perfection, and drive him to despair, believing that, forced to paint, but having no experience in fresco work, he would create a work less commendable, which would turn out worse than Raphael's; and even if he accidentally did something, they would in any way force him to quarrel with the pope, which would somehow lead to the realization of their intention to get rid of him.
And when Michelangelo returned to Rome, the pope had already decided not to finish his tomb yet and invited him to paint the ceiling of the chapel.
And Michelangelo wanted to finish the tomb, and the work on the ceiling of the chapel seemed to him big and difficult: bearing in mind his little experience in painting with paints, he tried in every way to relieve himself of this burden, putting forward Raphael for this instead of himself.
But the more he refused, the more inflamed the whim of the pope, who went ahead in his schemes, and besides, he was again incited by Michelangelo's rivals, and especially Bramante, so that the pope, who was hot tempered, was already ready to quarrel with Michelangelo.
Then, seeing that His Holiness persisted, Michelangelo finally decided to take it up; Bramante, having received an order from the pope to arrange a stage for the painting, completely hung them on ropes, having pierced the entire vault.
When Michelangelo saw this, he asked Bramante how to fix the holes after the painting was finished.
The same person replied that he would think about it later, but there was no other way to do it.
Michelangelo realized that Bramante was either a small master of his craft, or a small friend of his, and went to the pope, telling him that such scaffolding was not suitable, and Bramante could not build them, to which the pope, in the presence of Bramante, told him to do them in his own way.
So Michelangelo ordered them to be placed on trestles so that they did not touch the walls, and this was the method that he later taught both Bramante and others to strengthen the arches and to create many good works, and he gave so many ropes to the poor carpenter who was remodeling them that he sold them, provided one of his daughters with a dowry, which Michelangelo thus gave her.
After that, he began to make cardboard for the said ceiling, and the pope allowed the walls to be painted by various masters before him under Sixtus, and appointed a reward for all this work in the amount of fifteen thousand ducats, the price set by Giuliano de Sangallo.
And so, in view of the enormity of the work, Michelangelo was forced to decide to seek someone else's help and, having called people from Florence, he decided to prove with this work that those who had written before him would have to be captured by him willy nilly, and show, moreover, contemporary artists how to draw and paint with paints.
And, since the very greatness of this task pushed him to rise so high in his fame for the benefit of art, he began and finished the cartons; and when he was about to start frescoing, which he had never done before, his painter friends came from Florence to Rome to help him and show him how they were working with frescoes, for some of them were already doing this.
Among them were Granaccio, Giuliano Bugiardini, Jacopo di Sandro, Indaco the elder, Agnolo di Donnino and Aristotle.
At the beginning of the work, he suggested that they write something as a sample.
When he saw how far their efforts were from his wishes and received no satisfaction, one morning he decided to knock down everything they had written and, locking himself in the chapel, stopped letting them in there and receiving them at home.
And since these jokes, in their opinion, lasted too long, they resigned themselves and returned to Florence in disgrace.
So Michelangelo decided to do all the work alone and finished it in the shortest possible time, putting all his efforts and all his skill and not showing himself to anyone, so that there would be no reason forcing him to show it to someone else: especially since the desire to see it grew every day in the hearts of people" Vasari.
Pope Julius II wanted Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the papal residence in the Vatican, although he did not like this proposal, but could not refuse it.
In 1508, Michelangelo began work.
On May 10, 1508, he wrote: "I started working today."
October 31, 1512 The Sistine Chapel was open for viewing.
Between these dates — four years, five months and twenty one days, filled with the most intense, titanic work.
"Dark years.
The darkest and most majestic in the life of Michelangelo.
He becomes the legendary Michelangelo, the very hero of the Sistine, whose titanic image will forever remain imprinted in the memory of mankind, " Romain Rolland wrote about this period of Michelangelo's life and work.
The work absorbed all the spiritual and physical forces of the creator.
And although Michelangelo said that "painting is not his business," he created a monumental ensemble that became a masterpiece of Italian monumental painting.
The whole architecture of the chapel did not really correspond to his new vision and the picturesque decoration that he had conceived.
Having shown the greatest ingenuity, he must change the appearance of the ceiling and take advantage of its flaws.
He had to change the decoration of the room and at the same time this room itself.
Being a natural sculptor, Michelangelo decided that he would paint the figures as if they were carved out of stone.
There will be an impression that any figure is about to move and descend from the ceiling to the ground.
He painted the ceiling twice: the first time he was dissatisfied with the result and he had to start all over again.
To prepare for this great work, Michelangelo executed a huge number of sketches and cartons, on which he depicted the figures of sitters in various poses.
These regal, powerful images prove the artist's masterful understanding of human anatomy and movement, which gave rise to a new direction in Western European art.
Having made the cartons for the ceiling painting, he intended to entrust its production to others, and for this purpose he called several of his former comrades and friends from Florence, but soon, finding their cooperation useless, he sent them back and set to work alone, without any outside help.
He had to apply paint to the prepared parts of the ceiling before the plaster dried.
He couldnot even check the angles of what he typed from below and calculated them while on the scaffolding.
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