Michelangelo

5 Pages 1176 Words

Michelangelo Buonarroti was born the second of five brothers on March, 6,1475 in a small village called Caprese, in Tuscany. Buonarroti's mother, Francesca Neri, was too sick and frail to nurse Michelangelo, so he was placed with a wet nurse, in a family of stone cutters, where he, "sucked in the craft of hammer and chisel with my foster mother's milk. When I told my father that I wish to be an artist, he flew into a rage, 'artists are laborers, no better than shoemakers." Michelangelo’s mother died when he was only six years old, and his father, recognizing his intelligence sent him off to a boarding school. As a child, Michelangelo was moody, secretive, distrusted people, and was quick to burst into fits of anger.
His father was a minor official of Florence, with connections to the ruling Medici family. When Michelangelo turned 13-years old agreed to apprentice in the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio shocking and enraging his father. After about one year of learning the art of fresco, Michelangelo went on to study at the sculpture school in the Medici gardens and shortly thereafter was invited into the household of Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent. During the years he spent in the Garden of San Marco, Michelangelo began to study human anatomy. In exchange for permission to study corpses, something forbidden by the church, those who gave him permission received a wooden crucifix, carved exquisitely with Christ’s face. His contact with the dead bodies caused some health problems in him, which led to constant interruptions of his studies. By the time he was sixteen, Michelangelo had sculpted both the Battle of the Centaurs, and the Madonna of the Stairs.
After the death of Lorenzo de’ Medici, Michelangelo’s generous patron and the father figure in his life, Florence was divided as many political parties fought for command. Michelangelo moved to Rome where he was able to examine many newly unearthed classical st...