michelangelo di lodovico buonarroti simoni was born in 1475. in 1488 he was apprenticed to the florentine painter domenico ghirlandaio; the next year ghirlandaio sent him and francesco granacci to lorenzo de' medici, who had asked for his two best pupils, and in the medici household michelangelo carved the battle of the centaurs on a theme suggested by angelo poliziano. lorenzo died in 1492 and the artist left the court.
michelangelo reached rome in june 1496. his over-life-size bacchus went to the banker jacopo galli; in november 1497 the french ambassador cardinal jean de bilhères commissioned a pieta, contracted in august 1498 and finished when the artist was 24. it stands in st peter's and carries the only signature he is known to have placed on a work.
back in florence, the consuls of the guild of wool asked him to finish a colossal david that agostino di duccio had begun 40 years earlier for the cathedral. carved 1501-04 from that block, the 5.17-metre statue was unveiled in the piazza della signoria on 8 september 1504 and moved to the galleria dell'accademia in 1873.
julius ii summoned him to rome in 1505 for a tomb of forty statues to be finished in five years; it was never completed, and its moses was ready only in 1516. the ceiling of the sistine chapel was contracted by julius on 8 may 1508 for 3,000 ducats and painted 1508-12: nine scenes from genesis and more than 300 figures over some 500 square metres.
for the medici popes he built the new sacristy at san lorenzo, with the tombs of giuliano and lorenzo de' medici and the figures of night and day, dusk and dawn; clement vii commissioned the laurentian library in 1524, though it opened only in 1571. clement commissioned the last judgment for the altar wall in 1534 and paul iii saw it finished in 1541; the pauline chapel frescoes followed in 1550.
in 1546, aged 71, michelangelo succeeded antonio da sangallo the younger as architect of st peter's basilica and redesigned the dome, completed after his death. his bank accounts and property deeds recorded about 50,000 gold ducats. ascanio condivi's life appeared in 1553, giorgio vasari's in 1550 and again in 1568. michelangelo died on 18 february 1564.
related profiles; Friedrich Nietzsche, Carl Jung, The Golden Age of Hollywood
sources; wikipedia: Michelangelo, wikipedia: Sistine Chapel ceiling, wikipedia: David, wikipedia: Sagrestia Nuova, wikipedia: Laurentian Library, wikipedia: St. Peter's Basilica
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