When they say that
Michelangelo - a genius, not only to express judging his art, but also give him a historical assessment. Genius, the imagination of people in the XVI century, is a some kind of supernatural force, to influence the human soul, that the romantic era will be called "inspiration".
Divine inspiration requires solitude and reflection. In the history of art by
Michelangelo - the first artist single, leading almost continuous struggle with the world, in which he feels strange and unsettled.
. On Monday, March 6, 1475 in the small town of Caprese in podesta (Town Ruler) Chiusi and Caprese born male child
. In the family book of the ancient kind
Buonarroti in Florence kept a detailed record of the event a happy father, sealed with his signature - Lionardo di di di Lodovico
Buonarroti Simoni.
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. My father gave his son to school Francesca da Urbino in Florence
. The boy had to learn decline and conjugate Latin words in this first compiler of the Latin grammar. But the correct way fit for mortals, not combined with what pointed instinct immortal
Michelangelo. He was very inquisitive by nature, but his Latin oppressed.
Teaching went from bad to worse. Sorry father put it laziness and negligence, not believing, of course, in calling his son. He hoped that the young man made a brilliant career, wanted to see him sometime in senior civilian positions.
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. But, . eventually, . father put up with artistic inclinations, and one son, . taking pen, . wrote: "One thousand four hundred and eighty-eight, . April 1-st day, . i, . Ludovic, . son Lionardo di
Buonarroti, . put his son
Michelangelo to Domenico and David Ghirlandaio for three years from this day on the following conditions: Said
Michelangelo remains from the teachers in these three years, . as student, . for exercises in painting, . and should, . besides, . perform all, . that his bosses ordered him, in reward for his services to Domenico and David paid him the sum of 24 florins: six in the first year, . eight in the second and third decade, only 86 livres.,
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. In the workshop Ghirlandaio, he did not stay long, because the wanted to become a sculptor, and moved to the disciples came to Bertoldo, a follower of Donatello, who headed the art school in the gardens of the Medici in Piazza San Marco
. He was immediately noticed by Lorenzo the Magnificent, provided him with protection, and who introduced him to his Neoplatonic circle of philosophers and writers. Already in 1490 began to talk about the exceptional talent still very young
Michelangelo Buonarroti. In 1494, with the approach of the troops of Charles VIII, he left Florence and returned to bear in 1495. In twenty-one years of
Michelangelo goes to Rome and then in 1501 again returned to his native city.
Fundamentals of Culture
Michelangelo were Neoplatonic character of. Neoplatonic and remained until the end of the ideological nature of its activities and controversial religious life. Although studies have Ghirlandaio and Bertoldo,
Michelangelo can be considered self-taught. Art Neoplatonic he perceived as a frenzy of soul. But the source of inspiration for him, unlike Leonardo's, served not nature, and culture as the history of human spirituality, the struggle for the salvation of the soul. He studied classical art, and some of his creations take even for ancient, that is proof of his desire not only to the interpretation of historical reality as to master it in order to further overcome.
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. As a sculptor, painter, architect and poet
Michelangelo's lifelong striving for synthesis, the arts, which would carry out a clean design, the idea
. For the first time the art is identified with the existence of the artist: like life, is constantly renewed experience that can be settled only with its end, with the death. So the idea of death through all the creativity of the artist. The feeling of incompleteness, anxiety caused by this, and had its immediate cause: the creation, in which the artist wanted to express myself to, - the tomb of Pope Julius II - was never completed.
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. It was Julius II summoned
Michelangelo in 1505 from Florence
. Giving to the genius of complete freedom and not trusting his successors, the Pope decided to create life in a decent tomb.
Michelangelo thought of it as a classic "monument" of Christianity, as a synthesis of architecture and sculpture, as an amalgam of the ancient "heroism" and Christian "spirituality" as an expression of secular authority and sublimation of the soul, turned to God. At the same time she was supposed to be a complete historical cycle that began saint Peter the Roman Empire, and the authority to approve "the spiritual empire" in the face of the power of the papacy of Julius II. Dad was delighted with this project, but for various reasons all the time postponed the implementation. After the death of Pope began the difficult negotiations with his heirs. The project has changed several times and fully processed, until utterly exhausted artist, employed in his declining years other orders, did not agree to a smaller version of the tomb, as set out in the church of San Pietro Institute Vinkoli. In the center bore Added statue of Moses, which the artist conceived and largely implemented long before one of the first options for the tomb of St. Peter.
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Michelangelo agreed reluctantly given to him in 1508 by Julius II to paint the request of the Sistine Chapel
. He changed the program at first ascribed to it, which differed ns a thematic complexity and abundance of figures, as the exercise of painting. For the first time a theological program belongs to the artist himself, first in painting, architecture plays a role not only frame, and part of the whole painting, which has its own value. For the first time all the visual elements coalesce into a coherent whole, dictated by the synthesis of architecture, painting and sculpture.
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. Mikslandzhelo set to form the architectural structure of the chapel, . but instead, . to develop it from the bottom up through a system of illusory pillars, . it imposes se top, . thus making the set, . sky in the dominant architectural space,
. The sky here - not an infinite space beyond the earth horizon, and the semantic space, ideal genesis of ideas and the historical beginning.
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. Election paloy in 1513 Leo X of the Medici family contributed to the resumption of
Michelangelo connection with his native city
. In 1516, the new pope entrusted him to draft a facade of the church of San Lorenzo, built by Brunelleschi. This was his first architectural order. The artist received him with enthusiasm. He writes that his future creation "for its architecture and sculpture will be a mirror of the whole of Italy". So, the artist was going to create something similar to the tomb of Julius II, to combine sculpture and architecture, with the only difference that this architecture was to belong to the dominant place. He planned a double-deck facade plastic engineered to work as a plane in which the sculpture should be "incorporated" in the deep niches. But the contract was terminated, and
Michelangelo commissioned to develop a project for the New Sacristy Church of San Lorenzo, where going to put the tomb of Lorenzo and Giuliano de 'Medici. And again the main theme is death, the tomb, and the main task - the connection of architecture and sculpture. For the tomb of Julius II by
Michelangelo took a sample of the monuments of antiquity, intending to build a monumental mausoleum in the form of a strong plastic, included in a large architectural space. Here he outlines the opposite solution: an architectural space is not filled, and the sculpture "incorporated" into the wall.
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. Like Brunelleschi, he conceives the sacristy in the form of an empty cubic space defined prospectively built structure, projected onto the wall and traced the dark pilasters, cornices and arches, placed on the white walls
. Cubic space, illuminated by soft light from the windows of the dome and skylight, is intended by
Michelangelo, symbol of the other world, the final liberation of the spirit from the power of matter.
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. The meaning and significance mikelandzhelovskoy songs composed in the confrontation between the two realities - the nature and spirit
. Figure arches, clearly proportional to the location of cornices and pilasters perfectly express the intention of the artist: pure form must have the strength to resist the pressure of empirical reality, the nature. Therefore, the geometric partitioning walls acquire plastic relief, structural ligaments are connected to each other, forming a solid frame. On the walls of intellectual truth and the natural essence as to collide with each other as two opposing forces which take a moment balance. Restricted dark pilasters, arches and cornices white marble surface of the walls are filled with light. That light is the dominant motive for the Neo-Platonic space - is primarily light.
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. The fact that the walls symbolize the boundary between the earthly and the other world, is also confirmed by four statues placed on the sarcophagus: "Day", "Night", "Morning", "Evening"
. These are images of time.
With the implementation of this plan
Michelangelo finally departs from his ideal of "monument" that is the main motive of his cult of antiquity. Reading Room and lobby Laurentian Library served as a starting point for architecture mannerism, that is, such an architecture, which has not sought to imitate or repeat the structure of the universe or the creation of a "rational" way of nature. Reading library - this is long and narrow space between the white walls on which the pilasters and cornices of dark stone form a strong framework, which includes windows and. The walls speak here not so much as a constraint, as in the role of the boundary between the external, natural space and the inner world dedicated to research and reflection. In this room you get a strict stretched through the lobby, where part of the space occupied by the staircase, and frame walls reinforced double columns, stretching deep into the body wall.
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. At the base of this structure to an extremely high plinth, the columns do not have a bearing, but curls consoles
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Michelangelo clearly shows that the interaction of forces is not the top down, but from the outside inwards. This is indicated by the white wall, projecting between the columns, as if under the pressure of external forces, and false windows. The dominant motif is ns balance and control of external forces. The transition from the lobby to the room is carried out through the plastic mass of stairs, breaking into a building lobby, like lava flows or sea waves. It keeps the balustrade, which plays the role of the channel through which rush down the stairs like a full-flowing stream.
The fall of the Florentine Republic marked the most troubling period in the life of
Michelangelo. Despite its strong republican beliefs, not
Michelangelo stood anxiety before upcoming events: he fled to Ferrara and Venice (1529), I take refuge in France. Florence announced his rebels and deserters, but later forgiven and invited back. Hiding and experiencing great pain, he witnessed the fall of his native city, and only later timidly asked the Pope, who in 1534 commissioned him to finish painting the Sistine Chapel. This is a huge fresco on the altar wall.
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. In 1534
Michelangelo returned to Rome and two years later began creating his famous works - paintings "Doomsday", finished them in 1541.
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. After graduating from the Last Judgment,
Michelangelo reached the pinnacle of fame among his contemporaries
. He forgot to bare my head before the pope, and Pope, in his own words, did not notice this. Pope and the kings were placed him next to him.
In recent years,
Michelangelo develop intensive architectural activity. He engaged in the project plan, the central church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, which was to be a monument to his "Florentine country and compete with the other side of the Tiber River to the Cathedral of Saint Peter and Saint Angel Castle. He sketched a plan Sforza Chapel in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, . builds Porta Pia, . gives perspective-monumental view of the Capitol Square - the ideal center of this holy city, . takes and re-solve the question of restructuring the Cathedral of St. Peter,
. The last two - its main business in the field of architecture - largely address issues of urban development, a new and profound interpretation of historical and religious significance of Rome.
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. Towering above the ruins of the ancient Roman Forum and side by side with the medieval church of Santa Maria degli Aracheli, . Capitoline Square built on the principle of reverse perspective, . predefined order, . that the axis of the lateral palazzo some expenditure towards,
. Palazzo same, . occupies third party, . thus receive frame, . which seems to brings it forward and emphasizes space filling, . remains open from the entrance, . framed by a low line of balustrade, . suspended at the center stairway,
. Inevitably begs comparison with the Laurentian Library - promising constructing space plastically formed its side walls. Here the role played by the facades of Palazzo dei Conservatori Capitoline museums and buildings - these two powerful tectonic frameworks, based on the structure of which was the single tier of pilasters and two horizontal cornice. Below are a deep casing gallery, separated from the upper tier architrave, above - the protruding window frames. This contrast is achieved between the pressure coming from within and provides a kind of "coupling" between the mass of the building and the space area, and the constant "breakthrough" of the space inside the facade. The artist achieves the unity of space and tectonics by exploring the expressive plastic facades and concentric patterns of colored travertine tiles on the square in the center where
Michelangelo found the antique statue of Marcus Aurelius.
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. Working on the construction of St. Peter, .
Michelangelo accesses centric songs, . designed by Bramante, . but seeks to combine all parts of the building in a single plastic body, . in which the architectonic mass as it dematerialized and ends with a huge dome, . which gathers together and completes the entire building,
. What is the significance for the artist is the last colossal undertaking, can be seen. From his letters: he is constantly afraid of failure, but does not finish building it is shameful and humiliating.
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Michelangelo sought to create a dome that could hide under it all the Christian nations
. Voznosimy up the side apses, as it were "pillars" around the dome rests on a drum with large windows framed by paired, strongly protruding columns. Above the drum rises the dome, which serves as both an expression of gravity of the masses and yet its spirituality, wind up, emphasized by the ribs.
Creative inspiration from
Michelangelo's greatest expression in the establishment of the dome. This is a catharsis of the drama never brought to the end of creation - the tomb of Julius II. It rises upward in the same spot where buried, according to legend, the apostle Peter. This is the ideal center of the building, a symbolic monument of the universal idea of Christianity. From the mass of figures, who sought to free themselves from the oppressive load of matter, there remained only the impulse to give sky-high: for "a prologue to the ground" in the form of the apostolic tombs should be "an epilogue in heaven" in the form of a dome.
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. In the life of
Michelangelo knew a gentle caress and participation, and this is reflected in his character
. There was a moment in his youth, when he dreamed of personal happiness and poured out his desire to sonnets, but soon he szhilsya with the idea that it was he was not destined. Then the great artist absorbed in an ideal world, in art, which became his sole mistress. Art jealous - he says - and requires the whole man ". "I have a wife, all of which belong to, and my children - it is my work". Great wit and innate tact was to have the woman who would understand
Michelangelo.
He met a woman, but too late. He was then already sixty years. It was Vittoria Colonna. She came from an ancient and powerful Roman gens. Vittoria became a widow at thirty-five years old when her beloved husband, the Marquis of Pescara died from wounds received in battle at Pavy. For ten years prior to the meeting with
Michelangelo she mourned his loss and suffering were the result of these poems, the poet creates a glory. She is deeply interested in science, philosophy, questions of religion, politics and public life. In her salon were lively and interesting conversations about current events, ethical issues and problems of art. In her house were met by
Michelangelo as a royal guest. He embarrassed rendered him honor, was just a humble, lost all his seeming arrogance and willingly talked with guests on various topics. Only here the artist freely exercised his mind and expertise in literature and art.
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. His love for Vittoria was purely platonic, still less that she, in fact, had for him a deep friendship, respect and sympathy, having exhausted his love for the deceased wife of the whole fervor of female passion.
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. Friendship Vittoria Colonna
Michelangelo's heart was filled with radiant light
. With youthful freshness, he expressed at that time his feelings in sonnets. In poetry, he does not reach the heights, as in other arts, but still right were those who called him "a man of four souls."
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. Friendship Vittoria Colonna softened his heart softened and heavy loss - first loss of his father, then brothers, of whom one remained Lionard, with
Michelangelo maintain cordial relationship until his death
. In all the actions and words, always homogeneous, consistent, clear, visible in
Michelangelo rigorous thinker and a man of honor and justice, as in his works.
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. Dying,
Michelangelo left a short testament, as in life, he did not like the verbiage
. "I commend his soul to God, the body of the land, the property of the native" - dictated it to friends.
Michelangelo died on February 18, 1564. His body was buried in the church of Santa Croce in Florence.
Florence period of the republic.
Returning to Florence.
