Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)

"I saw the angel in the marble and I carved until I set him free“

Michelangelo

Michelangelo, Pieta, c. 1500, St. Peter’s, Vatican

Michelangelo, David, 1501-1504, Florence

What is this?

Michelangelo was creating sculptures for Julius II’s memorial when the Pope told him to design and paint the Sistine Chapel Ceiling.Since he so strongly believed he was a sculptor and not a painter he despised the project from the beginning writing to a friend he whined,

“This miserable job has given me a goiter…The force of it has jammed my belly up beneath my chin. Beard to the sky…Brush splatterings make a pavement of my face…I’m not a painter.”

And then he painted the most exceptional, admired, and powerful style of the High Renaissance.

Michelangelo, Creation of Adam, Sistine Chapel Ceiling, 1511-1512, before and after the cleaning

Michelangelo, The Fall of Man, Sistine Chapel, 1508-1512

Layout of the Sistine Chapel Biblical Stories from the Old and New Testament

Michelangelo, The Last Judgment, Sistine Chapel, 1536-1541

Michelangelo, Moses, San Pietro in Vincoli 1513-1515

Michelangelo,Slaves, 1519-1536,

Michelangelo, Tomb of Giuliano Medici, New Sacristy , church of San Lorenzo, Florence, 1519-1534