Michelangelo Buonarroti, the sculptor

by Amal Hewavissenti

Designed through years of agonising effort his sculpture turns out to be one of the most astonishing creations in the history of art. He was possibly the most celebrated artist of his time and we are naturally compelled to view him as the greatest artist that ever lived, on the very moment we look upon the magnificent sculpture and the fresco of the Last Judgment in the Sistine chapel.

Michelangelo Buonarroti was unmistakably a priceless product of Renaissance - the ‘rebirth’ or the age of great discoveries in art, architecture and science that reached their peak in fifteenth and sixteenth century Italy.

A work of Michelangelo

We know that a renaissance in any age or country practically generated a great deal of knowledge and art solely for the direct spiritual and secular benefits of man. In this way renaissance in art was chiefly influential in transfiguring man's mind and physical surroundings into a wholesome world of thought and creativity. It infused calm and flexibility to human mind.

The Renaissance in Italy ascribed much prominence to sculpture and the greatest personality behind Italian sculpture was Michelangelo. Here Michelangelo's own imagination was enriched by the Florentine school of sculpture which marked its origin and ruination in Italy.

In the early days, he displayed no passable calibre of educational accomplishments because he had apparently detested the conventional education.

He totally rejected schooling with traditional methods of education and joined the art gallery owned by Ghirlamdio. Here Ghirlandio made Michelangelo an apprentice to Birtoldo who was instrumental in bringing about dramatic developments in his life, specially in creating a passion for sculpture.

Under Birtoldo's strict guidance and surveillance, Michelangelo successfully grasped the basics of sculpture specially the art of designing sculptures out of marble. Count Lorenzo who was a royal interested in art, was a regular visitor to the art gallery and was impressed one day by the statue of an old man being carved by Michelangelo.

This noticeably proved to be a dramatic turnaround in the life of young Michelangelo because Count Lorenzo invited him to live in his Medici palace and brought him up as his son. Young Michelangelo enjoyed a blissful spell among Florentine royalty in Medici palace and was treated well with the love and kindness from Count Lorenzo.

Plato Academy, an assembly of Florentine intellectuals and scholars in Medici Palace reshaped Michelangelo's incomplete education. These great men (also the close associates of Count Lorenzo) had earned the renown as the Europe's elite of scholars, became the teachers for Michelangelo within a short period of time.

Among them were Cristoforo Landino who had the authority of Dante's epic ‘Divine Comedy’ and Angelo Poliziano who was expert in Greek and Latin and was the translator of Homer's Illiad and Odyssey. Thus, Medici Palace, the intellectuals and the fatherly protection from Lorenzo became a complete university for Michelangelo.

His greatness

Michelangelo's immortal sculptures and the frescoes of Sistine Chapel in particular impress and inspire a whole world with the healing power of art. These works of art are ever respected as the artistic legacy of the world civilisation and their appeal and value are sure to remain undiminished under any circumstances.

He must have had bitter most memories in his untiring efforts to depict the Last Judgment, Origin of the World (Genesis) or the Creation of man - the paintings which register a finer rhythm in the art of renaissance paintings.

Michelangelo truly led a life of misery and suffering. Confronted with a serious economic deadlock, he walked on the streets like a miserable beggar and instructed his poor relations to make the most of what they got because he was not in a position to elevate their living conditions.

He was truly a great human being because he used all the money he had made by sculpture and painting to sustain the lives of his father, brothers and their offspring. Michelangelo's writings reveal that he did everything to strengthen and support the lives of his family members even though he himself was living a life of poverty and hunger. In a letter he wrote to his father, he said.

“I do live miserably yet I have little respect or heed for any title, status or privilege which should accompany the life of an artist.

I do not have a capacity to think about the needs of an ordinary man because I live amidst unspeakable difficulties which have surrounded me for the past fifteen years... My life is full to the brim with anxieties and uncertainties...”

A matchless sculptor

Almost all of Michelangelo's work as a sculptor chiefly concentrated on the rhythm of human figure and no artist before or since has matched his masterly touch in depicting the nude figures in complex poses.

For instance, the statue of David by Michelangelo is by far one of the superbly famous statues in the world.

The superiority of Michelangelo's sculpture is eloquently evidenced by the masterpieces such as Pietta, the statue of Moses exclusively carved for the mausoleum of the Pope Julius the II, the statue of David, and ‘Bacchus’ the statue of Dionesus.

He achieved mastery in sculpture by dissecting dead bodies and closely scrutinising the complex features of human figure.

He would enter the mortuary of Santo Spirito hospital and dissect dead bodies in candle light until the dawn. He had spent almost a year among dead bodies before he acquired the capacity to represent human figure in sculpture.

Michelangelo in the frailties of old age was well supported by the love and kindness from a royal lady named “Victoria Colonna” who created a certain form of rebirth in him. Yet her sudden death was a ‘living death’ for Michelangelo and left an irreversible emotional vacuum in him.

He recorded his painful impressions of the death of Victoria Colonna - “Paradise robbed now from me and that pleasant flame which lighted my life is now burning me to ashes... I'm now an ember under ashes. It will soon be a cold heap of coal....”

Michelangelo was again distressed by the death of his servant.

However, the agony of Victoria's death was sharp enough to bring his own death closer in time - that is, Michelangelo Buanarroti died exactly two months before William Shakespeare was born.

His death marked the final spark of Italian renaissance.