Perhaps no one embodied the idea of the creative Renaissance genius better than Michelangelo. And a genius he truly was........so much so, that he filled his rivals with envy and (to some extent) hate. You see, Michelangelo was not what you would call a modest figure. Not only did he fully recognize his own unequaled talent and genius, but he made sure everyone else did also. (Hey.....if you're good, why not flaunt it, right?) Unfortunately, his conceit and arrogance cost him friendships and created difficult working conditions for himself.

More than anything else, Michelangelo considered himself a sculptor. He continuously repeated his assertion that he was, in fact, a sculptor, not minor, decorative craftsman like a painter or an illustrator. Not even the completion of the Sistine Chapel would change his desire to liberate the soul of mankind from the imprisoning marble in which it lay.

 I keep waiting for this story to become a major Hollywood movie because it contains all the drama, suspense and intrigue one would expect in a good flick. Here's the plot: Michelangelo, while working on what he loves most (sculpture), is summoned to The Vatican by Pope Julius II to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Little did he know that his arch rival, Bramante, persuaded the Pope to commission Michelangelo because of Bramante's fear that he (Michelangelo) would eventually weasel his way into the design and construction of the new St. Peter's Cathedral, something that Bramante did NOT want to share with anyone else. So Bramante came up with the perfect plan: have the Pope hire Michelangelo, who was self-admittedly not at all a fresco painter, to do the frescoes, which were a super long term project. Michelangelo would naturally screw up the ceiling because he wasn't a painter and because his own personality, would eventually sabotage the project anyway. Next, the Pope gets upset, kills Michelangelo, and then Raphael (a personal friend of Bramante) would step up to the plate and finish the frescoes off. What a plan!

The only problem is that Bramante's plan didn't work. Michelangelo, complaining every step of the way, finished the frescoes in four years, and did them so beautifully, so magnificently, that his reputation was greatly enhanced, both with the public and the Pope. Fifteen years later, Bramante dies, and Michelangelo starts (guess what?....) designing the dome and facade of the new St. Peters.

Oh, the irony of it all......

 

Pictured above is the Sistine Chapel as seen looking from the front altar. The frescoes on the side walls were done by earlier artists including Botticelli and Perugino. Pictured below, is the Sin and Expulsion panel from the ceiling. For a complete view of the Sistine Chapel ceiling (and a comparison of the frescoes before and after their major cleaning in the early 1990's, click on the expulsion image below:

 Commissioned as a symbol of the Florentine republic by civic leaders in 1501, Michelangelo's David, which stands almost 14 feet high (not including the base), was one of the first monumental sculptures of the Renaissance. It was first to sit on top of a buttress on the Florence Cathedral, but was later assigned to rest in front of the Palazzo Vechio. This decision was really a "no-brainer:"This monumental sculpture expresses a sense of determined fortitude (sort of like Pissano's Hercules). David was meant to illicit a sense of civic-patriotism, and therefore would best be seen in Florence's main square, and also, not coincidental, in front of the seat of Florentine government. Yet, what David really represents is the new humanism that takes root during the Renaissance. David is huge, almost superhuman.........but is still a man, an individual who accomplished the unthinkable. So in a sense, the sculpture is really a metaphor of the increased awareness of the accomplishments and the possibilities that surround mankind. Compare this David with Donatello's David and you'll get two entirely different intentions dealing with the same subject. (Go ahead......discuss that among yourselves for a moment.)

To view more of Michelangelo's sculptures, click on the images below:

 The Vestibule of the Laurentian Library (c. 1524), above and left, shocked the establishment at first because of its unorthodox use of columns set into the wall, and also being of no recognizable order. In fact, Michelangelo breaks all of Brunelleschi's and Bramante's architectural "rules" of logic and order. Rather, Michelangelo sees architecture as an "expressive" exercise.....not a pre-conceived, exercise subject of rules.

In the Tomb of Giuliano de' Medici (above, right), we see the use of pilasters as ornamental extras. Although the composition is orderly (not to mention the bold triangle that the figures make), there is no inscription, which leaves the viewer wondering what's going on. (The reclining figures on either side of the casket represent day and night.)

On the right, we see Michelangelo's design of the Dome of St. Peter's (1546) in Rome. Notice how the double columns around the drum of the dome are reflected in the colossal style pilasters that flank the facade of the cathedral.