Michelangeo - Renaissance Man

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thirteen, his father was a minor Florentine official with connections to the Medici family. At this time his father reluctantly agreed to apprentice him to the city's most prominent painters, the Ghirlandajo brothers (Compton's, 1998). Unsatisfied, because the brothers refused to teach him their art secrets, he played hooky and discovered the gardens of the Monastery of San Marco. Lorenzo the Magnificent, head of the Medici family had brought many ancient Greek and Roman statues to these gardens. These works and those commissioned, were intended to bring glory to the family name and make political statements.
Without his father's knowledge or permission, Michelangelo went to work under Bertoldo, the curator of the gardens and a talented sculptor. Lorenzo saw a marble faun's head carved by Michelangelo, and liked it so much that he invited Michelangelo to live with him in his palace. Lorenzo surrounded himself with poets and intellectuals. Living in the Medici household, ...

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of the Virgin Mary supporting the dead Christ on her knees. The patron was a French cardinal and the theme was borrowed from northern European art. The problem for Michelangelo, was to extract two figures from on marble block. This sculpture won him wide fame. He underlined the many contrasts present, of male and female, vertical and horizontal, clothed and naked, dead and alive, to clarify the tow figures.
The artist's prominence, established by the "Pieta" was reinforced at once. After several years of political confusion, in 1501 a republic was once again proclaimed in Florence. Twelve days after the proclamation of the republic, the Wool Guild, commissioned Michelangelo to ...

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