Michelangelo attempted to destroy the sculpture, betray-
ing the spiritual anxiety which found ardent expression in
the late Crucifixion drawings and poems. (In the mid-
1550s Michelangelo wrote, “No brush, no chisel will quiet
the soul, once it is turned to the divine love of Him who,
on the cross, outstretched His arms to take us to Him-
self.”) Work on a third Pietà (1555–64; Castello Sforzesco,
Milan) continued to a week before his death. Michelan-
gelo died in Rome, but his body was transported to Flo-
rence for burial, with a solemn funeral in his parish
church of Sta. Croce. His tomb in that church is by Vasari.
Vasari included an account of Michelangelo in his Vite
(1550), and the highly sympathetic Vita di Michelagnolo
Buonarroti was published three years later by Michelan-
gelo’s pupil Ascanio Condivi (1525–74). A modern trans-
lation of the latter into English is by Alice S. Wohl: The
Life of Michelangelo (1976). James M. Saslow’s The Poetry
of Michelangelo: An Annotated Translation (1991) contains
the Italian text with an English translation and commen-
tary. Peter Porter translated the poems in George Bull’s se-
lection of Michelangelo’s writings in the Oxford World’s
Classics series, Michelangelo: Life, Letters, and Poetry
(1999).
Further reading: James S. Ackerman, The Architecture
of Michelangelo (Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press,
repr. 1986); Francis Ames-Lewis and Paul Joannides
(eds), Reactions to the Master: Michelangelo’s Effect on Art
and Artists in the Sixteenth Century (Aldershot, U.K.: Ash-
gate, 2003); Luciano Berti, The Complete Works of
Michelangelo (New York: Reynal, 1964); Anton Gill, Il Gi-
gante: Michelangelo, Florence, and the David 1492–1504
(New York: Thomas Dunne, 2003); Ross King, Michelan-
gelo and the Pope’s Ceiling (New York: Random House,
2003).
Michelozzo di Bartolommeo (1396–1472) Italian
sculptor and architect
Born in Florence and first documented (c. 1420) as assist-
ing GHIBERTI, Michelozzo subsequently established a
workshop with DONATELLO with whom he executed a
number of important tombs, such as that of the antipope
John XXII (died 1419) in the baptistery in Florence, as
well as the pulpit (began 1428) in the Duomo at Prato. In
1420 he designed San Francesco al Bosco at Caffagiuolo,
near Florence, and became increasingly involved in archi-
tectural projects. His pragmatic approach to design, in-
volving the marrying of Gothic forms with a free use of
antique motifs, endeared him to Cosimo de’ MEDICIfor
whom he built a number of palazzi and villas. The Palazzo
Medici-Riccardi, begun in 1444, with its heavy classical
cornice and symmetrically aligned courtyard, was hailed
by Flavio BIONDOas being “comparable to the work of the
Roman emperors” and established the prototype for Tus-
can palace architecture.
Michelozzo’s work from 1437 in the cloisters and li-
brary of San Marco, Florence, displays a new formal vo-
cabulary in the use of plain Ionic capitals and columns on
pedestals. However, his centrally planned choir in SS. An-
nunziata (c. 1444; Florence), based on the design of the
temple of Minerva Medica, Rome, sparked controversy in
its disregard for the liturgical requirement to separate
clergy and laity. Through his work on the Medici bank in
Milan (1462) Michelozzo was responsible for the intro-
duction of Florentine Renaissance architecture to Lom-
bardy.microscopes Early, though obscure, references to magni-
fying glasses can be found in the 12th-century writings of
Roger Bacon. One of the first Renaissance works to deal
specifically with the theory of lenses was the posthu-
mously published Photismi (1611) of Francesco Maurolico
(1494–1575) (see also OPTICS). The first work, however, to
describe an optical instrument constructed with “glasses
concave and convex of circular and parabolical formes”
was the 1571 edition of Leonard DIGGES’s Pantometria. The
first compound microscope was constructed by Zacharias
Janssen. (There were other Dutch claimants to the inven-
tion, including Cornelis DREBBEL, and GALILEOseems to
have been an early user, if not maker, before 1610.) Its first
published scientific use is for the series of drawings of the
honeybee included in Francesco Stelluti’s Descrizzione del-
l’ape (1625).Milan A powerful northern Italian city state in the basin
of the River Po in Lombardy. First Gallic and then Roman,
Milan was devastated by Attila the Hun and the Goths, but
survived to become an independent commune (1045).
Under VISCONTIand SFORZArule in the 14th and 15th cen-
turies Milan reached the peak of its political power and
cultural splendor, at times threatening to take over most
of northern Italy. The Visconti ruled from 1311 until the
extinction of their male line in 1447. Following the short
interlude of the AMBROSIAN REPUBLIC (1447–50), the
Sforza family ruled (1450–99) with great magnificence
until they were displaced by the French during the Wars
of ITALY. In the early 16th century the Sforza were twice re-
stored to Milan, but in 1535 the city fell to CHARLES V, who
invested his son Philip (later PHILIP IIof Spain) with the
duchy of Milan in 1540. Thereafter Milan continued
under Spanish rule until passing to Austria in 1713.
Visconti and Sforza splendor were supported by
sound administrative measures and a thriving economy.
By 1500 Milan’s population was probably close to
100,000. The city prospered through trade, textiles, and
metalwork; it was famous for the quality of its weapons
and armor (see MISSAGLIA FAMILY). Canals for irrigation
and communication were built and agriculture was en-
couraged, particularly the cultivation of rice from 1475.MMiillaann 331177