elangelo studied classical statues to create
his first works,Sleeping Cupid, The Ma-
donna of the Stairs, andBattle of the Lap-
iths and Centaurs.
In 1492 Lorenzo died and several fac-
tions began a violent struggle for control
of Florence. The weakened state was de-
feated by the French army under Charles
VIII. Girolamo Savonarola’s campaign to
rid the city of art and frivolity goaded
Michelangelo into leaving Florence for
Rome, where he made an intense study of
classical ruins and created the sculpture
Bacchus, a commission from a wealthy
banker who next commissioned a Pietà, a
sculpture of the Virgin Mary holding the
body of a crucified Christ. This work, com-
pleted in 1498, still stands in the original
place intended for it in Rome’s Saint
Peter’s Basilica. After overhearing a by-
stander remark that the Pietà was the work
of Christoforo Solari, a rival artist, Mich-
elangelo flew into a rage and carved his
name into the sash running across the fig-
ure of Mary, making the Pietà the only
work of art that he signed. The Pietà, a
vivid evocation in marble of death and
resignation, displays both great strength
and tender sadness.
After the overthrow of Savonarola and
the proclamation of the Florentine repub-
lic, Michelangelo returned to what he al-
ways considered his home town. The city’s
Wool Guild, responsible for decorating and
furnishing the Florence cathedral, com-
missioned a stone statue of David, which
Michelangelo began in 1501. Over a pe-
riod of three years, the statue emerged
from a block of marble 19 feet (5.8m)
long. The finished work stood 14 feet
(4.2m) in height; the figure of David rep-
resents Florence itself, strong in youthful
vigor and spirit and ready to defy any and
all tyrants and foreigners seeking to chal-
lenge it. At Michelangelo’s insistence, the
sculpture was carefully moved to the large
square in front of the Palazzo Vecchio, the
town hall of Florence; later the statue was
moved to the gallery of the Accademia,
and replaced with a copy.
By the time of the completion of
David, Michelangelo’s reputation as an art-
ist of genius had spread throughout Italy.
In 1505 Pope Julius II invited Michelan-
gelo and many other important artists to
glorify the city of Rome and the papacy
with original works of arts. From Mich-
elangelo he commissioned sculptures for
his own tomb, which was intended to dis-
play several dozen life-size statues.
Michelangelo’s painstaking work in the
marble quarries of Carrara ended in a dis-
pute with the pope over the costs of the
project, and the artists fled Rome in dis-
gust in 1506. Julius and Michelangelo soon
reconciled, however, and the artist was
then asked to suspend work on the tombIn “La Pieta`,” Michelangelo shows the Vir-
gin Mary mourning as she holds the body of
Christ in her arms.
Michelangelo Buonarroti