Lecture 22: The High Renaissance—Michelangelo

The High Renaissance—Michelangelo ..........................................

Lecture 22

Like Titian, [Michelangelo] lived into his late 80s, productive to the

end. But, in spite of Titian’s great inÀ uence on the art of his time and

later times, Michelangelo had a much more radical impact upon the art

of the 16th century. He did not simply reÀ ect the stylistic changes that

occurred during his lifetime, he decisively affected them.

M

ichelangelo Buonarotti (1475–1564) lived a long and productive

life, and for this reason, we will limit our focus to the most famous

masterpieces of the ¿ rst half of his career—the Pietà in St. Peter’s,

the David in Florence, and the Sistine Chapel ceiling in the Vatican. We will

contemplate the unusual composition of the Pietà, compare Michelangelo’s

David to Donatello’s, and spend some time exploring the magni¿ cent ¿ gures

and scenes of the Sistine Chapel frescoes.

By 1520, he was probably the most inÀ uential artist in Europe, and his later

work moved farther from the ideals of the Renaissance toward the pessimism

and angst characteristic of the middle decades of the 16th century in Italian art.

Michelangelo was born in the village of Caprese, 40 miles east of Florence.

He was apprenticed to Domenico Ghirlandaio, whose Florentine workshop

was among the busiest in the city. Later, Michelangelo was invited to live

and work in the Medici Palace, where Lorenzo de’Medici had established

an informal academy. His abilities were quickly demonstrated, and when he

was 23, he was commissioned by a French cardinal at the Vatican to design

and carve a marble sculpture for his tomb in St. Peter’s, the renowned Pietà.

The Pietà (c. 1498–1499) was moved from its original chapel when the new

St. Peter’s replaced the old basilica. The Pietà attracted attention and respect

from the beginning, partially because the subject had not been treated in

Italian sculpture before. The prototypes for this subject in sculpture are in

northern art, such as the wooden Gothic sculpture we saw in Lecture Five

(Pietà, German, c. 1300). Michelangelo’s sculpture belongs to the Italian

Renaissance. It is idealized and its grief is controlled, not expressionistic.

Still, the concept is northern, and it may have reached Michelangelo through