Michelangelo

Michelangelo was a sculptor, painter and architect, widely considered even in his own time as one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance. He was born to a minor nobility in Florence, Italy. Though the family had lost its status by his time, it was considered a downward step for Michelangelo to become an artist. At the age of 13, then considered relatively late, he was apprenticed for three years to Domenico Ghirlandaio, a prominent painter in Florence. Yet, he left after just one year, having nothing more to learn!

In 1498, at the age of 23, Michelangelo was commissioned to sculpt the Pieta – the scene of Mary holding the dead body of Jesus just lowered from the cross. The challenge for Michelangelo was to extract two figures from one block of marble. He succeeded in drawing multiple contrasts between the two figures in this 69-inch masterpiece: female versus male, alive versus dead, clothed versus naked, Mary sitting up, vertical with Jesus lying horizontally across her lap.

David is another sculpture for which Michelangelo is well-known. He reused a block of marble left unfinished 40 years earlier to sculpt an energetic and powerful figure of the biblical David about to slay Goliath. David looks tense and ready for battle. His brow is drawn, his neck tense, and the veins bulge out of his lowered right hand. Although the striking 17-foot tall sculpture was originally intended for the buttress of a cathedral, the contemporary citizens of Florence decided to install it more prominently in front of their town hall.

One of the problems faced by sculptors during Michelangelo’s time was that no textbooks were available that could help them accurately depict human anatomical details. At that time, most anatomical knowledge was based on the study of pigs and dogs carried out by the ancient Greek scholar Galen of Pergamon. Moreover, the church objected to desecration of the human body. So, while sculptors could study live models for form, they were at a loss when it came to the placement of muscles, tendons and blood vessels.

In spite of the church’s objections, Michelangelo, as did other Renaissance masters, dissected corpses to learn about human anatomy. Michelangelo asked the leader of the monastery of Santo Spirito for permission to dissect the corpses of criminals awaiting burial. He dissected so many corpses in his lifetime that his assistant boasted that Michelangelo had taught himself more about human anatomy than anyone else. It is fair to say that the art world greatly benefited from what Michelangelo learned doing dissections.