1. Michelangelo
Buonarroti
• In the face of
Nicodemus, it is
said that
Michelangelo
carved his own
likeness.

2. Pieta del Duomo
• This Pieta was
left unfinished by
Michelangelo, as
there was some
problems with the
stone.

3. 1. Michelangelo, the second
of five brothers, was born
in Florence in 1475.
When I told my father that I wished to
be an artist, he flew into a rage,
'artists are laborers, no better than
shoemakers."

4. 2. He created his first
sculpture at age 5.
3. Became a painter’s
apprentice at age 13.
When Michelangelo
was 18, Lorenzo de
Medici became his
patron.

5. When Michelangelo turned
13-years old he shocked and “Old man and young boy”
enraged his father when by Ghirlandaio
told that he had agreed to
apprentice in the workshop
of the painter Domenico
Ghirlandaio. After about
one year of learning the art
of fresco, Michelangelo
went on to study at the
sculpture school in the
Medici gardens and shortly
thereafter was invited into
the household of Lorenzo de
Medici, the Magnificent.

6. Fresco, in Italian, literally
means "fresh," but in the
world of art it specifically
refers to "fresh or wet
plaster.
In fresco, the binding material is
lime which is quarried in the form
of limestone, burned, and then
mixed with water to turn the lime
into plaster. This lime-water
mixture becomes calcium
hydroxide plaster which during its
drying process has color-binding
properties.

7. 4. Michelangelo
thought of
himself as a
sculptor more
than anything
else.

8. “the David”
• 1. Statue is over 16 feet tall.
• 2. Carved from an oddly
shaped block of marble,
called “the Giant”.
• 3. Statue was a gift from the
Medici to the city of
Florence.

10. Michelangelo wrote in his diaries: "When I
returned to Florence, I found myself famous.
The City Council asked me to carve a
colossal David from a nineteen-foot block of
marble -- and damaged to boot! I locked
myself away in a workshop behind the
cathedral, hammered and chiseled at the
towering block for three long years. In spite
of the opposition, I insisted that the figure
should stand before the Palazzo Vecchio, as a
symbol of our Republic. I had my way.
Archways were torn down, narrow streets
widened...it took forty men five days to move
it. Once in place, all Florence was
astounded. A civic hero, he was a
warning...whoever governed Florence
should govern justly and defend it bravely.
Eyes watchful...the neck of a bull...hands of a

11. • 1. “The Pieta” - a
statue of Mary and the
body of Christ.
• 2. Located in Rome at
St. Peter’s.
• 3. Carved at age 25.

12. Just days after it was placed in
Saint Peter's, Michelangelo
overheard someone remark that
the work was done by
Christoforo Solari, an artist
from Lombard. That night, in a
fit of rage, Michelangelo took
hammer and chisel and placed
the following inscription on the
sash running across Mary's
breast: MICHEL ANGELUS
BONAROTUS FLORENT
FACIBAT (Michelangelo
Buonarroti, Florentine, made
this). This is the only work that
Michelangelo ever signed.
Michelangelo later regretted his
passionate outburst of pride

13. • “the Pieta” is the
only statue that
Michelangelo
ever signed.

14. Moses
1. Made in Rome for
the tomb of Pope
Julius II.

15. Q: Why does Moses have
horns on his head?
A: Michelangelo's
"Moses" has horns
because one of the biblical
translations of "rays of
light" became "horns" in
Italian. Because of this
mistranslation, depictions
of Moses with horns
became somewhat
commonplace.

16. 2. “Horns” represent
the rays of light
from God.

17. Sistine Chapel

19. "as a result of having painted for so long a
time, keeping his eyes fixed on the ceiling, he
saw little when he looked down; if he had to
read a letter or some other small thing, he
was obliged to hold it above his head."
"After four tortured years, more than
400 over life-sized figures, I felt as old
and as weary as Jeremiah. I was only
37, yet friends did not recognize the old
man I had become."

20. “The Last Judgement”
• 1. Back wall of
Sistine Chapel,
took 6 years to
paint.
• 2. 48 feet high, 48
feet wide, with
200 figures.

21. • 3. Shows a powerful, beardless Christ.
The Last Judgment, was the largest
fresco of the Renaissance. Christ,
with a clap of thunder, puts into
motion the inevitable separation,
with the saved ascending on the left
side of the painting and the
damned descending on the right
into hell. As was his custom,
Michelangelo portrayed all the
figures nude, but prudish draperies
were added by another artist (who
was dubbed the "breeches-maker")
a decade later, as the cultural
climate became more conservative.
Michelangelo painted his own
image in the flayed skin of St.
Bartholomew.

22. He is one of the greatest artists of all time, a
man whose name has become synonymous
with the word "masterpiece": Michelangelo
Buonarroti.
Unlike many artists of his time, his genius
was recognized, but at what cost to his
personal life?