Vita di Michelangelo

After his family had settled in Caprese, Michelangelo was sent to nurse in Settignano by the wife of a stonemason. At school in Florence he was fascinated by the masterpieces of Brunelleschi and Giotto and fought against his father to devote himself to art. At the court of Lorenzo de'Medici, where he was called, Michelangelo was able to be followed by the best masters. After the death of Lorenzo de 'Medici he spent a period in Rome and returned to Florence in 1501: he then sculpted one of his masterpieces, the David, made from a single block of marble.

Michelangelo would like to sculpt the funeral monument of Julius II, but the pontiff commissioned him to paint the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo escaped to Florence and Bologna, in the tent of his armed opponent, finally allowing him to take on the enterprise. Dramatic events follow one another, such as the death of Julius II, the descent of Charles V, the siege of the Lanzichenecchi. Michelangelo, although devoted to the Medici, puts himself at the service of the Republic. Having laid down his arms after the pardon of Clement VII, he places his hands on the sculpture.

In 1534 Michelangelo definitively abandoned Florence to move to Rome, where the new Pope Paul III confirmed him the assignment for the Last Judgment, which aroused heated controversy in the clerical sphere. For the Marquise of Pescara Vittoria Colonna Michelangelo painted a Crucifixion: the Marquise had introduced the artist into a cultural circle frequented by personalities of the time who advocated a reform of the Catholic Church. After the completion of the work on the tomb of Julius II, Michelangelo gradually abandoned painting and sculpture to devote himself to architecture, with projects for San Pietro, Palazzo Farnese, the Church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini.