MMIICCHHEELLAANNGGEELLOO BO Michelangelo_ENG_P-OK(P-4)_24.11.11.qxp 12/26/2011 4:09 PM Page 2 Author: Eugene Müntz Translator: Arthur Borges Layout: Baseline Co. Ltd 61A-63A Vo Van Tan Street 4th Floor District 3, Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam © Confidential Concepts, worldwide, USA © Parkstone Press International, New York, USA IImmaaggee--BBaarr www.image-bar.com All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or adapted without the permission of the copyright holder, throughout the world. Unless otherwise specified, copyright on the works reproduced lies with the respective photographers, artists, heirs or estates. Despite intensive research, it has not always been possible to establish copyright ownership. Where this is the case, we would appreciate notification. ISBN: 978-1-78042-746-1 BO Michelangelo_ENG_P-OK(P-4)_24.11.11.qxp 12/26/2011 4:46 PM Page 3 Eugene Müntz Michelangelo BO Michelangelo_ENG_P-OK(P-4)_24.11.11.qxp 12/26/2011 4:46 PM Page 4 BO Michelangelo_ENG_P-OK(P-4)_24.11.11.qxp 12/26/2011 4:09 PM Page 5 Contents Introduction 7 The Sculptor 21 The Painter and the Draftsman 83 The Architect 161 Conclusion 189 Biography 192 Index 196 BO Michelangelo_ENG_P-OK(P-4)_24.11.11.qxp 12/26/2011 4:09 PM Page 6 BO Michelangelo_ENG_P-OK(P-4)_24.11.11.qxp 12/26/2011 4:09 PM Page 7 INTRODUCTION T he Brancacci Chapel and Uffizi Gallery in Florence amply illustrate the powerful influence on Michelangelo of his fellow masters. Cimabue’s Madonna and Child Enthroned with Eight Angels and Four Prophets and Giotto’s Ognissanti Madonna, bothat the Uffizi, as well as Masaccio’s Adam and Eve Expelled from Paradise at the Brancacci, all feed directly into one of the most talented and famous artists of Italy’s 16th century. Up until the 14th century, artists ranked among the lower-class manual labour workers. After many years of neglect, Florence began importing Greek painters to reinvigorate painting, which had become stuck in a Byzantine style that was stiff, repetitious, and top-heavy with gold. Born in Arezzo, Margaritone was one little-known 14th-century painter who broke away from the ‘Greek style’ that permeated painting and mosaics. Though a true pioneer, he is less remembered than Cimabue and Giotto. Also greatly influenced by Greek painting, Cimabue was a Florentine sculptor and painter who quickly injected brighter, more natural, and vivacious colours into his paintings. We are still a long way from Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, but painting was now moving in its direction. No later than the early 14th century, Giotto di Bondone had fully emancipated Florentine painting from the Byzantine tradition. A student of Cimabue, he redefined the painting of his era. Between the aforementioned works of Cimabue and Giotto, a new trend stands out in the rendering of the Virgin’s face and clothing. Cimabue was breaking out of the Byzantine mould. In a later work, he would find himself influenced by one of his own Daniele Ricciarelli da Volterra, students: Giotto’s Holy Virginhas a very lifelike gaze and cradles Portrait of Michelangelo, c. 1533. (opposite) Black chalk. her infant in her arms like any normal caring young mother. The Teylers Museum, Haarlem. other figures in the composition appear less Byzantine and wear gold more sparingly. The pleating on her garb outlines the curves Raphael, Portrait of Leo X with Cardinals Giulio de’ Medici and Luigi de’ Rossi, c. 1517. (above) of her body. These features define his contribution to a 14th-century Oil on wood, 154 x 119 cm. revolution in Florentine art. His skills as a portrait and landscape Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. artist served him well when he later became chief architect of the Cimabue, Santa Trinita Madonna, c. 1260-1280. (p. 8) Opera del Duomo in Florence, the bell tower of which he started Tempera on panel, 385 x 223 cm. in the Florentine Gothic style. Like Michelangelo after him, he was Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. a man of many talents. The 14th century proved most dynamic and Giotto di Bondone, Maestà (Ognissanti Madonna), 1305-1310. (p. 9) Giotto’s style spread wide and far thanks to Bernardo Daddi, Taddeo Tempera on wood, 325 x 204 cm. Gaddi, Andrea di Cione (known as Orcagna), and other heirs. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. 7 BO Michelangelo_ENG_P-OK(P-4)_24.11.11.qxp 12/26/2011 4:10 PM Page 8 8 BO Michelangelo_ENG_P-OK(P-4)_24.11.11.qxp 12/26/2011 4:10 PM Page 9 9 BO Michelangelo_ENG_P-OK(P-4)_24.11.11.qxp 12/26/2011 4:10 PM Page 10 Next came a period of International Gothic influence in the 15th suffering. It is distinctly more terrifying than Masolino’s treatment of century, just as Masaccio erupted into the Florentine art scene with the same theme opposite it. Late 20th-century restoration work on his rich intricacies of style. His impact on Michelangelo would be the chapel abolished the fig leaves, bringing all genitalia back into dramatic. Masaccio’s actual name was Tommaso di Giovanni full view: this was the first nude painting in history and Masaccio Cassi; born in 1401, he died after only twenty-seven hyperactive was now contributing art that was far removed from anything years. He was among the first to be called by his given name, a Byzantine. His painting was so original that Fra Angelico, sure sign of the new, higher social status for artists. Two of his Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Caravaggio, Ingrès, and even noteworthy works include Trinityat the Santa Maria Novella and Michelangelo himself all went out of their way to see it. Whatever Expulsion from Paradise in the Brancacci Chapel. This leading direction their works took, each owed his debt to Masaccio. revolutionary of Italian Renaissance art upset all the existing rules. Masaccio’s legacy is vast. Fra Giovanni da Fiesole (known as Influenced by Giotto, Brunelleschi’s new architectural attitude to Fra Angelico) was deeply influenced by him, though many years perspective, Donatello’s sculpture, along with other friends or his senior. This pious and humble Dominican friar completed lovely cohorts, Masaccio added perspective into his frescoes alongside frescoes for the cloisters and cells of the San Marco Convent, those of Brancacci, populated with figures so lifelike the eye almost including the Annunciation. Then came Domenico Veneziano, who senses their movements. Masaccio steers attention towards exactly ripened Fra Angelico’s style into the full firm substance and what he wants you to notice, leaving viewers no leeway for refinement specific to Florentine Renaissance art. In the mid-15th apathy. Expulsion from Paradiseis easily his masterpiece: hunched century, humanist philosophy turned its back on the Middle Ages over with sin and guilt, the two figures radiate pure shame and and reached out to Antiquity for inspiration. Meanwhile, art was 10