Michelangelo is one of art history's earliest true "characters." He was a polymath genius
who is widely considered to be one of the greatest artists of the Italian Renaissance
period even while acquiring a reputation for being temper driven, fickle, and difficult.
He was part of the revival of classical Greek and Roman art, yet his unique contributions
went beyond mere mimicry of antiquity. His work was infused with a psychological
intensity and emotional realism that had never been seen before and often caused quite a
bit of controversy. Despite his rebelliousness, he managed to
find lifelong support by the era's most renowned patrons and produced some of the world's most
iconic masterpieces that continue to be revered, and even devotionally prayed upon, today.
MICHELANGELO, One of the greatest artists of the Italian Renaissance.
1, The Torment of Saint Anthony.
This is the earliest known painting to be ascribed to Michelangelo, completed when he
was only 12 or 13 years old and inspired by an engraving by Martin Schongauer.
Housed in the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, the canvas depicts the popular medieval
subject of Saint Anthony attacked in the desert by demons.
The saint is beset by temptations, which he resists whilst being ambushed in mid-air by
the devils. The painting was previously attributed to
the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio, under whom Michelangelo had served his apprenticeship.
Under that attribution it was bought at a Sotheby’s auction in July 2008 by an American
art dealer for $2 million. When the export license was obtained that
September, the canvas was brought to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where it was cleaned
of discoloured varnish and later overpainting and closely examined for the first time.
On the basis of stylistic hallmarks such as Michelangelo’s emphatic cross hatching,
it was decided that the painting was by the younger artist.
It was soon bought by the Kimbell Art Museum for an undisclosed amount, believed to be
in excess of $6 million.
Giorgio Vasari, in his Lives of the Artists, noted that Michelangelo had painted Saint
Anthony after a print by Schongauer and Ascanio Condivi recorded that Michelangelo had gone
to a market to draw fish scales, a feature not present in the original engraving.
Besides this enhancement, Michelangelo also added a landscape below the figures, as well
as altering the expression of the saint.
2, Madonna and Child With Saint John And Angels.
Completed by circa 1497 and also known as The Manchester Madonna, this unfinished painting
is another attributed work of Michelangelo, which is housed in the National Gallery, London.
It is one of three surviving panel paintings attributed to the artist and is dated to his
first period in Rome. The painting’s attribution to Michelangelo
was in doubt for much of the last two centuries, although now most scholars are in agreement
that it is in fact a genuine attribution. The painting first came to public attention
in the Art Treasures Exhibition in Manchester in 1857, when it received its title the “Manchester
Madonna”.
The composition’s subject arises from a non-Biblical tradition that the Virgin Mary
and Jesus met Christ’s cousin, Saint John the Baptist, on the Holy Family’s Flight
into Egypt. The Virgin is depicted with a bared breast,
as if she has recently been suckling her infant son, recalling the theme of the Virgin breastfeeding
common in medieval painting. She grips a book that she attempts to hold
away from her son, the contents of which foreshadow his future sacrifice.
She looks over her left shoulder at a scroll being read by a pair of angels, bearing the
reading: Ecce Agnus Dei (‘Behold the Lamb of God’), a customary attribute of John
the Baptist.
The figures are arranged as if in a frieze, revealing Michelangelo’s predilection for
a sculptor’s vision rather than a painter’s. The frieze becomes more convex at its centre
with the figures of Virgin and Child, as in the later Pitti Tondo.
Another similarity of the painting to the art of relief sculpture is in the plain background:
rather than the landscapes more common for exterior settings, Michelangelo has simply
painted an expanse of sky. Many areas of the painting have been left
in a preliminary state, where the artist had intended to paint over the black of the Virgin’s
robe with the rich blue pigment lapis lazuli and the angels on the left are indicated only
by the green underpaint used for flesh tones.
3, The Entombment.
Also housed in London’s National Gallery, this painting, left unfinished circa 1501,
concerns the placing of Jesus’ body in the garden tomb.
The chronological position of the work has been a source of some dispute, although it
is generally considered an early work. Some authorities believe that it may have
been executed by one of Michelangelo’s pupils from a drawing by the master or that it was
a direct imitation of his work. According to documents discovered in 1981,
Michelangelo had been commissioned to paint a panel for the church of Sant’Agostino
in Rome, but eventually gave back the sum received.
It is probable this was the payment for the Entombment, which remained unfinished upon
the artist’s return to Florence.
The centre of the panel portrays Christ being carried up a flight of steps to the sepulchre,
which was intended to be painted in the blank area at the top right.
The bearded older man represented behind him is most likely Joseph of Arimathea, who gave
up his tomb for the use as Christ’s sepulchre. The long-haired figure on the left is presumably
Saint John, wearing a long orange-red gown, with Mary Magdalene kneeling at his feet.
The floating appearance of some of the figures may be partly explained by the fact that the
painting is intended to be viewed from below and due to the panel’s unfinished condition.
However, the apparent incongruity of the stance of the bearer on the right remains problematic.
Interestingly, there is an old story that Michelangelo received a letter from his father
at the time he was painting this panel. The letter informed the artist that he should
abandon whatever he was doing as a great piece of marble had arrived for him.
This, of course, was the marble that would become the David.
4, Doni Tondo: The Holy Family. Now housed in the Uffizi in Florence, this
is the only finished panel painting by Michelangelo to survive.
The painting was commissioned by Agnolo Doni to commemorate his marriage to Maddalena Strozzi,
the daughter of a powerful Tuscan family. The tondo (a circular framed painting) was
most likely created during the period after the Doni’s marriage in 1503 or 1504, yet
before the Sistine Chapel ceiling frescoes were begun in 1508, dating the painting to
approximately late 1506 or 1507.
Michelangelo presents the Virgin Mary as the most prominent figure in the composition,
as she is fixed in the centre of the image, sitting directly on the ground without a cushion,
suggesting the theme of her relationship to the earth.
The grass directly below the figure is green, sharply contrasting to the grassless ground
surrounding her. Saint Joseph has a higher position in the
image compared to Mary, symbolising his status as head of the family — an unusual feature
in compositions of the Holy Family. Mary is located between his legs, as if he
is protecting her. There is some debate as to whether Mary is
receiving the Christ child from Joseph or vice-versa.
Saint John the Baptist, the patron saint of Florence, is often included in Florentine
works depicting the Madonna and Child. He is in the middle-ground of the panel, between
the Holy Family and the background. The elements around the family include plants
and water.
The painting is still contained within its original frame, which Michelangelo is likely
to have helped design. The frame is ornately carved and rather unusual
for the five heads it contains, protruding three-dimensionally into space.
Similar to the nude young men in the background, the meanings of these heads has been subject
to speculation. The frame also contains carvings of crescent
moons, stars, vegetation, and lions’ heads. These symbols are, perhaps, references to
the Doni and Strozzi families, taken from each coat of arms.
As depicted on the frame, “the moons are bound together with ribbons that interlock
with the lions,” possibly referencing the marriage of the two families.
There is a horizontal band separating the foreground and background, dividing the Holy
Family from the background figures and Saint John the Baptist.
The background figures are five nudes, whose meaning and function are subject to much speculation
and debate. The Holy Family is much larger in size than
the nudes in the background and there appears to be water in between the land where the
Holy Family and the nudes are situated. The Holy Family all gaze at Christ, yet none
of the nudes look directly at him. Instead, they appear more concerned with their
own physical beauty, like Roman youths at the gymnasium.
5, The Battle of Cascina.
The Battle of Cascina is a lost work, which was commissioned by Piero Soderini, a statesman
of the Republic of Florence. It was intended to be a fresco painted on
a wall of the Salone dei Cinquecento in Palazzo Vecchio.
The opposite wall was to be decorated by Leonardo da Vinci, who was commissioned to depict the
Battle of Anghiari. The two battles were notable medieval Florentine
victories. The Battle of Cascina was fought on 28 July
1364 between the troops of Florence and Pisa, resulting in the victory of the former.
A thousand Pisans were killed and two thousand more were captured.
Unfortunately, Michelangelo never completed the painting, though he did produce a complete
cartoon of the composition. The cartoon was copied by several artists,
the most notable extant copy being by Michelangelo’s pupil, Sangallo.
Some of Michelangelo’s preparatory drawings also survive, along with prints of part of
the scene by Marcantonio Raimondi. According to Michelangelo’s biographer,
Giorgio Vasari, the original cartoon was deliberately destroyed by Michelangelo’s rival Bartolommeo
Bandinelli, due to his jealousy of its fame. Michelangelo chose to depict the scene at
the beginning of the battle, as the Florentine army was taken by surprise by the Pisans’
initial attack. The artist presents Florentine soldiers, bathing
naked in the river Arno, responding to a trumpet that warns them of the sudden Pisan assault.
As the soldiers emerge from the river and buckle on their armour, they are threatened
by shots from the enemy. Several soldiers look or point towards the
Pisan position to the left. One soldier has apparently been hit and has
fallen back into the river, while others leap into action.
This selected scene allowed Michelangelo to depict his favoured topic: the naked male
figure in varieties of contrapposto.