Caro m'è il sonno, e più l'esser sasso,
Mentre che ‘l danno e la vergogna dura.
Non veder, non sentir, m'è gran ventura;
però non mi destar, deh! Parla basso!
Michelangelo Buonarroti)
It’s sweet for me to sleep like a sculptured stone in a niche,
as long as the world lives in shame and torment;
not feeling, not knowing is a blessed fate;
Are you here yet? So keep your voice down.
Translation by Elena Katsyuba.
One of the greatest masterpieces of the era is also associated with the names of Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici High Renaissance– “The Medici Chapel” is a sculptural ensemble made by Michelangelo and located in the so-called New Sacristy (sacristy) of the Church of San Lorenzo (the family church of the Medici family) in Florence. After the death of Pope Julius II (Giuliano della Rovere, pont. 1503-1513), one of the most demanding, but also generous patrons of the arts, a man of exorbitant ambitions, the pope under whom began the construction of the unprecedented scale of St. Peter's Cathedral, where Michelangelo was to build a majestic tomb decorated with fifty statues, in which Julius rests; completed by Michelangelo and open for viewing are the frescoes of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the chapel of St. Sixtus, patron of the Rovere family; Raphael painted the palace rooms (stanzas) of the pope's apartments in the Vatican; Leo X (Pont. 1513-1521), Giovanni de' Medici, the second son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, was elected pope.
Florence. c.San Lorenzo
Perhaps because he was born in the year of the memorable Florentine tournament, the so-called Giostra (1475), and perhaps due to natural inclination, Leo X, having adopted his father’s diplomatic abilities, also adopted an exorbitant love of luxury and entertainment. The papal estates, mines and treasury left by Julius II were not enough to pay for hunts, feasts, and celebrations. Both Erasmus of Rotterdam and the young monk Martin Luther were horrified by visiting Rome during these years. There was not enough money, and Leo X carried out several financial projects, two of which: the official sale of church positions (“simony”) and the sale of “releases” (“indulgences”), finally exhausted the patience of a large part of Western Christians. Luther issued his “Theses,” and the pope responded with a bull ordering the burning of Luther’s works. The Reformation began in Germany.
Leo X died suddenly, without even having time to receive unction. Of course, during the years of his pontificate, the construction of St. Peter's Cathedral was progressing poorly, and there was nothing to think about the grandiose tomb of Pope Julius II. True, he suggested that Michelangelo create the facade of the Church of San Lorenzo, unfinished by Brunelleschi, so that this temple would become “the mirror of all Italy,” and Michelangelo gladly agreed to leave for his beloved Florence, where he worked hard for four years until, in 1520, all according to the same due to lack of money, work on the facade was not stopped.
However, in the same year, Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, the future Pope Clement VII (Pont. 1523-1534), the illegitimate son of Giuliano de' Medici and the same age as his cousin Giovanni (Leo X), who grew up in the house of his uncle (Lorenzo the Magnificent) after the murder of his father, offered Michelangelo another option for work in San Lorenzo. He proposed creating in the new sacristy of the church an ensemble of tombstones for recently deceased family members: Lorenzo, the son of Pietro Medici (the elder brother of Leo X) and Giuliano, the youngest of the sons of Lorenzo the Magnificent - not famous for anything except their family names: Lorenzo and Giuliano.
At first, Michelangelo, depressed by the failure with the façade of the church, accepted the idea without enthusiasm: he did not have any special feelings for the dead. But he remembered the years spent in the brilliant circle of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and honored his memory. And in the New Sacristy there should have been sarcophagi with the ashes of the elders Lorenzo and Giuliano.
Architectural plastic solution The tomb was dictated by the small size of the chapel, forming a square with a side of 11 meters in plan. It was impossible to place a structure designed for a circular walk in such a small room, as he initially assumed (focusing on the compositional ideas of the tomb of Julius II), and Michelangelo chose the traditional composition of wall tombs.
Tomb of Giuliano Medici
The compositions of the tombs on the side walls are symmetrical. Near the wall to the left of the entrance is the tomb of Giuliano. In a rectangular wall niche is the figure of Giuliano, a seated young Florentine in the garb of a Roman patrician with his head uncovered, facing the front wall of the chapel. Below it is a sarcophagus, on the currencies of which there are two allegorical figures: female - Night and male - Day. Night - she sleeps, leaning her bowed head on her right hand, under her left hand is a mask, near her hip is an owl. Day - awake, he leans on his left elbow, half turned towards the viewer in such a way that half of his face is hidden by his powerful right shoulder and back. The face of the Day is worked out sketchily.
Tomb of Lorenzo de' Medici
Opposite, near the wall to the right of the entrance is the tomb of Lorenzo. He is also dressed in Roman clothes, but a helmet is pulled over his eyes, hiding them in the shadows. His pose is full of deep thoughtfulness, left hand, in which he holds a purse, is raised to his face and rests on a casket with jewelry, standing on his knee. The head is slightly turned to the right, towards the front wall.
"Evening"
The composition of the sarcophagus is similar, on the currencies there are figures: male - Evening, female - Morning. Both figures are turned towards the viewer. Evening tends to sleep, Morning awakens.
Italy | Michelangelo Buonarroti | (1475-1564) | Medici Chapel | 1526-1533 | marble | New Sacristy of San Lorenzo, Florence |
Near the front wall of the chapel, opposite the entrance and the altar, in a rectangular niche framed by dark columns, orders in the Brunelleschi style, there is a simple rectangular sarcophagus with the ashes of Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano. On the lid of the sarcophagus there are figures: a seated Madonna with a child on her lap (in the center), St. Cosmas and St. Domiana on the sides. The figures of the saints were not sculpted by Michelangelo, but, respectively, by Montorsoli and Raffaello da Montelupo. Madonna de Medici – key image chapel: it is located in the center of the front wall, the views of the saints are turned to it, and the dukes look at it from their niches. She sits, leaning her right hand on the pedestal, on her extended left knee - a baby, half-turned to her mother so that the viewer does not see his face. Madonna holds the child with her left hand. Her facial expression and entire posture are filled with thoughtful detachment.
Contemporaries were struck by the same thing that strikes us today - the perfection of the architectural and plastic ensemble of the chapel as a whole, the perfection of the plastic connection of all the sculptures in space, the extraordinary - even for the genius Michelangelo - realism of each of the sculptures, rising to a high generalization, a symbol. ABOUT symbolic meanings A lot has been said about allegories of Morning, Day, Evening and Night. As you know, the figure of the Night attracted particular attention, and an exchange of poetic epigraphs took place between Giovanni Strozzi and Michelangelo. We want to stop at Lorenzo's sculptures and Giuliano and touch on the problem of the “ideal portrait”.
Neither in appearance nor in faces did contemporaries see any portrait resemblance to the recently deceased relatives of Pope Leo X and Clement VII. We think this is easy to explain. It was not these specific people who were depicted by the sculptor above their sarcophagi. The legend of Florence was another Lorenzo and another Giuliano, brothers - those who rested near the front wall. Brothers - and that’s why the tombstones are symmetrical.
Lorenzo the Magnificent is a diplomat, philosopher, banker - a true ruler - and that is why his head is crowned with a Roman helmet, his hand rests on a casket of gold, but he himself is immersed in deep, sad thoughts. The beautiful and young Giuliano, the hero of poems and legends, is brave, in love, and tragically died at the hands of the conspirators. And that’s why his posture is restless, his head is quickly turned. But Michelangelo also sculpted the wrong real Medici, the youngest of whom he did not know, and the elder of whom he knew only in the last years of his life. He sculpted them legendary images, one might say Aristotelian forms - or Platonic ideas of these two names imprinted in the history of Florence: Lorenzo and Giuliano.
During the construction of the chapel from 1520 to 1534, with two long breaks, such thunderstorms swept over Italy in general and over Florence that it seems surprising that the Medici Chapel was almost completed. The pontificate of Clement VII was marked by the sack of Rome by the army of Charles V of Habsburg, which the Eternal City had not seen since the invasion of the barbarians, and ended, in addition to the flaring up Reformation, also with a schism between the Roman and English churches, whose head Henry VIII proclaimed himself. Some church historians consider Clement VII to be the last pope of the Renaissance. And if you follow this, albeit very conventional, chronology, the Medici Chapel is seen as an unsurpassed in perfection tombstone of the brilliant Florentine Renaissance.
Michelangelo wrote “The Last Judgment” as a witness to a different time.
Manon&Gabrielle."Lorenzo and Giuliano".
Medici Chapel (Italy) - description, history, location. Exact address and website. Tourist reviews, photos and videos.
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The Medici Chapel is a landmark that everyone who travels to Florence is probably obliged to visit.
The Medici Chapel reflects many facets of Michelangelo's talent.
This memorial chapel is located at the Church of San Lorenzo. Art historians call the Medici Chapel one of Michelangelo's greatest creations. And the late Renaissance in general.
Michelangelo was a brilliant sculptor, painter, architect, poet... And the Medici Chapel reflects many facets of his talent.
What to see
The Medici Chapel is a small but skyward structure, which is crowned with a dome. Michelangelo completed his architectural space. He managed to make sure that the appearance of the chapel corresponded to its internal content.
Everything in the Medici Chapel - from the walls to the decoration - is dedicated to the theme of death.
Everything in the Medici Chapel - from the walls to the decoration - is dedicated to one theme - the theme of death. Below, in the sarcophagi, it is dark, here the bodies of the deceased rest. The higher you go, the more light enters the building: the soul is immortal, it is resurrected in the kingdom of light.
There is an altar on one wall of the chapel. Opposite are the tombs of Lorenz the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano. Next to the tombs are three statues, including the famous Madonna and Child, made by Michelangelo himself. The sculpture symbolizes the closeness of mother and child to its highest degree.
The Madonna is full of lyricism; unlike the other figures located in the Medici Chapel, she is devoid of tragedy. This sculpture is recognized as one of the most beautiful images created during the Renaissance.
The figures of the Day brought real fame to Michelangelo.
On the sarcophagi one can see the figures of the Day, which brought real fame to the sculptor. So, on Lorenz’s sarcophagus we see the statues “Morning” and “Evening”. They are clearly uncomfortable, they seem to be slipping, but they hold on to the figure of Lorenz the Magnificent.
Giuliano's tomb is decorated with figures of “Night” and “Day”. "Night" is Michelangelo's most tragic figure. It leaves an indelible impression on today’s visitors to the Medici Chapel as well as on the artist’s contemporaries.
The “Day” figure is unfinished. But not because Michelangelo didn’t have time. This is how the sculptor wanted to convey the state of uncertainty, because no one can predict with certainty what awaits him during the day.
How to get there
Tourists vacationing in Florence should focus on the Church of San Lorenzo. This attraction is in all resort guides.
Bus number C1 stops not far from the church. The stop you need is called “San Lorenzo”.
The Medici Chapel is open from Monday to Sunday, from 8:15 to 18:00. Be careful, the ticket office closes at 16:20.
The chapel is open to tourists every day, except holidays: Christmas (December 25), New Year (January 1) and May 1. There are also weekends: every odd Monday of the month and every even Sunday of the month.
A ticket to the Medici Chapel costs 8-4 EUR, this includes a visit to the chapel and the New Sacristy.
Tickets for the Church of San Lorenzo and the Laurentian Library must be purchased separately.
Children under six years old can see these Florence attractions absolutely free.
Prices on the page are as of September 2018.
Florence, like almost any Italian city, is literally flooded with attractions, historical monuments, and all sorts of priceless artifacts, which we mentioned a little in. Among all this abundance, there are places that simply cannot be missed, and one of such places is the Medici Chapel. It is part of memorial complex at the Church of San Lorenzo.
Strictly speaking, the chapel consists of three parts - a crypt with the burial of 49 not-so-famous Medici; the Chapel of the Princes, where the ashes of much more famous representatives of the family rest; and the New Sacristy (Sagrestia Nuova).
It was on the design of the latter that the great Michelangelo Buonarroti worked, and, despite the very dramatic history of the project’s implementation, it was here that the great Master’s talent reflected many of its facets. Actually, it is the New Sacristy that is most often meant when people talk about the Medici Chapel.
How to get there, operating hours
The main landmark for tourists wishing to visit the Medici Chapel in Florence is the Church of San Lorenzo itself. It is located at Piazza di San Lorenzo, 9.
The Medici Chapel is part of the San Lorenzo complex
The attraction is very significant, it is present in all possible guidebooks, so finding it will not be a problem. The C1 bus route runs near the church. The stop is called “San Lorenzo”. You can also get off at the next stop – Cappelle Medicee.
The Medici Chapel is open to the public every day from 8:15 to 18:00. Regular weekends are every even Sunday and every odd Monday of the month. The chapel is also closed on the biggest holidays - January 1 (New Year), December 25 (Christmas) and May 1.
Tickets for the Medici Chapel and the Laurentian Library (another Michelangelo project on the territory of the San Lorenzo complex) are purchased separately. The ticket office is open until 16:20. Children under six years old have free admission.
The Medici Chapel in Florence is a very popular place, so it would be a good idea to book your tickets online in advance.
While far from being the only picturesque tomb in Florence, the Medici Chapel is strikingly different from other similar objects. Michelangelo put all his talent into creating an atmosphere of deep tragedy and sorrow in the chapel - everything here is dedicated to the theme of death.
Even the nature of natural light is very symbolic. At the very bottom, where the sarcophagi with the deceased are located, it is darkest. The higher it is, the more light from outside gets into the building. This symbolizes the immortality of the soul and its transition to the kingdom of light after the end of a person’s earthly life.
Over tombs of Lorenzo The Magnificent and his brother Giuliano can see Michelangelo's Madonna and Child, sculptures of Saints Cosmas and Domian
The central object in the Medici Chapel is the altar. But it is by no means of the greatest interest from an artistic and aesthetic point of view.
On the right and left sides of the altar are the tombs of the Dukes Giuliano of Nemours and Lorenzo of Urbino. Directly opposite the altar, on the opposite wall, in a protruding plinth, lie the ashes of two more Medicis - Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano.
These two representatives of a powerful family were at one time much more significant figures than their namesakes, buried “next door.” But their sarcophagi are decorated much more modestly - three statues by Michelangelo are installed on the crypt - Saints Cosmas and Damian, and the Madonna and Child. The latter is perhaps the only sculpture in the chapel that is devoid of tragedy, but is filled with a lyrical reflection of the closeness of mother and child.
Lorenzo the Magnificent was a prominent statesman of the Florentine Republic and its leader during the Renaissance. Many people naturally wonder why the tomb of him and his brother was given such a minimalist design by Michelangelo.
The answer is actually very simple. Lorenzo of Urbino and Giuliano of Nemours were the first of the Medici family to receive ducal titles. In those feudal times, this circumstance was of much greater importance than the real historical role of this or that person.
Allegorical figures “Morning” (female) and “Evening” (male) decorate the tombstone of Lorenzo of Urbino
The sarcophagi of Dukes Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici are decorated with sculptures that brought even more fame to the already famous Michelangelo at that time. These are the so-called “Days”. The sculptures “Morning” and “Evening” are installed on the tomb of Lorenzo of Urbino, and “Day” and “Night” are installed on the sarcophagus of Giuliano of Nemours.
Even during Michelangelo’s lifetime, the sculpture “Night” made an indelible impression on the creator’s contemporaries with its deep tragedy. The figure creates exactly the same mood now, as evidenced by numerous reviews from visitors to the Medici Chapel.
The figures “Day” (male) and “Night” (female) were installed by Michelangelo over the tomb of Giuliano of Nemours
Everything described is only the most noticeable creations of Michelangelo, created while working on the interior decoration of the chapel. Awareness of the real greatness of this work of art comes as one becomes familiar with the very history of the creation of the Medici Chapel.
History of creation
Initially, the plans of Pope Leo X (Giovanni Medici) regarding the renovation of the Florentine Church of San Lorenzo were completely different.
The Pope wanted to create a new facade for the family temple of the Medici family and invited Michelangelo to complete this large-scale task. The goal was to embody in the new façade the full power of the talent of the best Italian artists and thus testify to the power of the Medici family.
Michelangelo arrived in Florence and began work in 1514. However, the first time that the sculptor spent in the marble quarries turned out to be wasted. Pope Leo X was “famous” for his extravagance, and there simply wasn’t enough money to build a grandiose façade. After my dad's death, the project was hopelessly frozen.
The façade of the Basilica of San Lorenzo remains unfinished to this day.
However, the name of Michelangelo was already so famous at that time that the Medici family decided to resume cooperation with the ambitious sculptor at any cost. Thus, on the initiative of Cardinal Giulio Medici, the idea of completing the building was born new chapel on the territory of the Church of San Lorenzo (the New Sacristy was erected to the height of the cornice at the end of the 15th century).
Concept and projects
The placement of the tombs of Dukes Lorenzo and Giuliano in the future Medici Chapel in Florence was originally planned. Michelangelo planned to install them in the very center of the chapel, but later the artist nevertheless leaned towards a more traditional, side-wall scheme for placing the monuments. According to his plan, the tombstones were to be decorated with symbolic sculptures, and the lunettes above them were painted with frescoes.
The sculptures of Lorenzo and Giuliano were designed as symbolic - they did not reflect the appearance of their real prototypes. This was the condition of the artist, who was known for his not entirely understandable negative attitude towards portraits and other forms of embodiment in art of accurate images of real people.
Therefore, the faces of the figures appeared to be an idealized generalization. The allegorical figures of the passage of the day were supposed to be a hint of the fleeting life of the dukes.
The sculptures of the Medici Dukes do not convey the real appearance of their prototypes
The project also assumed that there would be figures of river gods on the floor near the tombstones; it was planned to place armor, garlands and four figures of crouching boys above the tombstones. But, due to a number of circumstances, not everything that was planned was realized.
Conflict with the Medici
Michelangelo began work on the interior decoration of the Medici Chapel when he was 45 years old. The grandeur of the plan did not frighten him at all. Although the master was, at that time, quite old, he began to implement the project with all zeal. It was as if he knew that his life had barely passed halfway (the artist died at a very old age - 88 years).
Work on the main design elements of the Medici Chapel lasted almost 15 years. During all this time, the original plan had to be adjusted several times, which greatly irritated Michelangelo, and, ultimately, he was not happy with the result.
At the same time, his relationship with the Medici family rapidly deteriorated. Ultimately, in 1527, the republican-minded part of the Florentines rebelled against the Medici, and the latter had to flee. In this confrontation, Michelangelo was on the side of the rebels.
Florence did not remain under the leadership of the provisional government for long. The combined armies of Emperor Charles and the Pope laid siege to the city. Michelangelo was appointed head of all fortifications.
The figure of Saint Cosmas was completed by Michelangelo's assistant Giovanni Montorsoli
Photos by: Sailko, Rufus46, Rabe!, Yannick Carer
Michelangelo - sculptor, artist, architect and poet... Part 2In the palace of Lorenzo the Magnificent (1489-1492)
G. Vasari. Portrait of Lorenzo de' Medici. Florence, Uffizi Gallery
“And deciding to help Michelangelo and take him under his protection, he sent for his father Lodovico and informed him about this, declaring that he would treat Michelangelo as his own son, to which he willingly agreed. After which the Magnificent gave him room in own home and ordered him to be served, so he always sat at the table with his sons and other worthy and noble persons who were with the Magnificent, who gave him this honor; and all this took place in the following year after his admission to Domenico, when Michelangelo was in his fifteenth or sixteenth year, and he spent four years in this house, until the death of the Magnificent Lorenzo, which followed in 1492. All this time, Michelangelo received from the lord this allowance to support his father in the amount of five ducats a month, and to please him, the lord gave him a red cloak, and placed his father in the customs office" Vasari
The sculptor’s enormous talent, which manifested itself early, gives Michelangelo access to the court of Lorenzo de’ Medici, one of the most brilliant and major centers Italian culture Renaissance. The ruler of Florence managed to attract such famous philosophers, poets, and artists as Pico della Mirandola, the head of the Neoplatonist school Marsilio Ficino, the poet Angelo Poliziano, and the artist Sandro Botticelli. There Michelangelo had the opportunity to meet young representatives of the Medici family, two of whom later became popes (Leo X and Clement VII).
Giovanni de' Medici later became Pope Leo X. Although he was only a teenager at the time, he was already appointed cardinal catholic church. Michelangelo also met Giuliano de' Medici. Decades later, already a renowned sculptor, Michelangelo worked on his tomb.
At the Medici court, Michelangelo becomes his own man and falls into the circle of enlightened poets and humanists. Lorenzo himself was an excellent poet. The ideas of the Platonic Academy, created under the patronage of Lorenzo, had a huge influence on the formation of the young sculptor’s worldview. He became interested in the search for the perfect form - the main task of art, according to Neoplatonists.
Some of the main ideas of Lorenzo de' Medici's circle served as a source of inspiration and torment for Michelangelo in his later life, in particular the contradiction between Christian piety and pagan sensuality. It was believed that pagan philosophy and Christian dogmas could be reconciled (this is reflected in the title of one of Ficino’s books - “Plato’s Theology of the Immortality of the Soul”); that all knowledge, if rightly understood, is the key to divine truth. Physical beauty, embodied in the human body, is an earthly manifestation of spiritual beauty. Bodily beauty may be glorified, but this is not enough, for the body is the prison of the soul, which strives to return to its Creator, but can only achieve this in death. According to Pico della Mirandola, during life a person has free will: he can ascend to the angels or plunge into an unconscious animal state. The young Michelangelo was influenced by the optimistic philosophy of humanism and believed in the limitless possibilities of man. In the luxurious chambers of the Medici, in the atmosphere of the newly discovered Platonic Academy, in communication with people such as Angelo Poliziano and Pico Mirandolsky, the boy turned into a young man, matured in intelligence and talent.
Michelangelo's perception of reality as spirit embodied in matter undoubtedly goes back to the Neoplatonists. For him, sculpture was the art of "isolating" or freeing the figure enclosed in a stone block. It is possible that some of his most striking works, which appear "unfinished", may have been deliberately left that way, because it was at this stage of "liberation" that the form most adequately embodied the artist's intention.
Surrounded by luxury, beautiful paintings and sculptures, in the elegant interiors of the Medici Palace, with access to the richest collection of monuments of ancient culture - coins, medallions, ivory cameos, jewelry - Michelangelo received the basics fine arts. It was probably during this period that he chose sculpting as his life’s work. Having become familiar with the high, refined culture of the court of Lorenzo Medici, imbued with the ideas of the progressive thinkers of that time, having assimilated the ancient tradition and high skill of his immediate predecessors, Michelangelo began independent creativity, starting work on sculptures for the Medici collection.
Early works (1489-1492)
“Let us return, however, to the garden of the Magnificent Lorenzo: this garden was overflowing with antiquities and very decorated with excellent paintings, and all this was collected in this place for beauty, for study and for pleasure, and the keys to it were always kept by Michelangelo, who far surpassed others in care in all his actions and always showing his readiness with lively persistence. For several months, he copied Masaccio’s paintings in Carmine, reproducing these works so effectively that both artists and non-artists were amazed, and envy of him grew along with his fame.” Vasari
At the court of Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent Lorenzo, surrounded by talented people, humanist thinkers, poets, artists, under the patronage of a generous and attentive nobleman, in a palace where art became a cult, Michelangelo's main calling was discovered - sculpture. His earliest works in this art form reveal the true scale of his talent. Created by a sixteen-year-old boy, small relief compositions and statues, based on the study of nature, but executed in a completely antique spirit, are imbued with classical beauty and nobility:
- head of a laughing faun(1489, the statue has not survived),
- bas-relief “Madonna of the Stairs”, or “Madonna della Scala”(1490-1492, Buonarotti Palace, Florence),
- bas-relief “Battle of the Centaurs”(c. 1492, Buonarroti Palace, Florence),
-"Hercules"(1492, the statue has not survived),
- wooden crucifix(c. 1492, Church of Santo Spirito, Florence).
"Madonna of the Stairs" marble bas-relief (1490-1492)
Michelangelo "Madonna of the Stairs", c. 1490 -1491 Italian. Madonna della scala marble. Casa Buonarroti, Florence, Italy
Marble bas-relief. Fragment. 1490-1492 Michelangelo Buonarroti. Florence, Buonarroti Museum
“The same Lionardo, several years ago, kept in his house, in memory of his uncle, a bas-relief of the Mother of God, carved from marble by Michelangelo himself, a little more than a cubit high; in it, he, being a young man at that time and planning to reproduce the style of Donatello, did it so successfully, as if you see the hand of that master, but there is even more grace and design here. Lionardo then presented this work to Duke Cosimo de’ Medici, who revered it as the only thing of its kind, for no other bas-relief besides this sculpture was made by Michelangelo’s hand.” Vasari
At the beginning of his creative career, Michelangelo acted primarily as a sculptor. Already his first works testify to his originality and are marked by the features of the new, what his teachers could not give him: the painter Domenico Ghirlandaio and the sculptor Bertoldo. His first relief, “Madonna of the Staircase” (1489-1492, Florence, Buonarroti Museum), carved in marble when he was barely sixteen years old, differs from the works of his predecessors in the plastic power of the images, emphasized by the seriousness of the interpretation of the theme used hundreds of times.
“Madonna of the Stairs” is made in the traditional technique of 15th-century Italian sculptors of low, finely nuanced relief, reminiscent of Donatello’s reliefs, with which it is also related by the presence of babies (putti) depicted on the upper steps of the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs sits a Madonna with a child in her arms (hence the name of the relief). The subtle gradation of the sculpting of the forms of this three-plane relief gives it a picturesque character, as if emphasizing the connection of this type of sculpture with painting. If we take into account the fact that Michelangelo began his studies with the painter, then the reason why he initially turned to this type of sculpture and its corresponding interpretation becomes clearer. But the young Michelangelo, however, gives an example of the perfection of a non-traditional image: the Madonna and the Child Christ are endowed with power and inner drama unusual for Quattrocento art.
The main place in the relief belongs to the Madonna, majestic and serious. Her image is associated with the tradition of ancient Roman art. However, her special concentration, the strong-sounding heroic note, the contrast of powerful arms and legs with the grace and freedom of interpretation of the picturesquely melodious folds of her long robe, the baby in her arms, amazing in its childish strength - all this comes from Michelangelo himself. The special compactness, density, balance of the composition found here, the skillful comparison of volumes and shapes of different sizes and interpretations, the accuracy of the drawing, the correct construction of the figures, the subtlety of the processing of details anticipate his subsequent works. There is one more feature in “Madonna of the Stairs” that will characterize many of the artist’s works in the future - enormous internal fullness, concentration, the beating of life with external calm.
Madonnas of the 15th century are pretty and somewhat sentimental. Michelangelo's Madonna is tragically thoughtful, self-absorbed, she is not a pampered patrician or even a young mother touching in her love for her baby, but a stern and majestic maiden who is aware of her glory and knows about the tragic test destined for her.
Michelangelo sculpted Mary when she, holding a child at her breast, had to decide the future - the future for herself, for the baby, for the world. The entire left side of the bas-relief is occupied by heavy stair steps. Maria sits in profile on a bench, to the right of the stairs: the wide stone balustrade seems to end somewhere behind Maria’s right thigh, at the feet of her child. The viewer, looking at the thoughtful and tense face of the Mother of God, cannot help but feel what decisive moments she is experiencing, holding Jesus to her chest and, as if weighing in the palm of her hand the entire weight of the cross on which her son was destined to be crucified.
The Virgin, known as the Madonna della Scala, is now in the Buonarroti Museum in Florence.
Bas-relief "Battle of the Centaurs" (c. 1492)
Michelangelo. Battle of the Centaurs, 1492 Italian. Battaglia dei centauri, marble. Casa Buonarroti, Florence, Italy
Marble bas-relief. Fragment. OK. 1492. Michelangelo Buonarroti. Florence, Buonarroti Museum
“At this very time, on the advice of Poliziano, a man of extraordinary learning, Michelangelo, on a piece of marble received from his lord, carved the battle of Hercules with the centaurs, so beautiful that sometimes, looking at it now, one can mistake it for the work not of a youth, but of a master highly valued and tested in the theory and practice of this art. Nowadays it is kept in memory of him in the house of his nephew Leonardo, as a rare thing, which it is.” Vasari
The marble relief "Battle of the Centaurs" (Florence, Palazzo Buonarroti) (or "Battle of the Centaurs with the Lapiths") was carved in the form of a Roman sarcophagus from Carrian marble by the young Michelangelo for his noble patron, Lorenzo de' Medici, but probably due to whose death in 1492, remained unfinished.
The bas-relief depicts a scene from the Greek myth about the battle of the Lapith people with semi-animal centaurs who attacked them during a wedding feast. According to another version, the scene depicts one of the episodes of ancient mythology - the battle of the centaurs, the abduction of Deianira, the wife of Hercules, or the battle of Hercules with the centaurs. This work clearly shows the master's study of ancient Roman sarcophagi, as well as the influence of the work of such masters as Bertoldo, Pollailo and Pisani.
The plot was suggested by Angelo Poliziano (1454-1494), the closest friend of Lorenzo the Magnificent. Its meaning is the victory of civilization over barbarism. According to the myth, the Lapiths were victorious, but in Michelangelo's interpretation the outcome of the battle is unclear.
Protruding from the flat surface of marble are about two dozen naked figures of Greek warriors fighting mythical centaurs. This early work of the young master reflected his passion for depicting the human body. The sculptor created compact and tense masses of naked bodies, demonstrating virtuoso skill in conveying movement through the play of light and shadow. The chisel marks and jagged edges remind us of the stone from which the figures are made. This relief gives the impression of truly explosive force; it amazes with its powerful dynamics, violent movement that permeates the entire composition, and the richness of its plasticity. In this high relief there is nothing of the graphic nature of the three-plane construction. It was solved by purely plastic means and anticipates another side of Michelangelo’s subsequent creations - his ineradicable desire to reveal all the diversity and richness of plasticity, movements of the human body. It was with this relief that the young sculptor declared with all his might the innovation of his method. And if in the theme “Battle of the Centaurs” there is a connection between Michelangelo’s art and one of its sources - ancient plastic art and, in particular, with the reliefs of ancient Roman sarcophagi, then new aspirations are clearly expressed in the interpretation of the theme. Michelangelo is little interested in the moment of narration, the story that was so detailed among the Roman masters. The main thing for the sculptor is the opportunity to show the heroism of a person who reveals his spiritual power and physical strength in battle.
In a tangle of bodies intertwined in mortal combat, we find Michelangelo’s first, but already surprisingly widespread embodiment main topic his work is based on the theme of struggle, understood as one of the eternal manifestations of existence. The figures of the fighters filled the entire relief field, amazing in its plastic and dramatic integrity. Among the tangle of combatants, individual ideally beautiful nude figures stand out, modeled with precise knowledge of the human anatomical structure. Some of them are brought to the foreground and presented in high relief, approaching a round sculpture. This allows you to select multiple viewpoints. Others are relegated to the background, their relief is lower and emphasizes the overall spatiality of the solution. Deep shadows contrast with midtones and brightly lit protruding parts of the relief, which gives the image a lively and extremely dynamic character. Some incompleteness of individual parts of the relief enhances by contrast the expressiveness of the fragments, finished with all care and subtlety. The manifested features of monumentality in this relatively small-sized work anticipate Michelangelo’s further conquests in this area.
"The warrior second from the left is preparing to throw a huge stone with his right hand. The blow can be addressed to the one who is in the center, in the top row, and at the same time his posture and turn of the body are opposed to the warrior, who stands with his back to the viewer and pulls the resisting enemy with his right hand hair. A man, in turn, is preparing to hit him, supporting his comrade with his left hand. They form the next contrapposto. This pair naturally suggests a transition to the old man on the left, pushing the stone with both hands, and to the young warrior at the left edge of the bas-relief - he is grabbed. behind the neck of someone. It is remarkable that any fragment simultaneously participates in several oppositions at once: this achieves end-to-end consistency of all contrappostos, facilitating the perception of the whole. In this complex interweaving of bodies, a special order of contrapposto movements can still be discerned. , but more expressively unfolds from the central group. Thus, in the bas-relief there is equality of all those participating in the battle, causing some discord, and at the same time an unobtrusive, rather even potential, hierarchy of mise-en-scenes, indicating the habit of order thinking. Michelangelo had nowhere and no one to borrow from a polyvisual composition containing the idea of order. Here I had to do everything for the first time and myself, but this does not mean timid or inept." V. I. Loktev
Researchers are still arguing about exactly which episode of ancient mythology was reproduced by the young master, and this plot ambiguity itself confirms that the goal he set for himself was not to strictly follow a specific narrative, but to create an image of a broader plan. Many figures in relief, their dramatic meaning and sculptural interpretation, as if in a sudden revelation, foreshadow the motives of Michelangelo’s future works; the plastic language of the relief, with its freedom and energy, generating an association with violently shimmering lava, reveals similarities with Michelangelo’s sculptural style of much later years. The freshness and completeness of the worldview, the swiftness of the rhythm give the relief an irresistible charm and uniqueness. It is not without reason that Condivi testifies that Michelangelo in his old age, looking at this relief, said that he “realized the mistake he made in not giving himself entirely to sculpture” (Correspondence of Michelangelo Buonarroti and the life of the master, written by his student Ascanio Condivi).
But ahead of his time in The Battle of the Centaurs, Michelangelo got too far ahead. 3and with this bold breakthrough into the future, years of slower and more consistent creative development, deepened interest in the great heritage of ancient and Renaissance art, and accumulation of experience in line with various, sometimes very contradictory traditions would inevitably come. Later, the master worked on a similar battle multi-figure composition “The Battle of Kashin” (1501-1504); a copy of the cardboard he created has survived to this day.
Study of anatomy. Statue "Hercules" (1492)
“After the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent, Michelangelo returned to his father’s house, infinitely saddened by the death of such a man, a friend of all talents. It was then that Michelangelo acquired a large block of marble, in which he carved Hercules, four braccia high, who stood for many years in the Palazzo Strozzi and was considered a miraculous creation, and then in the year of the siege this Hercules was sent by Giovanbattista della Palla to France to King Francis. They say that Piero de' Medici, who had long used his services when he became the heir of his father Lorenzo, often sent for Michelangelo when buying ancient cameos and other carved works, and one winter, when it was snowing heavily in Florence, ordered him to sculpt his in the courtyard there was a statue made of snow, which came out most beautiful, and Michelangelo revered him for his virtues to such an extent that the latter’s father, noticing that his son was valued on an equal basis with nobles, began to dress him more magnificently than usual.” Vasari
In 1492, Lorenzo died and Michelangelo left his house. When Lorenzo died, Michelangelo was seventeen years old. He conceived and executed a statue of Hercules larger than a man, in which his powerful talent was manifested. This was the first, complete attempt of a genius striving to express heroic ideas in art.
Michelangelo hardly knew the entertainment of a young man of his age, working on the statue of Hercules, he continued to study at the same time. Michelangelo studied anatomy on corpses, with the permission of the prior of the hospital of Santo Spirito. According to prof. S. Stam, Michelangelo began dissecting corpses around 1493. In one of the remote halls of the monastery of Santo Spirito, he spent his nights alone, dissecting corpses with an anatomical knife by the light of a lamp. Giving different positions to body parts and muscles, he studied sizes and proportions and carefully finished the drawings, thus replacing a living nature with a dead body. Creating a living image, he seemed to see through the skin that covered the body, the entire mechanism of these movements.
The master retained his passion for anatomy throughout his life. The famous anatomist Andreas Vesalius (1515-1564) testified that Michelangelo was going to write an unusual anatomical treatise. The unwritten anatomy, about which Michelangelo said that it would be unlike the past, would become a textbook for a new compositional style.
Unfortunately, “Hercules” has not survived (it is depicted in the engraving of Israel Sylvester “The Courtyard of the Castle of Fontainebleau”). Snow figure was executed on January 20, 1494.
Wooden crucifix (1492)
Michelangelo Crucifixion of the Church of Santo Spirito, 1492 Italian. Crocifisso di Santo Spirito, wood, polychrome. Height: 142 cm, Santo Spirito, Florence
Fragment. 1492 Michelangelo Buonarroti. Church of Santo Spirito, Florence
“For the church of Santo Spirito in the city of Florence, he made a wooden crucifix, placed and still stands above the semicircle of the high altar with the consent of the prior, who provided him with premises where, often dissecting corpses for the study of anatomy, he began to perfect that great art of drawing which he subsequently acquired" Vasari
For many years the work was considered lost until it was discovered in the Florentine church of Santo Spirito. The wooden polychrome crucifix of the sacristy in the Church of Santo Spirito, known from sources but only recently identified, turned out to be completely unusual for our ideas about Michelangelo. The crucifix was created by a young 17-year-old master for the prior of the church, who patronized him.
Probably, the young master could follow the type of crucifix widespread in Italy in the 15th century, dating back to Gothic times and therefore falling out of the circle of the most advanced quests for sculpture of the late Quattrocento. Head of Christ with eyes closed lowered to the chest, the rhythm of the body is determined by crossed legs. The head and legs of the figure are placed in contrapposto, the Savior’s face is given a soft expression, and fragility and passivity are felt in the body. The subtlety of this work distinguishes it from the power of the figures in the marble relief. Among the works of Michelangelo that have come down to us there are no similar works.
Already in these early works of Michelangelo one can feel the originality and strength of his talent. Performed by a 15-17 year old artist, they not only seem completely mature, but also truly innovative for their time. In these youthful works, the main features of Michelangelo’s work emerge - a tendency towards monumental enlargement of forms, monumentality, plastic power and drama of images, reverence for the beauty of man; they show the presence of the young Michelangelo’s own sculptural style. Here we have before us ideal images of the mature Renaissance, built both on the study of antiquity and on the traditions of Donatello and his followers.
Along with his studies in sculpture, Michelangelo did not stop studying painting, mainly monumental, as evidenced by his drawings from Giotto’s frescoes. Along the way, independent motifs arise in Michelangelo’s graphics. The fifteen-year-old boy was convinced that it was impossible to draw, let alone create a sculpture, by looking at a person only from the outside. He was the first sculptor who decided to study the internal structure of the human body. This was strictly prohibited, so he even had to proceed with the law. He secretly, at night, entered the mortuary, located at the monastery, opened the bodies of the dead, studied anatomy in order to show people in his drawings and in marble all the perfection of the human body.
The death in 1491 of Bertoldo, and the next year of Lorenzo de' Medici, seemed to have completed the period of Michelangelo's four-year training in the Medici gardens. Begins on your own creative path artist, who emerged, however, already during his years of study, when he performed his first works, marked by features of a bright individuality. These early works of his also testify to the qualitative shift that occurred in Italian sculpture - the transition from the Early to the High Renaissance.
Bologna (1494-1495)
Michelangelo's patron and regular customer, Lorenzo the Magnificent, died in 1492. Lorenzo de' Medici was a strong, charismatic ruler and successful leader. His son Pierrot, who inherited his father's empire, lacked these character traits. Within a few months he had completely lost influence. The life of the young sculptor has changed significantly since then. He had to leave beautiful Florence and go into exile.
After the death of Lorenzo de' Medici, due to the danger of a French invasion, the artist moved to Bologna for a while, following the remnants of the great Medici family. In Bologna, Michelangelo studied the works of Dante and Petrarch, under the influence of whose canzonas he began to create his first poems. He was greatly impressed by the reliefs of the Church of San Petronio, executed by Jacopo della Quercia. Here Michelangelo made three small statues for the tomb of St. Dominic, work on which was interrupted due to the death of the sculptor who began it.
After some time, Michelangelo moved to Venice. He lives in Venice until 1494, and then again moves to Bologna.
“A few weeks before the expulsion of the Medici from Florence, Michelangelo left for Bologna, and then to Venice, fearing, due to his closeness to this family, that some trouble would happen to him, since he too had seen the debauchery and bad rule of Piero dei Medici. Not finding anything to do in Venice, he returned to Bologna, where, due to an oversight, trouble befell him: when entering the gate, he did not take the exit certificate back, about which, for safety, Messer Giovanni Bentivogli issued an order, which stated that foreigners those with certificates are subject to a fine of 50 Bolognese lire. Michelangelo, who had found himself in such trouble, and had nothing to pay, was accidentally drawn to the attention of Messer Francesco Aldovrandi, one of the sixteen rulers of the city. When he was told what had happened, he took pity on Michelangelo and released him, and he lived with him for more than a year. Once Aldovrandi went with him to look at the shrine of St. Dominic, on which, as was said earlier, the old sculptors were working: Giovanni Pisano, and after him the master Nicola d'Arca. There were missing two figures about an elbow high: an angel carrying a candlestick , both St. Petronius and Aldovrandi asked whether Michelangelo would dare to make them, to which he answered in the affirmative. And indeed, having received the marble, he executed them in such a way that they became the best figures there, for which Messer Francesco Aldovrandi ordered to pay him. thirty ducats. Michelangelo spent a little more than a year in Bologna and would have stayed there longer: such was the courtesy of Aldovrandi, who loved him both for his drawing and because, as a Tuscan, he liked Michelangelo’s pronunciation and enjoyed listening to him read. to him the works of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio and other Tuscan poets" Vasari
Michelangelo tries his hand at various creative tasks, in additions to the already existing sculptural ensemble of Benedetto da Maiano's tomb of St. Dominic in the Church of San Domenico in Bologna, for which he created small marble statues:
St. Proclus (1494) and St. Petronius (1494)
Marble. 1494 Michelangelo Buonarroti. Church of San Domenico, Bologna
Angel holding a candelabra (1494-1495) for the altar of the chapel
Marble. 1494-1495 Michelangelo Buonarroti. Church of San Domenico, Bologna
Marble. Fragment. 1494-1495 Michelangelo Buonarroti. Church of San Domenico, Bologna
Their images are full of inner life and bear a clear imprint of the individuality of their creator. The figure of a kneeling angel is very natural and beautiful, precisely designed to be viewed from a certain point of view. With simple, economical gestures, he grasps the carved stand of the candelabra, the spacious robe flows in voluminous folds around his bowed legs. With the cuteness of her features and the detached expression on her face, the angel resembles an antique statue.
Inscribed into the previously created ensemble of the tomb, these statues did not disturb its harmony. The statues of St. Petronius and St. Proclus clearly show the influence of the works of Donatello, Masaccio and Jacopo della Quercia. They can be compared with the statues of saints in the outer niches of the facade of the Church of Or San Michele in Florence, created in the early period of Donatello's work, which Michelangelo was free to study in his home city.
First return to Florence
By the end of 1495, despite fairly good living conditions and the first successful orders completed in Bologna, Michelangelo nevertheless decided to return to Florence. However, the city of childhood became unkind to the servants of art. The accusatory sermons of the stern ascetic monk Savonarola slowly but steadily changed the worldview of the Florentines. In the squares of the city, where until recently talented artists, poets, philosophers, and architects were extolled, bonfires began to burn, in which books and paintings were burned. Already Sandro Botticelli, succumbing to the general disgust for the brilliantly beautiful, but defiled by sinful idolatry, personally throws his masterpieces into the fire. According to the teachings of the fiery monk, masters were supposed to create works of exclusively religious content. In such conditions, the young sculptor could not stay for long; his imminent departure was inevitable.
“... he returned with pleasure to Florence, where for Lorenzo, son of Pierfrancesco de' Medici, he carved from marble St. John as a child and immediately from another piece of marble a life-sized sleeping Cupid, and when it was finished, through Baldassarre del Milanese it , as a beautiful thing, was shown to Pierfrancesco, who agreed with this and said to Michelangelo: “If you bury it in the ground and then send it to Rome, forging it as an old one, I am sure that it will pass for an ancient one there and you will get much more for it, than if you sell it here." They say that Michelangelo decorated it in such a way that it looked ancient, which is nothing to be surprised at, because he had enough talent to do both this and better. Others claim that Milanese took it to Rome and buried it in one of his vineyards, and then sold it as an ancient one to Cardinal St. George for two hundred ducats. They also say that it was sold by someone acting for Milanese and writing to Pierfrancesco, deceiving the cardinal, Pierfrancesco and Michelangelo, that Michelangelo should have been given thirty crowns, since more was supposedly not received for Cupid. However, later it was learned from eyewitnesses that Cupid was made in Florence, and the cardinal, having found out the truth through his messenger, ensured that the person acting for Milanese took back Cupid, which then fell into the hands of Duke Valentino, who presented it to the Marchioness Mantuan, who sent him to her possessions, where he remains today. This whole story served as a reproach to Cardinal St. George, who did not appreciate the dignity of the work, namely its perfection, for new things are the same as ancient ones, if only they were excellent, and he who pursues more the name than the quality , shows by this only his vanity, people of this kind, giving greater value appearances rather than essences, are found at all times" Vasari
Both statues - "Cupid" and "St. John" - have not survived.
In April or May 1496, Michelangelo completed “Cupid” and, following advice, gave it the appearance of an ancient Greek work, and sold it to Cardinal Riario in Rome, who, being sure that he was acquiring an antique, paid 200 ducats. An intermediary in Rome deceived Michelangelo and paid him only 30 ducats. Having learned about the forgery, the cardinal sent his man, who found Michelangelo and invited him to Rome. He agreed and on June 25, 1496 he entered the “eternal city”.
3. First Roman period (1496-1501)
“... Michelangelo’s fame became such that he was immediately summoned to Rome, where, by agreement with Cardinal St. George stayed with him for about a year, but did not receive any orders from him, since he knew little about these arts. At this very time, the cardinal's barber, who was also a painter and very diligently painted with tempera, became friends with Michelangelo, but did not know how to draw. And Michelangelo made for him a cardboard depicting St. Francis receiving the stigmata, and the barber executed it very carefully with paints on a small board, and this pictorial work is now in the first chapel of the church of San Pietro a Montorio, on the left hand of the entrance. What were Michelangelo’s abilities, Messer Jacopo Galli, a Roman nobleman, a gifted man, understood perfectly well after this, who ordered him a marble Cupid of natural size, and then a statue of Bacchus... Thus, during his stay in Rome, he achieved, while studying art, such that his lofty thoughts seemed incredible, and the difficult manner he applied with the lightest ease, scaring off both those who were unfamiliar with such things and those who were accustomed to good things; after all, everything that was created before seemed insignificant compared to his things" Vasari
In 1496, Michelangelo went to Rome with a letter of recommendation from Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, addressed to the cardinal-philanthropist Raphael Riario, who enjoyed significant influence in the circle of the Roman clergy. Like Lorenzo de' Medici, the cardinal was a passionate admirer of ancient art and owned an extensive collection of ancient sculptures.
Michelangelo entered Rome at the age of 21. Rome was the center of life for many people living in northern Italy. It was also the religious center of the Roman Catholic Church. The Pope lived there in a church complex called the Vatican. Many of the great masterpieces of Renaissance art were created in Rome, particularly commissioned by the pope or other important church officials. New opportunities opened up for Michelangelo’s work in Rome, but restrictions also appeared. The free-thinking young man did not want to limit himself only to religious art, in the works of which religious ideas and aspirations should be expressed, the task of which, ultimately, is to renew and strengthen religious beliefs. Michelangelo felt closer to God, being in the process of creativity, creating magnificent statues that reflect the beauty of the human body.
For the artist and sculptor, Rome was especially interested in the ancient works of art that adorned the city and enriched it more than ever in the times of Michelangelo and Raphael thanks to excavations. Going beyond the Florentine artistic environment and closer contact with the ancient tradition helped broaden the young master’s horizons and enlarge the scale of his artistic thinking. Not being carried away to the point of oblivion by ancient labels, he nevertheless carefully studied everything worthy of attention, which became one of the sources of his rich plasticity. Brilliant instinct great master was deeply aware of the difference in the direction of ancient art and contemporary art. The ancients saw the naked body everywhere; in the Renaissance, the beauty of the body came to the fore again as an element necessary in art.
With a trip to Rome and work there, it opens up new stage works of Michelangelo. His works of this early Roman period are marked by a new scale, scope, and rise to the heights of mastery. Buonarroti's first stay in Rome lasted five years and in the late 1490s he created two major works:
- statue of "Bacchus"(1496-1497, National Museum, Florence), paying a peculiar tribute to the passion for ancient monuments,
- group “Lamentation of Christ”, or “Pieta”(1498-1501, St. Peter's Cathedral, Rome), where he puts new, humanistic content into the traditional Gothic scheme, expressing the grief of the young and beautiful woman about his dead son,
and not preserved:
- cardboard "St. Francis" (1496-1497) ,
- "Cupid" statue(1496-1497).
Rome is full of ancient monuments. In its very center there is now a kind of museum under open air- the ruins of a huge ensemble of ancient Roman forums. Many individual architectural monuments and sculptures of antiquity decorate the city squares and its museums.
A visit to Rome, contact with ancient culture, the monuments of which Michelangelo admired in the Medici collection in Florence, the discovery of the most famous monument of antiquity - the statue of Apollo (later called the Belvedere, after the place where the statue was exhibited for the first time), which coincided with his arrival in Rome - all this helped Michelangelo to more deeply and deeply appreciate ancient sculpture. Having creatively mastered the achievements of ancient masters, sculptors of the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance, Michelangelo showed the world his masterpieces. The generalized image is perfect wonderful person, found ancient art, he endowed with individual character traits, revealing the complexity inner world, human mental life.
Intoxicated Bacchus (1496-1498)
Michelangelo traveled to Rome, where he was able to explore many newly excavated ancient statues and ruins. Soon he created his first large-scale sculpture, more than life-size “Bacchus” (1496-1498, Bargello National Museum, Florence). This statue of the Roman god of wine, created in the city - the center of the Catholic Church, on a pagan rather than a Christian subject, rivaled ancient sculpture - the highest degree of praise in Renaissance Rome.
Bacchus and Satyr fragment
Marble. 1496-1498 Michelangelo Buonarroti. National Bargello Museum, Florence
Fragment. Marble. 1496-1498 Michelangelo Buonarroti. National Bargello Museum, Florence
Michelangelo showed the completed statue of Bacchus to Cardinal Riario, but he was restrained and did not express any particular enthusiasm for the work of the young sculptor. Probably, the range of his hobbies was limited to ancient Roman art, and therefore the works of his contemporaries were not of particular interest. However, other connoisseurs had a different opinion, and the statue by Michelangelo was generally highly appreciated. The Roman banker Jacopo Galli, who decorated his garden with a collection of Roman statues, was as passionate a collector as Cardinal Riario, and acquired a statue of Bacchus. Later, meeting the banker played a role big role in Michelangelo's career. Through his mediation, the sculptor made acquaintance with the French cardinal Jean de Villiers Fesanzac, from whom he received an important order.
“What were the abilities of Michelangelo, Messer Jacopo Galli, a Roman nobleman, a gifted man, perfectly understood after this, who ordered him a marble Cupid of natural size, and then a statue of Bacchus ten palms high, holding a cup in his right hand, and a tiger skin and a grape with his left a brush towards which a small satyr is reaching. From this statue one can understand that he wanted to achieve a certain combination of the marvelous members of his body, especially giving them the youthful flexibility characteristic of a man, and feminine fleshiness and roundness: one has to marvel at the fact that he is exactly in statues showed his superiority over all the new masters who worked before him" Vasari
Bacchus (Greek), also known as Bacchus (Latin), or Dionysus, is the patron saint of winegrowers and winemaking in Greek mythology; in ancient times he was revered in cities and villages, and merry holidays were held in his honor (hence bacchanalia).
Michelangelo's Bacchus is very convincing. Bacchus is represented by the sculptor in the form of a naked youth with a cup of wine in his hand. The human-sized statue of an intoxicated Bacchus is intended for all-round viewing. His posture is unstable. Bacchus seems ready to fall forward, but maintains his balance by leaning back; his gaze is turned to the cup of wine. The muscles of the back look elastic, but relaxed muscles of the abdomen and thighs demonstrate physical, and therefore spiritual, weakness. The lowered left hand holds the skin and grapes. The drunken god of wine is accompanied by a small satyr who feasts on a bunch of grapes.
Like The Battle of the Centaurs, Bacchus thematically directly connects Michelangelo with ancient mythology, with its life-affirming, clear images. And if the “Battle of the Centaurs” is closer in the nature of its execution to the reliefs of ancient Roman sarcophagi, then in the setting of the figure of “Bacchus” the principle found by ancient Greek sculptors, in particular Lysippos, who was interested in the problem of conveying unstable movement, was used. But as in “The Battle of the Centaurs,” Michelangelo gave his own interpretation of the theme here. In Bacchus, instability is perceived differently than in the sculpture of the ancient sculptor. This is not a moment’s respite after strenuous movement, but a long-term state caused by intoxication, when the muscles are limply relaxed.
The image of a small goat-footed satyr accompanying Bacchus is noteworthy. Carefree, smiling cheerfully, he steals grapes from Bacchus. The motif of casual fun that permeates this sculptural group is an exceptional phenomenon in Michelangelo. Throughout its long creative life he never returned to it again.
The sculptor achieved a difficult task: to create the impression of instability without compositional imbalance, which could disrupt the aesthetic effect. The young sculptor masterfully dealt with the purely technical difficulties of staging a large marble figure. Like the ancient masters, he introduced a support - a marble stump, on which he sat the satyr, thus playing with this technical detail compositionally and in meaning.
The impression of complete completion of the statue is given by the processing and polishing of the marble surface, and the careful execution of every detail. And although “Bacchus” does not belong to the highest achievements of the sculptor and, perhaps less than his other works, is marked by the individuality of the creator, it still testifies to his commitment to ancient images, the depiction of the naked body, as well as increased technical skill.
"Lamentation of Christ", or "Pieta" (c. 1498-1500)
Arriving in Rome in 1496, two years later Michelangelo received an order for a statue of the Virgin and Christ. He sculpted an incomparable sculptural group, including the figure of the Mother of God grieving over the body of the Savior taken down from the cross. This work undoubtedly indicates the beginning of the master’s creative maturity. The Lamentation of Christ group was originally intended for the Chapel of the Virgin Mary in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, and is still located in St. Peter's Basilica, in the first chapel on the right.
St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. "Pieta"
Michelangelo "Pieta", 1499. Marble. Height: 174 cm. St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican
Marble. OK. 1498-1500. Michelangelo Buonarroti. Cathedral of St. Petra, Rome
Fragments:
Fragment. Marble. OK. 1498-1500. Michelangelo Buonarroti. Cathedral of St. Petra, Rome
The order for the sculptural group was received thanks to the guarantee of the banker Jacopo Galli, who acquired the statue of “Bacchus” and some other works by Michelangelo for his collection. The contract was concluded on August 26, 1498, the customer was the French cardinal Jean de Villiers Fesanzac. According to the contract, the master was obliged to complete the work in a year, and received 450 ducats for it. The work was completed around 1500, after the death of the cardinal, who died in 1498. Perhaps this marble group was originally intended for the future tomb of the customer. By the time the Lamentation of Christ ended, Michelangelo was only 25 years old.
The contract contains the words of the guarantor, who stated “that this will be the best work of marble that exists in our days, and that no master in our days will make it better.” Time has confirmed the words of Galli, who turned out to be a far-sighted and subtle connoisseur of art. “The Lamentation of Christ” still has an irresistible effect with its perfection and depth of artistic solution.
This grandiose order opens a new stage in the life of the young sculptor. He opened his own workshop and hired a team of assistants. During this period, he repeatedly visited the Carr quarries, where he himself chose marble blocks for his future sculptures. For the “Pieta” a short but fairly wide block of marble was required, since according to his plan, the body of her adult Son was placed on the lap of the Virgin Mary.
This composition became key work the early Roman period of Michelangelo's work, marking the beginning of the High Renaissance in Italian sculpture. Some researchers compare the meaning of the marble group “Lamentation of Christ” with the meaning of the famous “Madonna in the Grotto” by Leonardo da Vinci, which opens the same stage in painting.
“... These things aroused the desire of Cardinal St. Dionysius, called the French Cardinal of Rouen, to leave, through the medium of an artist so rare, a worthy memory of himself in a city so famous, and he ordered him a marble, entirely round sculpture with the lamentation of Christ, which Upon its completion, it was placed in St. Peter's Cathedral in the chapel of the Virgin Mary, healer of fever, where the Temple of Mars used to be. Let it never occur to any sculptor, even if he were a rare artist, the thought that he could add something to such a design and to such grace and through his labors could someday achieve such subtlety and purity and cut marble with such skill as Michelangelo showed in this thing, for in it all the power and all the possibilities inherent in art are revealed. Among the beauties here, in addition to the divinely made robes, the deceased Christ attracts attention; and let it not even occur to anyone to see a naked body made so skillfully, with such beautiful limbs, with the muscles, vessels, and veins dressing its frame so finely trimmed, or to see a dead man more similar to a dead man than this dead man. Here is the most gentle expression of the face, and a certain consistency in the binding and pairing of the arms, and in the connection of the torso and legs, and such a treatment of the blood vessels that you are truly amazed at how the artist’s hand could shortest time it is so divine and impeccable to create such a wondrous thing; and, of course, it is a miracle that a stone, originally devoid of any form, could ever be brought to that perfection that nature has difficulty imparting to flesh. Michelangelo put so much love and work into this creation that only on it (which he did not do in his other works) he wrote his name along the belt tightening the chest of the Mother of God; It turned out that one day Michelangelo, approaching the place where the work was placed, saw there a large number of visitors from Lombardy, highly praising it, and when one of them turned to the other with the question of who did it, he replied: “ Our Milanese Gobbo." Michelangelo remained silent, and it seemed at least strange to him that his works were attributed to another. One night he locked himself there with a lamp, taking the chisels with him, and carved his name on the sculpture. And truly she is as one most beautiful poet said about her, as if addressing a real and living figure:
Dignity and beauty
And sorrow: you will groan over this marble!
He is dead, having lived, and taken down from the cross
Beware of raising your songs,
So as not to call from the dead until the time comes
The one who accepted grief alone
For everyone who is our master,
You are now father, husband and son,
O you, his wife, and mother, and daughter." Vasari
This beautiful marble sculpture remains to this day a monument to the full maturity of the artist’s talent. Carved in marble, this sculptural group amazes with its bold handling of traditional iconography, and the humanity of the created images, and high skill. This is one of the most famous works in the history of world art.
“And it was not for nothing that he acquired the greatest glory for himself, and although some, after all, but still ignorant people say that his Mother of God is too young, have they not noticed or do they not know that virgins who have not been disgraced in any way hold back for a long time and keep their facial expression undistorted, but in those burdened with grief, as Christ was, the opposite is observed? Why such a work brought his talent more honor and glory than all the previous ones taken together.” Vasari
The young Mary is depicted with the dead Christ on her knees, an image borrowed from northern European art. The earliest versions of the Pieta also included the figures of St. John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene. Michelangelo, however, limited himself to two key figures - the Virgin and Christ. Some researchers suggest that Michelangelo depicted himself and his mother in the sculptural group, who died when he was only six years old. Art historians note that his Virgin Mary is as young as the sculptor’s mother at the time of her death.
The theme of mourning Christ was popular in both Gothic art and the Renaissance, but here it is treated rather restrainedly. Gothic knew two types of such mourning: either with the participation of the young Mary, whose ideally beautiful face is not able to darken the grief that befell her, or with the elderly Mother of God, gripped by terrible, heartbreaking despair. Michelangelo in his group decisively departs from the usual attitudes. He depicted Mary as young, but at the same time she is infinitely far from the conventional beauty and emotional immobility of Gothic Madonnas of this type. Her feeling is a living human experience, embodied with such depth and richness of shades that here for the first time we can talk about introducing a psychological element into the image. 3 and the young mother’s external restraint reveals the full depth of her grief; the mournful silhouette of a bowed head, a hand gesture that sounds like a tragic question, everything adds up to an image of enlightened grief.
(To be continued)
There are very different interpretations of the place and significance of the ensemble of the Medici Chapel, both in a general cultural sense and in relation to a stage in Michelangelo’s work: a reflection of views on the world order, philosophical discussions about the essence of time, grief over the fate of Florence, which has lost its freedom, or thoughts about the immortality of the soul.
In fact, Michelangelo embodied his personal thoughts in architectural forms and plastic images so universal that they acquired universal significance. And the Medici monument eventually became a monument to Florence itself.
Story
In 1520, by order of Pope Leo X and Cardinal Giuliano de' Medici, Michelangelo Buonarotti began work on the creation of the Medici tomb in Cathedral of San Lorenzo. Aristocrats by birth, rebels by spirit, who supported the Ciompi uprising, politicians, bankers, philanthropists, educators, industrialists and religious leaders - all these are the Medici, each of whom made their own contribution to the history of Florence. The embodiment of Michelangelo's plan to create the Medici Chapel was supposed to become evidence not only of the power of this family, but also “a mirror of all Italy.”
The fourteen-year period of work on the tomb became for the Master years of alternating despair and hope. The impending crisis of Renaissance culture, war, and harsh anti-Florentine policies within the country, which led to the fall of Florence and the destruction of the spirit of free citizenship inherent in the city, created the conditions for the collapse of all Michelangelo’s human and political hopes. It is no coincidence that the sculptural images he made for the Chapel embody tragedy and doom, which can be seen even in the photo.
The Medici Chapel is the only architectural and visual monument created by Michelangelo from beginning to end, unlike many of his other plans, which were not fully realized.
Unity of space and contradiction of content
The Medici Chapel is located in the New Sacristy of the Church of San Lorenzo. For a small square room of about 120 sq. meters, the architect set a goal to stretch the entire composition and interior vertically so that it would seem taller. Innovations artistic views Michelangelo manifested himself in the fact that the massive filling of the space (tombs, sculptures) comes into contrast with the light framing (the cornice of the lower zone of the sacristy and semi-columns). The dynamics of the architectural language were also manifested in the fact that the master was not afraid to cut through the framing lines with fragments of statues protruding beyond their boundaries, as if expanding the internal space of the chapel.
The sculptural decoration was dedicated to the deceased Lorenzo and Giuliano Medici. In contrast to the stereotypes of the 15th century, when the dead were depicted as peacefully resting, Lorenzo, deep in thought, and Giuliano, full of action, are shown sitting in niches. The tombstones seem to form two facades of the palace buildings, the sculptures acquire a natural spatial environment.
The sculptor placed the figures of “Morning” and “Evening” on the lid of Lorenzo’s sarcophagus. “Morning” symbolizes a painful awakening; all the plasticity of this figure is full of premonitions of new suffering. And the movement of the hand, freeing the face from the veil, and the sigh escaping from the half-opened lips, go out, barely having time to begin. The pose and facial expression of “Morning” indicate that a tired, dying soul lives in this blooming body. The image of “Evening” is full of humility, immersion in the haze of sleep. The impression of inertia is enhanced by the deliberate unfinished elaboration of the sculpture’s stone: the face, hands, and feet of “Evening” seem to be shrouded in the twilight of approaching extinction.
Giuliano's tomb is decorated with figures of "Day" and "Night". The titanic image of “Day,” full of power and even some threat, is contrasted with “Night,” which leaves the impression of complete exhaustion of vitality and dying.
For the Medici Chapel, Michelangelo also created a statue of the Madonna nursing a baby. The location of the sculpture is such that it involves walking along an arc, from each point of which a completely new aspect of the expressiveness of plasticity and the beauty of internal movement is revealed.
Location, opening hours and cost
Address: Piazza di Madonna degli Aldobrandini, 6. 50123 Firenze, Italy.
The Medici Chapel is located in Piazza Madonna delli Aldobrandini. The museum is open to visitors from 08:15 to 16:50. It should be taken into account that the ticket The ticket office closes at 16:20. Entrance costs 8 euros, children under 10 years old are free. Excluding holidays and weekends:
- Christmas (note, Catholic, December 25!);
- New Year;
- May 1;
- every even Sunday;
- every odd Monday;
- the chapel is open every day.
In the souvenir shop at the Sacristy you can buy jewelry made of silver and semi-precious stones, exactly repeating those depicted in the portraits of members of the Medici family. Prices range from 20 to 300 euros.
How to get there
You need to get to the Medici Chapel by bus No. C1 to the stop “Church of San Lorenzo”. You can also go on foot. You should focus on the Cathedral of Santa Maria Novella, located on the opposite side of the station square. Then take a short street from Piazza Santa Maria Novella to the Church of San Lorenzo.