21 Interesting Michelangelo Facts That You Might Not Know
1. When he was six years old, his mother died
Their family moved back to Florence, where Michelangelo lived, a few months after his birth. Tragically, his mother died of an illness when he was just six years old, and Michelangelo was raised by a babysitter and her husband (a stonecutter) in Settignano, where his father ran a small farmland and marble quarry, and where he developed his love for marble.
2. He was uninterested in his studies
Michelangelo learned linguistics in Florence with Humanist Francesco da Urbino when he was a young man. Having the opportunity, Michelangelo ignored his schooling, opting instead to paint church paintings and seeking out other painters as companions.
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3. His father was the court administrator for the town
His father (Ludovico di Leonardo Buonarroti Simoni) was the town's judicial administrator and podestà or municipal administrator of Chiusi della Verna at the time of Michelangelo's birth.
Francesca di Neri del Miniato di Siena was his mother. According to the Buonarrotis, they are descended from Countess Mathilde of Canossa (one of the most notable nobles in Italy in the 2nd half of the 11th century). Although Michelangelo wholeheartedly believed it, the allegation has yet to be confirmed.
4. Michelangelo assisted in the creation of military defense fortifications
The Medici dynasty was ejected from Florence in 1527, and a republican government was established. Despite his prior employment with the Medicis, Michelangelo supported the republican cause and was quickly named head of the city's defenses.
Traveling around cities to study and analyze their own defense walls was not a duty he took lightly. He drew a lot of drawings and sketches for lookout strongholds and wall designs.
These plans would enable the city to withstand a ten-month siege by invading armies before succumbing to the siege in August of 1530. He was not executed, and Clement VII quickly forgave him and rehired him. When the pope died in 1534, he permanently left Rome.
5. Domenico Ghirlandaio hired Michelangelo as an apprentice
Michelangelo began his apprenticeship with Domenico Ghirlandaio (an Italian Renaissance painter with the largest workshop in Florence) when he was 13 years old, and he witnessed how the Vatican commissioned a team of painters, including Domenico Ghirlandaio, to design the walls of the Sistine Chapel during his childhood.
6. David was carved out of a discarded marble block
Michelangelo was known to be picky about the stone he used in his sculptures. Surprisingly, he sculpted David from a slab of marble that had previously been deemed unusable by other sculptors.
The block, dubbed "the Giant," was part of an abandoned marble quarrying project for statues for the Florence Cathedral. The marble was rough and decaying at the time, damaged by previous sculptors' unsuccessful attempts to dig into it with their chisels.
Despite being transformed into the beauty we know today, due to the poor quality of the marble, it has eroded more than most other statues of the time.
7. The majority of his poetry has survived to this day
He penned numerous poems and letters, the most of which are still in existence today. He explores love, desire, pleasure, devotion, religion, and the human spirit in his poetry, which is highly engaging. Celestial Love, Dante, The Doom Of Beauty, Joy May Kill, and Love's Justification are some of his best poems.
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8. At the same time, Michelangelo was working on the Pope's tomb and painting the Sistine Chapel's ceiling
Michelangelo also painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel during the time he was working on the Pope's tomb. It took him around four years to complete his work here (1508–1512). The ceiling is adorned with nine scenes from the Book of Genesis in the center.
The artwork The Creation of Adam has been compared to Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa by numerous art experts. Michelangelo began work on the Sistine Chapel ceiling in his 30s, and he already had a strong reputation as a sculptor at the time.
However, as with other projects in today's society, his work at this magnificent Chapel was not all good and dandy. He also had setbacks, conflicts, hesitations, and delays as a result of it. Michelangelo even had a disagreement with the Pope, following which he quietly departed Rome for Florence.
9. The tale of Moses and Jesus Christ is likewise told on the Sistine Ceiling
The Bible tale is told in Michelangelo's frescoes on the Sistine ceiling (a mural painting method that includes painting with water-based paint straight onto wet cement). They tell the story of Moses and Jesus Christ and are part of a 15th-century narrative.
The Pope chose the ideas and subjects that would be emphasized in the fresco, while Michelangelo was in charge of the preprocessing stage. Who wouldn't want to view this masterpiece, regardless of whether they are religious or not? The video can be viewed by clicking here.
10. It took 40 years to complete Pope Julius II's Tomb
In 1505, Pope Julius II, who had just been elected, invited Michelangelo to design and create his tomb. They hoped to complete it in five years and have at least 40 statues.
However, due to repeated interruptions of his work on the tomb by other responsibilities, it took 40 years to finish (from 1505 to 1545), and he did not complete it to his delight.
11. When he produced the Madonna of the Stairs, he was only 15 years old
The Madonna of the Stairs is Michelangelo's earliest known marble masterpiece. When he was 15 years old, he created Madonna of the Stairs. His first two sculptures were this one and the Battle of the Centaurs. Both of these events shaped his sculptural style at an early stage in his life.
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12. Michelangelo's nose was broken by a rival
Michelangelo was assaulted in the nose by Pietro Torrigiano, a youthful opponent who left it permanently crushed and deformed.
Michelangelo may have irritated him with "trash comments," and he was envious of Michelangelo's greater abilities. "I delivered him such a hard knock on the nose that I felt bone and cartilage crumble beneath my knuckles like biscuit, and he'll carry this mark with him to the grave."
13. Michelangelo was a devout follower of the Catholic faith
Michelangelo was a devout Catholic whose religion grew stronger as he grew older. "Neither painting nor sculpture will be able to ease my spirit any longer," he writes in the closing words of poem 285 (written in 1554), "now oriented toward that divine love that extended his arms on the cross to take us in."
14. Michelangelo lived more than 40 years longer than Leonardo da Vinci
The "great three" of the Florentine High Renaissance are Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino. Despite the fact that their names are frequently linked, Michelangelo was 23 years younger than Leonardo and 8 years older than Raphael.
Michelangelo, unfortunately, had limited connections with each artist due to his solitary character, and he outlived both of them by more than 40 years. Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino died at the age of 37, while Leonardo da Vinci died at the age of 67.
15. Many people think of him as a down-to-earth person
"However rich I may have been, I have always lived like a poor man," Michelangelo told his pupil, "however affluent I may have been." Michelangelo, as per his recollections, eats and drinks more out of obligation than pleasure, and he sleeps in his casual attire and footwear.
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16. For the Sistine Chapel, he was paid 3,000 ducats
Michelangelo made a lot of money as a well-known and recognized artist of his time. He was paid 3,000 ducats for creating the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel alone, which equates to at least $100,000 in today's money and was a significant sum of money at the time.
17. He did artwork for nine different Popes
Dating in 1505, Michelangelo painted artworks for nine Catholic Popes in a row, from Julius II to Pius IV. During that period, he worked on a wide range of projects, from ornamental knobs for the Pope's bed to the four-year painting of the Sistine Chapel.
However, he did not always have friendly connections with all of them, for as with Pope Julius II, for whom Michelangelo had worked for three years. The artist was working on a facade for Pope Leo X when Julius II abruptly canceled the project.
He did, however, have better ties with other pontiffs, such as Pope Paul III, who defended his work on The Last Judgment (1536) after church officials declared it indecent because to the inclusion of naked individuals.
18. Giorgio Vasari was commissioned by Lionardo Buonarroti to design and construct Michelangelo's Tomb
Lionardo Buonarroti, one of Michelangelo's descendants, chose Giorgio Vasari, another prominent Italian painter, and engineer, to design and build Michelangelo's Tomb, a monumental undertaking that cost 770 scudi and took more than ten years to complete. Cosimo I de' Medici, the 2nd Duke of Florence, provided the marble for Michelangelo's tomb.
19. His name is a mix of Hebrew and Greek words
Michelangelo's name is a mixture of the Hebrew name 'Michael' (which means "God's gift") and the Greek name Angelo (messenger). The name Michelangelo is often assumed to have originated in Italy.
20. His Most Well-Known Works Have Been Defaced
Laszlo Toth, a mentally ill geologist, leaped over the balcony at St Peter's Basilica in 1972 and began hammering away at the Pietà sculpture. Madonna's forearm, nose, veil, and eyelid were all broken off by him.
Many broken bits of marble had to be recovered by restoration workers, including one that was later mailed to the Vatican by a visitor who had snatched it during the spectacular attack. The sculpture would need to be repaired for ten months before it could be displayed again. A similar event happened to the "David" sculpture in 1991, when an assailant used a chisel to chisel off a toe.
21. He died at the age of 88
Michelangelo died in Rome in 1564, at the age of 88, barely three weeks shy of his 89th birthday, after a brief illness. Michelangelo's net worth now, assuming he is still alive, is believed to be at least $35 million. The money was given to his brothers and several relatives.
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Michelangelo's FAQ's
Who was Michelangelo's contribution?
Michelangelo, whose full name was Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, was an Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect, and poet whose effect on the development of Western art was unprecedented.
What was Michelangelo's contribution to the world?
Michelangelo developed new fresco/plaster mixtures that lasted longer than usual ones. He also devised a unique platform system to assist him in painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling, as well as a wall design to aid in the defense of Florence.
What is Michelangelo's significance?
Michelangelo was a sculptor, painter, and architect who is largely regarded as one of the Renaissance's — if not the world's — finest talents.
His art displayed a never-before-seen combination of psychological understanding, physical reality, and passion.
When Michelangelo was first seen?
Michelangelo made a cupid statue when he was still a teenager. His client persuaded him to sell the artwork as an antique by pretending it was older than it actually was.
Despite the fact that the person they sold it to later discovered their deception, they were sufficiently impressed to request a meeting with the young Michelangelo.
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