Michelangelo Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Michelangelo - Essay Example Michelangelo spent a year with Ghirlandaio, and then his apprenticeship was broken off. He got access to the collection of ancient Roman sculpture of the ruler of Florence, Lorenzo de’Medici. Michelangelo lived with Lorenzo’s family and became like a son to him. The death of Lorenzo in 1492 was a very painful moment in the artist’s life. Soon after Lorenzo died the Medici family lost power and Michelangelo had to flee to Bologna. About the same time Michelangelo studied anatomy at the hospital Santo-Spirito, which helped him a lot in becoming a great sculptor as we know him. Michelangelo created his fist sculpture at the age of 17. That was the Battle of the Centaurs. In 1496 Michelangelo moved to Rome and spent five years there. We do not know much of his life and work at that period of time. There he carved a statue of Bacchus for a bankers garden of ancient sculpture. â€Å"This is Michelangelos earliest surviving large-scale work, and his only sculpture meant to be viewed from all sides.†(Michelangelo Biography, para.5) In 1498 he carved Pieta (pieta is a type of image in which Mary supports the dead body of Christ across her knees), which is now in St. Peter’s Cathedral. When Michelangelo returned to his hometown – Florence - in 1501, he was recognized as the most talented sculptor of the central Italy. He started carving the statue of David for Florence cathedral. â€Å"In the David Michelangelo first displayed that quality of _terribilità  _, of spirit-quailing, awe-inspiring force, for which he afterwards became so famous†¦ He was, however, far from having yet adopted those systematic proportions for the human body which later on gave an air of monotonous impressiveness to all his figures. On the contrary, this young giant strongly recalls the model; still more strongly indeed than the Bacchus did. Wishing perhaps to adhere strictly to the Biblical story, Michelangelo studied a lad whose frame was not developed."(Symonds,