The Renaissance brought many great painters, sculptures, thinkers, and events that have impacted the world today. One of those people is Michelangelo. Michelangelo was a famous sculptor who also created many amazing paintings.
Michelangelo Buonarroti was born on March 6, 1475. He was born at Caprese and his family returned to Florence soon after he was born. His family owned a good-size farm in the little village of Settignano overlooking Florence. Settignano and in the surrounding villages Michelangelo grew up and was introduced to stone carving. Being a member of a successful family, he attended Latin school and was expected to become a banker of some sort.
Michelangelo&#8217;s family, the Buonarroti family, was distantly related to the well-known Medici, the genuine leaders of Florence and the greatest art consumers of the Renaissance. Michelangelo&#8217;s father, Ludovico Buonarroti, was a minor Florentine official and the local governor of the small towns of Caprese and nearby Chiusi. Ludovico expected Michelangelo to become a successful banker, and when Michelangelo&#8217;s father found out that he was interested in art and sculpting, he was anything but supportive. Later in Michelangelo&#8217;s childhood, Ludovico Buonarroti placed him in the Medici entourage. The Medici entourage were successful bankers and the most influential family in Florence. In the Medici household, Michelangelo found himself in contact with the most educated men of that time period.
Michelangelo&#8217;s professional life was anything but glamorous until his work began to become appreciated and after that point, his career took off. For abusing their power, the Medici family was excited and moved to Bologna. This left Michelangelo to live with Aldovrandi. Aldovrandi gave Michelangelo a small payment for Michelangelo to carve some of the small statues that were missing from the tomb of St. Dominic in the church of San Domenico. Later on, Michelangelo returned to Florence around 1495. But after he went to Florence and did sculpting there, he went to Rome for the first time. Michelangelo introduced himself to Cardinal Raffaele Riario, the richest and most powerful man in Rome, other than the pope. Michelangelo was given a place to stay in the cardinal's large company. During his stay there he was given a block of marble, he was told to "show what he could do." Michelangelo did, and although our modern appreciation of the Bacchus, Cardinal Riario was not impressed by it.
Michelangelo&#8217;s hard work and impressive sculpting later paid off and he began to be invited to do all sorts of artwork. Through a connection with Galli, Michelangelo was hired for a Pietà. He was hired by a powerful French cardinal, Jean de Bilhères. Michelangelo was unexpectedly had the opportunity to make a large religious work for a public location in the early church of St. Peter's. Later, Michelangelo willingly set the Piccolomini carvings aside when he received the unusual opportunity to carve a David. Almost immediately after completing the statue in Bologna, Michelangelo was once again in Rome, and once again asked to do a job not logical for a marble sculptor. He was asked to do the painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo's objection was pointless since the pope was far more stubborn than he was. But like all tasks that Michelangelo resisted at first, he absorbed himself into it with all of his energy. For four years, from 1508 to 1512, Michelangelo dealt with the many different difficulties. This particular painting was nearly ten thousand square feet. Altogether in the eight years of the High Renaissance, Michelangelo accepted eighteen different jobs and task for works of different levels importance, from the job Piccolomini gave him to the long, tiring Sistine Chapel ceiling. One thing that all of the jobs had in common were that Michelangelo worked at all of them with all of his effort and all of his heart.