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What are the most famous Michelangelo sculptures?
Was Michelangelo a sculptor?
What is Michelangelo known for?
What makes Michelangelo a great artist?
- David. Michelangelo was a well-known person during the Italian Renaissance period. He was a prolific painter, but he is most known for his skills as a sculptor throughout the 15th and 16th centuries.
- The Pietà. While Michelangelo is arguably better recognized for his later works, such as the David statue and the Sistine Chapel works, the Pieta sculpture established him as an artist early in his career.
- Bacchus. The sculpture represents Bacchus, the Roman god of wine and drunkenness, holding a glass and grapes in his hands, with a faun, half man, half goat, standing behind him and devouring the grapes.
- Moses. Moses is a sculpture at Rome’s San Pietro in Vincoli church. It depicts the biblical figure Moses with horns on his head and was commissioned for Pope Julius II’s burial tomb in 1505 and completed in 1545.
- Overview
- Early life and works
The frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (1508–12) in the Vatican, which include the iconic depiction of the creation of Adam interpreted from Genesis, are probably the best known of Michelangelo’s works today, but the artist thought of himself primarily as a sculptor. His famed sculptures include the David (1501), now in the Accademia in Florence, and the Pietà (1499), now in St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.
Read more below: The middle years: The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
Pietà
Find out about the Pietà, a popular theme in Christian art.
Why is Michelangelo so famous?
Michelangelo first gained notice in his 20s for his sculptures of the Pietà (1499) and David (1501) and cemented his fame with the ceiling frescoes of the Sistine Chapel (1508–12). He was celebrated for his art’s complexity, physical realism, psychological tension, and thoughtful consideration of space, light, and shadow. Many writers have commented on his ability to turn stone into flesh and to imbue his painted figures with energy. Michelangelo’s talent continued to be recognized in subsequent centuries, and thus his fame has endured into the 21st century.
Michelangelo Buonarroti was born to a family that had for several generations belonged to minor nobility in Florence but had, by the time the artist was born, lost its patrimony and status. His father had only occasional government jobs, and at the time of Michelangelo’s birth he was administrator of the small dependent town of Caprese. A few months later, however, the family returned to its permanent residence in Florence. It was something of a downward social step to become an artist, and Michelangelo became an apprentice relatively late, at 13, perhaps after overcoming his father’s objections. He was apprenticed to the city’s most prominent painter, Domenico Ghirlandaio, for a three-year term, but he left after one year, having (Condivi recounts) nothing more to learn. Several drawings, copies of figures by Ghirlandaio and older great painters of Florence, Giotto and Masaccio, survive from this stage; such copying was standard for apprentices, but few examples are known to survive. Obviously talented, he was taken under the wing of the ruler of the city, Lorenzo de’ Medici, known as the Magnificent. Lorenzo surrounded himself with poets and intellectuals, and Michelangelo was included. More important, he had access to the Medici art collection, which was dominated by fragments of ancient Roman statuary. (Lorenzo was not such a patron of contemporary art as legend has made him; such modern art as he owned was to ornament his house or to make political statements.) The bronze sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni, a Medici friend who was in charge of the collection, was the nearest he had to a teacher of sculpture, but Michelangelo did not follow his medium or in any major way his approach. Still, one of the two marble works that survive from the artist’s first years is a variation on the composition of an ancient Roman sarcophagus, and Bertoldo had produced a similar one in bronze. This composition is the Battle of the Centaurs (c. 1492). The action and power of the figures foretell the artist’s later interests much more than does the Madonna of the Stairs (c. 1491), a delicate low relief that reflects recent fashions among such Florentine sculptors as Desiderio da Settignano.
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Florence was at this time regarded as the leading centre of art, producing the best painters and sculptors in Europe, and the competition among artists was stimulating. The city was, however, less able than earlier to offer large commissions, and leading Florentine-born artists, such as Leonardo da Vinci and Leonardo’s teacher, Andrea del Verrocchio, had moved away for better opportunities in other cities. The Medici were overthrown in 1494, and even before the end of the political turmoil Michelangelo had left.
In Bologna he was hired to succeed a recently deceased sculptor and carve the last small figures required to complete a grand project, the tomb and shrine of St. Dominic (1494–95). The three marble figures are original and expressive. Departing from his predecessor’s fanciful agility, he imposed seriousness on his images by a compactness of form that owed much to Classical antiquity and to the Florentine tradition from Giotto onward. This emphasis on seriousness is also reflected in his choice of marble as his medium, while the accompanying simplification of masses is in contrast to the then more usual tendency to let representations match as completely as possible the texture and detail of human bodies. To be sure, although these are constant qualities in Michelangelo’s art, they often are temporarily abandoned or modified because of other factors, such as the specific functions of works or the stimulating creations of other artists. This is the case with Michelangelo’s first surviving large statue, the Bacchus, produced in Rome (1496–97) following a brief return to Florence. (A wooden crucifix, recently discovered, attributed by some scholars to Michelangelo and now housed in the Casa Buonarroti in Florence, has also been proposed as the antecedent of the Bacchus in design by those who credit it as the artist’s work.) The Bacchus relies on ancient Roman nude figures as a point of departure, but it is much more mobile and more complex in outline. The conscious instability evokes the god of wine and Dionysian revels with extraordinary virtuosity. Made for a garden, it is also unique among Michelangelo’s works in calling for observation from all sides rather than primarily from the front.
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Read about Michelangelo's sculptures. You can also buy Michelangelo prints from our large gallery. www.Michelangelo.net is an unofficial website for Italian artist Michelangelo.
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (Italian: [mikeˈlandʒelo di lodoˈviːko ˌbwɔnarˈrɔːti siˈmoːni]; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known mononymously as Michelangelo (English: / ˌ m aɪ k əl ˈ æ n dʒ ə l oʊ, ˌ m ɪ k-/), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance.
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May 22, 2022 · Learn about 15 of the most renowned sculptures by Michelangelo, the Italian Renaissance artist who carved the angel in the marble. Discover the histories, meanings, and styles of his works, from Crucifix to Pietà.
- What Is Michelangelo Best Known For?Michelangelo’s most well-known works are the statue of David (1501 - 1504), which is currently housed at the Academia di Belle Arti di Firenze in F...
- Where Was Michelangelo Born?Michelangelo was born in Caprese, Florence. The village is now known as Caprese Michelangelo, named after the artist.
- How Old Was Michelangelo When He Died?Michelangelo lived from 1475 to 1564, making him 88 years old at the time of his death.
- How Much Would Michelangelo Be Worth Today?Despite previous sources reporting that the artist was not financially fortunate, the estate of Michelangelo today is worth 50,000 florins, which i...
Learn about the creation, history and meaning of Michelangelo's David, the most famous statue in Florence and one of the greatest masterpieces of art. See how the artist revolutionized the representation of David and depict him as a standing male nude before the battle with Goliath.
Learn about Michelangelo's life, art, and legacy as one of the greatest artists in history. Explore his sculptures, such as David, Pietà, and Bacchus, and his famous frescoes on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
