Michelangelo was a genius in many areas of the arts. He thought of himself mainly as a sculptor, but he was also an engineer, a painter, an architect, and a poet. He was born in 1475 in Urbino, Italy, and died in 1564. His full name is Michelangelo Buonnaroti. In his early years of working, he carved and shaped stone into pieces such as the Pieta and sculpted works such as David and Bacchus.
During Michelangelo's carreer, Pope Julius II commissioned him to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo was hesitant to undertake this project because he did not want to abandon his normal media of sculpture, but began working on the project in 1508. The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel became Michelangelo's most famous work. Nine scenes from the Old Testament are shown, God creating the Earth, the story of Adam and Eve, Noah and the flood, and others. These scenes are each surrounded by twelve paintings of Old Testament prophets. The ceiling was completed by himself after he dismissed all of his assistants because he grew frustrated with their lack of ability to create with his growing commands. He finished his great work in 1511.
Michelangelo was interested in the human body, and he considered the male nude to be the most important subject in art. Even in his architectural designs you can see ideas influenced by the body, whether a door may refer to a head, or the placement of different elements of a building may represent muscular tension. Some of his work had so much nudity in it that it recieved almost more criticism than praise for the artistry. One of those pieces is The Final Judgement, which was almost destroyed after Michelangelo's death before the church agreed to hire another artist to paint draperies over the offending parts.
Michelangelo liked challenges, and preferred to work in the most difficult medias, sculpture and fresco painting. Even when he was to paint a simple subject, he painted the subject in a very difficult position to draw and paint. He left many of his works unfinished, which some people say represents that he could not complete them because of his great ambition to make them more complex and difficult than they already were.
Michelangelo was influenced by Donatello in some of his works, showing unique uses with reliefs. His sculpted figures show a sense of grandeur and power, and arouse strong emotions in the viewer of these works. His works show the extremes of heroism and tragedy, but are never false or made up. His techniques influenced many artists to come, and not one sculptor of the sixteenth century had a style that was not based under the influence of Michelangelo. He was one of the most famous people of his time, and still remains to be to this day.
