Medici tomb in Florence. Description of Michelangelo's sculpture "Tomb of Lorenzo de' Medici"

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Michelangelo arrived in Florence in 1514 because Pope Leo X de' Medici invited him to create a new façade for the local church of San Lorenzo, the family temple of the influential Medici family. This facade was supposed to become a “mirror of all of Italy”, the embodiment of the best features of the skill of Italian artists and a witness to the power of the Medici family. But long months of thought, design decisions, Michelangelo’s stay in marble quarries turned out to be in vain. There was not enough money to implement the grandiose facade - and the project came to naught after the death of the pope.

In order not to alienate the ambitious artist from his family, Cardinal Giulio Medici instructed him not to finish the façade, but to create a chapel in the same church of San Lorenzo. Work on it began in 1519.

Concept and projects

The tombstone of the Renaissance went through a significant development when Michelangelo was forced to turn to the topic of memorial sculpture. The Medici Chapel is a monument to the formidable and powerful Medici family, and not the free expression of a creative genius.

In the first sketches, it was proposed to create a tombstone for early deceased representatives of the family - Duke Giuliano of Nemours and Duke of Urbino Lorenzo, whom Michelangelo wanted to place in the middle of the chapel. But the development of new options and studying the experience of his predecessors forced the artist to turn to the traditional scheme of side, wall monuments. Michelangelo developed wall options in his last project, decorating the tombstone with sculptures and the lunettes above them with frescoes.

The artist flatly refused to make portraits. He made no exception for the Dukes Lorenzo and Giuliano. He presented them as the embodiment of generalized, idealized persons - active and contemplative. A hint of the fleeting nature of their lives were also the allegorical figures of the passage of the day - Night, Morning, Day and Evening. The triangular composition of the tombstone was complemented by reclining figures of river gods already on the floor. The latter are a hint of the continuous passage of time. The background was a wall, compositionally decorated with niches and pilasters, complemented by decorative figures. It was planned to place garlands, armor and four decorative figurines of crouching boys over Lorenzo’s tombstone (the only one created of them would later be sold to England. From Lyde Brown’s collection in 1785 it would be acquired by the Russian Empress Catherine II for her own palace collections).

Large shells were held above the tombstone of Giuliano Putti, and a fresco was planned in the lunette. In addition to the tombstones, there was also an altar and sculptures of the Madonna and Child and two holy doctors - Cosmas and Damian, the heavenly patrons of the family.

Incomplete embodiment

The Medici Chapel is a small room, square in plan, the side length of the wall is twelve meters. The architecture of the structure was influenced by the Pantheon in Rome, a famous example of domed construction by ancient Roman masters. Michelangelo created a small version of it in his hometown. Outwardly ordinary and tall, the building makes an unpleasant impression with the rough surface of undecorated walls, the monotonous surface of which is broken by rare windows and a dome. Overhead lighting is practically the only illumination of the building, as in the Roman Pantheon.

The huge concept with a large number of sculptures did not frighten the artist, who began working on the project at the age of 45. He will also have time to create figures of both dukes, allegorical figures of the passage of the day, a boy on his knees, Madonna and Child and Saints Cosmas and Damian. Only the sculptures of Lorenzo and Giuliano and the allegorical figure of Night were truly completed. The master even managed to sand their surface. The surface of the Madonna, the boy on her knees, and the allegories of Day, Evening and Morning are much less developed. In a strange way, the unfinished nature of the figures gave them a new expressiveness, threatening strength and anxiety. The contrasting combination of light walls with dark colors of pilasters, cornices, window frames and lunette arches also contributed to the impression of melancholy. The alarming mood was also supported by the terrible, teratological friezes and masks on the capitals.

The figures of the river gods were developed only in drawings and sketches. In the finished version they were abandoned altogether. The niches along the figures of Lorenzo and Giuliano and the lunette also remained empty. The background of the wall with the figures of the Madonna and Child and Saints Cosmas and Damian is not designed in any way. In one of the options, they also planned to create pilasters and niches here. The lunette could contain a fresco on the theme “The Resurrection of Christ” as a hint at eternal life those who died in the afterlife and which is in the sketch.

Break with the Medici

The work on the chapel figures lasted almost fifteen years and did not bring the artist satisfaction with the final result, since it did not correspond to the plan. His relationship with the Medici family also deteriorated. In 1527, republican-minded Florentines rebelled and expelled all Medici from the city. Work on the chapel stopped. Michelangelo took the side of the rebels, which gave rise to accusations of ingratitude towards long-time patrons and patrons of the arts.

Florence was besieged by the soldiers of the united armies of the Pope and Emperor Charles. The provisional government of the rebels appointed Michelangelo as head of all fortifications. The city was taken in 1531 and Medici power in Florence was restored. Michelangelo was forced to continue working in the chapel.

Michelangelo, having completed the sketches of the sculptures, left Florence and moved to Rome, where he worked until his death. The chapel was built according to his design solutions and unfinished sculptures were installed in the appropriate places. The figures of Saints Cosmas and Damian were made by assistant sculptors Montorsoli and Raffaello da Montelupo.

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If suddenly, while in Florence, you want to visit the resting place of the last of the Medici family, visit Church of St. Lawrence (Basilica di San Lorenzo). And even though this austere building is not located in the most prestigious place in the city, and, in fact, is unfinished, it undoubtedly deserves your attention. After all, in the past the Basilica of San Lorenzo was a small family church great family Medici. And from an architectural point of view this is one of the first churches owned.

Let's go back a little and try to find out the history of this controversial structure. So, back in 393 AD. The Milanese Archbishop Ambrogio ordered the foundation of a church dedicated to St. Lawrence and the first Archbishop of Florence, St. Zenobius. The relics of the latter were kept within the walls of the church from the 4th to the 7th centuries. It was at this time that the Basilica of St. Lawrence was considered the Cathedral. Today the main cathedral of Florence is.

In the 11th century, the first global reconstruction of the building took place, during which the Renaissance style was replaced by Romanesque. At the beginning of the 15th century, several influential Florentine townspeople banded together to finance the expansion of the Church of San Lorenzo. The most significant was the donation made by Giovanni de' Medici, who wanted in this way to enter higher strata of society and strengthen his status.

The main architect for the work on the basilica was (Filippo Brunelleschi). The first thing the famous Italian architect began to do was add a side chapel, which later became known as the Old Sacristy.

Since it was planned to build a tomb for the Medici, Giovanni never spared money on financing the construction.

The construction of the Old Chapel lasted from 1421 to 1428. Its interior revived the system of a dome covering a square room. The interior space was simple and clear.

After completing work on the sacristy, Brunelleschi began general work on the church. However, he did not have time to finish them. In 1429 Giovanni Medici passed away. And with his death, the financial flow dries up. Subsequently, work on the reconstruction of San Lorenzo continued at the suggestion of Cosimo Medici the Old, who invited him to the position of architect Bartolomeo Michelozzo. Later, Cosimo the Elder became the first to be buried in the underground crypt, and the Basilica of San Lorenzo became the burial place of all representatives of the famous Florentine family.



In 1520, Pope Leo de' Medici hired an architect to build the New Sacristy (Sacristy). In it, one of the great Medici planned to bury those from the family who left the world at a young age (Giuliano Medici, Lorenzo di Pietra). This project is one of the most important in the creative life of the master. For example, if previously the tombs themselves and tombstones Since it was customary to place a room in the center, Michelangelo was not afraid to make an architectural revolution by placing tombs and statues along the perimeter along the walls.

Interestingly, the reconstruction of the facade was never completed. According to historical documents, this happened due to disagreements between Michelangelo and Pope Leo X de' Medici. Michelangelo insisted on covering the façade with Carrara marble, while the pope preferred to decorate the façade with stone from Pietrasanta.

Actually, the dispute itself arose due to the fact that the facade was supposed to reflect the skill of Italian artists and at the same time testify to the power of the Medici family. And for this purpose, Lev X considered his choice of stone more acceptable. The persistence of the parties led to the unfinished façade. After my dad’s death, funding decreased and the project itself came to an end.

In order to great artist Having not completely turned his back on the family, Cardinal Giulio de' Medici decided to distract him from the façade and commissioned the creation of a new chapel in the Basilica of San Lorenzo. Work on the new building began in 1519. And to this day, the tombstone sculptures he created attract tourists from all over the world. In addition to tourists, you can often see students from art academies in the chapel. Here they learn skills using the example of world masterpieces.

What to see



Despite the external ugliness of the basilica, a tourist who gets inside San Lorenzo is unlikely to regret it. After all, he will have the opportunity to see world works of art. For example, it is worth noting the bronze pulpits made by the great, which appeared in the second half of the 15th century. The interior is mesmerizing. A series of columns of varying diameters, devoid of any decoration, are believed to be the work of the architect Vasalleto. It is impossible to ignore the magnificent floor pattern, reminiscent of a carpet with designs on a church theme.



Old Sacristy

The interior decoration of the Old Sacristy is filled with beautiful medallions, lunettes and bas-reliefs by Donatello. The tomb of Giovanni and Pietro Medici is also located there. The inner surface of the dome is decorated with a unique fresco. It depicts the sky with day and night luminaries, as well as stars known at that time.

New Sacristy

The walls of the New Sacristy contain the sarcophagi of two Medici dukes. The tombs are decorated with various allegorical sculptures made by Michelangelo. In the center is the composition “Madonna and Child”.



Chapel of the Princes (Cappella Dei Principi)

The octagonal room of the Chapel has the second largest dome in Florence. The dome is decorated with frescoes on which you can see images of the city coats of arms of the Duchy of Tuscany. The painting of the crypt in which the Medici were buried was completed in 1826 by Pietro Benvenuti.



Laurentian Library (Biblioteca Laurenziana)

Buonarotti also authored the Laurentian Library. The master was engaged in its construction from 1524 to 1534, by order of Pope Clement VII de' Medici.


He also designed an amazing staircase, in the form of a flow of molten lava, and the interior decoration reading room. The library houses many books and historical manuscripts. The original meeting belonged to Cosimo the Old and was later expanded by the remaining members big family Medici. The library also owns some priceless items. For example, the Bible, dating from the 8th century AD. or the most ancient Roman encyclopedia (Naturalis Historia).


• Entrance fee: 3.5 euros. Do not forget that the church is active, and on Sunday you can attend mass for free.

Despite the fact that the Church of St. Lawrence is not the most majestic architectural structure, streams of tourists from all over the world flock to it every year. And, undoubtedly, the Medici family parish deserves your attention.

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The New Sacristy, a magnificent room created by Michelangelo.
The small square room soars upward with almost gothic insistence. The white marble of the walls is dynamically dissected with the help of dark stone by a system of arches, pilasters, capitals, and window frames.

A lot has been written about the New Sacristy by both professional art historians and ordinary travelers. There are also a lot of publications on this topic in LiveJournal. As a rule, the latter do not provide a deep analysis of this masterpiece by Michelangelo. I am saddened by the often rather superficial description: I visited, there is a lot of masculinity in the sculptures of Morning and Night and... that’s all. Many describe with delight the beauty of the Chapel of the Princes, preferring and putting it in first place. For me, visiting the Academy of Fine Arts and the opportunity to see Michelangelo’s originals - his SLAVES - radically influenced my attitude towards his work ().
I am always careful not to describe brilliant works of sculpture, painting and music, because I lack the words that will adequately appreciate them. That is why I turned to the impressions of famous people who had their say in art.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the famous Russian art historian, expert on the Florentine Renaissance, Pavel Muratov, wrote wonderfully about the Chapel:

“In the New Sacristy of San Lorenzo, in front of the tombs of Michelangelo, one can experience the purest, most fiery touch of art that man can experience. All the forces with which art influences the human soul are united here - the importance and depth of the concept, the genius of the imagination, the greatness of the images, the perfection of execution. Before this creation, Michelangelo involuntarily thinks that the meaning contained in it must be the true meaning of all art in general. Seriousness and silence are the first impressions here, and even without Michelangelo’s famous quatrain, hardly anyone would dare to speak loudly here. There is something in these tombs that firmly commands one to be silent, and as immersed in thought, and as melting the excitement of feelings, like the “Pensieroso” himself on Lorenzo’s grave. Pure contemplation is prescribed here by brilliant mastery. But the atmosphere surrounding Michelangelo's tomb is not completely transparent; it is painted in the dark colors of sadness. At the same time, there should be no place for abstract and dispassionate contemplation. It is impossible to spend an hour in the sacristy of San Lorenzo without experiencing an ever-increasing, acute mental anxiety. Sadness is spread throughout everything here and moves in waves from wall to wall. What could be more decisive than this experiment about the world, accomplished by the greatest of artists? With this revelation of art before our eyes, can there be any doubt that sadness lies at the basis of all things, at the basis of every destiny, at the very basis of life? Michelangelo's sadness is the sadness of awakening. Each of his allegorical figures addresses the viewer with a sigh: non mi destar[do not wake Me Up]. Tradition christened one of them “Morning”, another “Evening”, the third and fourth “Day” and “Night”. But “Morning” remained the name of the best of them, which best expresses Michelangelo’s main idea. It should be called “Dawn”, always remembering that at the dawn of every day there is a minute that pierces with pain, melancholy and gives birth to a quiet cry in the heart. The darkness of the night then dissolves into the pale light of dawn, the gray veils become thinner and thinner and disappear one after another with painful mystery, until dawn finally becomes morning. These gray shrouds still shroud Michelangelo’s “Morning,” which is unclear in its unfinished forms. For Michelangelo, awakening was one of the phenomena of the birth of life, and the birth of life was, according to Pater, the content of all his works. The artist never tired of observing this miracle in the world. The co-presence of spirit and matter became the eternal theme of his art, and the creation of a spiritualized form was his eternal artistic task. Man became the subject of all his images, because in the human image the most complete combination of the spiritual and material was realized. But it would be a mistake to think that Michelangelo saw harmony in this connection! The drama of his work is based on the dramatic collision into which spirit and matter enter at every birth of life and on all its paths. To grasp the greatness of this drama, it was necessary to so sensitively hear the soul of things and at the same time so acutely feel their material significance, as was given only to Michelangelo... He looked at the work of the sculptor only as the liberation of those forms that are hidden in marble and which were given to his genius to discover. Thus he saw the inner life of all things, the spirit living in the seemingly dead matter of stone. The liberation of the spirit, which forms form from inert and formless matter, has always been the main task of sculpture. Sculpture became the predominant art of the ancient world because the ancient worldview was based on the recognition of the spirituality of all things. This feeling was resurrected along with the Renaissance - first in the era of French Gothic and the preaching of Francis of Assisi, only as a feeling of a faint aroma, a light breath passing through everything created in the world, and later it revealed this to artists quattrocento the inexhaustible riches of the world and the depth of the spiritual experience it provides. But the world ceased to be for Michelangelo the native home of the spirit, as it was for the Greek sculptors, or its new beautiful country, as it was for the painters of the Early Renaissance. In his sonnets, he speaks of immortal forms doomed to imprisonment in an earthly prison. His chisel frees the spirit not for a harmonious and anciently reconciled existence together with matter, but for separation from it. Michelangelo did not find faith in the liberation of the spirit throughout his long life. We return to the sacristy of San Lorenzo again to collect the last fruits of his wisdom and experience.”




The chapel is built of light stone, covered with white plaster, but with richer and more complex architectural decorations (niches, windows, arches, etc.).



American author Irving Stone in his novel “Agony and Ecstasy” (published in Russia in 1985 by the publishing house “Khudozhestvennaya Literatura” under the title “Torment and Joy” translated by N. Bannikov) writes:

“The love and sorrow that now lived in Michelangelo’s heart pushed him to one thing: to say his word about Lorenzo, to reveal in this work the whole essence of human talent and courage, a zealous desire for knowledge; outline the figure of a husband who dared to call the world to a spiritual and artistic revolution. The answer, as always, matured slowly. Only persistent, constant thoughts about Lorenzo led Michelangelo to a plan that opened an outlet for his creative powers. More than once he remembered his conversations with Lorenzo about Hercules. The Magnificent believed that the Greek legend does not give the right to understand the exploits of Hercules literally. The capture of the Erymanthian boar, the victory over the Nemean lion, the cleansing of the Augean stables by the waters of a river turned in its course - all these acts were perhaps only a symbol of the varied and unimaginably difficult tasks that each new generation of people faces. Wasn’t Lorenzo himself an incarnation of Hercules?”

Lorenzo is depicted in a noble meditative state (called "The Thinker"), wearing a powerful helmet.



The master depicted Giuliano with his head uncovered, courageous, energetic, but indifferent - as the personification of the active principle. With a casual, graceful gesture, he leans on the commander's baton, symbolizing the peace won by war. Giuliano froze in a beautiful and slightly melancholy pose, he has a courageous profile, wonderfully modeled hands, an ideal muscular torso, covered with a thin armor with decorative ornaments:



Irving Stone's novel about Michelangelo devotes many pages to the Chapel. Stone believes that in the image of "The Evening" Michelangelo depicted himself in an idealized form - with an almost straight nose. Let's remember the lines from the novel: “No one will give me back my face. My face was broken under the blow of the fist of the massacre Torrigiano, like a mirror. The fragments remained: it is in my scars. My face was pressed under the blow of his joints, as if it were made of dough, and so hardened and I’ll go through life, and on my face it’s like a hole, eaten away and purged by leprosy, I fell dead, bleeding for the rest of my life. At a time when beauty is valued most of all, the beauty of the face, when judged by the expression of the eyes, by appearance! when one falls in love forever at first sight, as on that wonderful April evening when the divine sir met his Beatrice on the bridge in the clothes of the most tender Pink colour, among two ladies, at a time when women seek our smile with a smile, at a time when a person reads only by the face, not being able to penetrate the dark secrets of the heart. At a time like this, I will walk around until my death. white light a noseless monster with a distorted face. If I smile, the more disgustingly the gnawed hole will stretch - in my opinion, it will never be able to be healed."







The similarity of the images of “Morning” and “Night” is complemented by the similarity of both of them, especially “Morning”, with the image of the Madonna. The first concept that arose in connection with the similarity of female images could be the rather daring idea that Michelangelo depicted the Immaculate Conception in the statue of “Morning”, on which the direct rays of the sun fall during sunrise. Indeed, on the face of “Morning” one does not necessarily read, as is commonly believed, a difficult awakening (as at birth or emerging from a night’s sleep); on the contrary, it expresses that carnal languor of satisfied desire, which cannot be confused with anything. This understanding of sculpture has certain foundations. In the latest English study by James Hall about the statue “Morning” it is said this way: “Morning offers itself for the first time. She either wakes up or is in a state of emotional dope.” Another English author, Anthony Hughes, wrote that "Morning" became an erotic ideal for subsequent generations Italian sculptors and artists. An unexpected interpretation, isn't it?



The belt-ribbon under the chest of “Morning” is a direct reference to Venus and, of course, does not serve, as E. Stone wrote, simply to emphasize the attractiveness of Morning’s breasts. Moreover, almost nowhere in the known world paintings XV-XVI centuries, except in the image of some Venuses, we do not find such a belt under the chest on a naked body, under a dress.


Within the framework of this concept, the statue “Night” is an image of the Virgin Mary, tormented by the suffering of the crucifixion and falling asleep after the Ascension of Christ in a heavy, but already calm sleep. Then the unity of these three statues expresses for the first time (and last time) the virgin birth shown in art, the traditional feeding of Jesus born as a result of this conception and oblivion after three days of sleepless mourning and receiving the news of His Ascension. However, the concept of depicting the naked Virgin Mary and the scene immaculate conception seems too bold. In addition, it does not have direct scientific confirmation in the works of art history known to us.



When access to the chapel was opened, poets composed about a hundred sonnets dedicated to these four statues. The most famous lines of Giovanni Strozzi dedicated to “Night”:

This is the night that sleeps so peacefully,
Before you is the creation of an Angel,
She is made of stone, but there is breath in her,
Just wake her up and she'll talk.

Michelangelo responded to this madrigal with a quatrain that became no less famous than the statue itself:

It's nice to sleep, it's nicer to be a stone,
Oh, in this age, criminal and shameful,
Not living, not feeling is an enviable lot.
Please be quiet, don't you dare wake me up.

(Translation by F. I. Tyutchev)









That is why we would like to present another concept that appeared later, but has a serious, albeit indirect, scientific basis.

On November 7, 1357, a significant event for the future Florentine Renaissance took place. A few years earlier, a naked Greek statue of Venus had been dug out of the ground in Siena. The respectable Sienese could not stand the test of the beauty of the naked statue and on this day, November 7, they buried it in the ground again, but on the territory that belonged to the Florentine Republic - they believed that the pagan goddess would bring misfortune to their sworn enemy. However, everything happened differently, and the ancient beauty brought good luck to Florence. This city soon became the cradle of the Renaissance, and one of the most famous masterpieces born here is Botticelli’s painting “The Birth of Venus.”
The famous historian Ruskin, in his 1874 lecture, described Botticelli as “the most learned theologian, the best artist, and the most agreeable man that Florence ever produced.”
For the first time in the history of Christian painting, when creating the image of the Madonna, the Mother of God, the artist used the facial features of a nude ancient heroine. It was an incredibly bold artistic decision for that time.
In the 15th - early 16th centuries, a statue of a naked woman with the face of the Madonna could not be in the church. Now the Botticcellian Venuses and Madonnas hang nearby in the Uffizi Gallery, but in the 15th century the artist painted them to order, and they were sent to private collections, to different houses; exhibitions were not organized in those days. The chapel was a public place, a temple where anyone could come.

“And what made Botticelli sad made him unbridled, and if Sandro’s fingers trembled with anxious melancholy, Michelangelo’s fists carved the image of his rage into the shuddering stone,” writes Rilke.

Michelangelo could not help but know and see Botticelli's triad. The fact that in his images of the female statues of the Medici Chapel was inspired by Botticelli can be seen from his drawings feminine nature, located in the Casa Buanarotti - the sculptor's house-museum in Florence. In these drawings, according to art historians, there is a direct connection with the portrait of Simonetta Vespucci, who, in turn, was, according to generally accepted opinion, Botticelli’s “model”.
Three female images of the Chapel can be seen at once, from one place. If you stand facing the Madonna, you will see the statue of “Morning” on the right, and “Night” on the left. It is difficult to say why they are arranged in this particular order, but it is safe to say that Michelangelo made a daring attempt to revise, in order to update and refresh, the traditional christian symbols, introducing into them the beauty that the Florentines idolized in their ancient heritage.













Auguste Rodin was not only shocked by Michelangelo’s sculptures (primarily the Medici Chapel), but, it seems to us, he set himself the “Michelangelo” task of surpassing the great sculptor. The grandeur of the goal allowed Rodin to reach his greatest creative heights. He probably still realized that he had not surpassed the great Florentine, and this constituted the drama of his life.

In Irving Stone's novel about Michelangelo, many pages are devoted to the Chapel... The statue of the Day is unfinished, and its portrait resemblance to the original is difficult to establish. She imagines a large, muscular man with a broken nose. The sculptor deliberately left the face unfinished - he makes it clear that this is his image - a giant incredible strength, as he most likely perceived himself to be. “Day” is a man whose face is not visible; his body is muscular and strong; he lies with his back to the viewer, restlessly, and it is difficult to understand whether he is going to roll over, or stand up, or lie down better; his right leg rests on something, his left is raised and thrown over his right, left hand behind your back; all together - a whole whirlwind of contrappostos, creating Michelangelo’s favorite position: a figure at the moment of preparation for an undefined, quite sharp movement.




The sculpture "Day" aroused great interest and thought in me. I don’t admit exactly what thoughts arose in my head. But how I would like to understand this plan of Michelangelo!!! It is this sculpture that is least discussed by art critics. Very interesting, why?
How can one not recall Rilke here: “Know that the master creates for himself - only for himself. What you laugh or cry at, he must blind strong hands souls and bring them out of themselves. There is no place in his soul for his own past - therefore he gives it a separate, original existence in his creations. And only because he has no other material than this world of yours, he gives it the appearance of your everyday life. Do not touch them with your hands - they are not for you; know how to respect them."



The Medici Madonna, placed in the center of the counter-altar wall, the key image of the chapel and one of the highest creations of Michelangelo’s visual genius, appears as an image, beautiful and internally focused, directly participating in the viewer with the world of its feelings, the depth and complexity of which do not obscure their simple humanity. This statue was begun back in 1521, and was finalized in 1531, when Michelangelo brought it to the full definition of the group, far from being finalized, and in this form it has been preserved to this day. “Madonna” plays a very important compositional role in the entire chapel: it unites the statues, and the figures of Lorenzo and Giuliano face it.


According to the original plan, it was supposed to be located in a separate niche opposite the altar, but subsequent changes in the project entailed a rearrangement of the sculptural group of the chapel. The Uffizi Museum contains a copy of a drawing from Michelangelo's project, which shows that the Madonna was originally conceived according to the type of the early Madonna of Bruges: a baby standing on the floor between the Madonna's knees, in the Madonna's hands is a book.
In the sculptural group of the Medici tomb, the Baby sits on the Mother’s lap in a very complex position: the head of the baby, suckling the breast, is sharply turned back, with his left hand he holds on to the mother’s shoulder, and with his right hand he places it on her chest. He resembles the overflowing internal forces the figures of early Michelangelo, but the bowed head of the Madonna, her mournful gaze directed into space, is full of the same sadness as the entire chapel. The oppressive feelings of Michelangelo find expression not only in the allegorical figures, but in the entire ensemble and even in the statue of the “Madonna and Child” (“Medici Madonna”), which emphasizes middle part walls between tombs. The statues of Giuliano and Lorenzo de' Medici, sitting in their cramped niches, face her.
The image of Madonna, imbued with the tragedy of her worldview, is significant, majestic and humane. The thoughtful look of Madonna, immersed in her inner world. Her pose, tense and dynamic, the restless rhythm of the folds of clothing - everything connects her with other images of the chapel, with the architecture itself, the forms of which are sometimes concentrated, sometimes rarefied, creating the impression of the tension of the whole. Only the strong, childishly serious Baby, reaching for his mother’s breast, continues the line of images full of internal charge that were created by the artist earlier. But the general mood of grief, deep, heavy reflection, and the bitterness of loss is conveyed in the chapel ensemble with amazing integrity and strength.

Michelangelo - sculptor, artist, architect and poet... Part 2

In the palace of Lorenzo the Magnificent (1489-1492)

G. Vasari. Portrait of Lorenzo de' Medici. Florence, Uffizi Gallery

“And deciding to help Michelangelo and take him under his protection, he sent for his father Lodovico and informed him about this, declaring that he would treat Michelangelo as his own son, to which he willingly agreed. After which the Magnificent gave him room in own home and ordered him to be served, so he always sat at the table with his sons and other worthy and noble faces, who were under the Magnificent, who gave him this honor; and all this took place in the following year after his admission to Domenico, when Michelangelo was in his fifteenth or sixteenth year, and he spent four years in this house, until the death of the Magnificent Lorenzo, which followed in 1492. All this time, Michelangelo received from the lord this allowance to support his father in the amount of five ducats a month, and to please him, the lord gave him a red cloak, and placed his father in the customs office" Vasari

The sculptor's enormous talent, which manifested itself early, gave Michelangelo access to the court of Lorenzo de' Medici, one of the most brilliant and largest centers of Italian culture of the Renaissance. The ruler of Florence managed to attract such famous philosophers, poets, and artists as Pico della Mirandola, the head of the Neoplatonist school Marsilio Ficino, the poet Angelo Poliziano, and the artist Sandro Botticelli. There Michelangelo had the opportunity to meet young representatives of the Medici family, two of whom later became popes (Leo X and Clement VII).

Giovanni de' Medici later became Pope Leo X. Although he was only a teenager at the time, he had already been appointed a cardinal of the Catholic Church. Michelangelo also met Giuliano de' Medici. Decades later, already a renowned sculptor, Michelangelo worked on his tomb.

At the Medici court, Michelangelo becomes his own man and falls into the circle of enlightened poets and humanists. Lorenzo himself was an excellent poet. The ideas of the Platonic Academy, created under the patronage of Lorenzo, had a huge influence on the formation of the young sculptor’s worldview. He became interested in the search for the perfect form - the main task of art, according to Neoplatonists.

Some of the main ideas of Lorenzo de' Medici's circle served as a source of inspiration and torment for Michelangelo in his later life, in particular the contradiction between Christian piety and pagan sensuality. It was believed that pagan philosophy and Christian dogmas could be reconciled (this is reflected in the title of one of Ficino’s books - “Plato’s Theology of the Immortality of the Soul”); that all knowledge, if rightly understood, is the key to divine truth. Physical beauty, embodied in the human body, is an earthly manifestation of spiritual beauty. Bodily beauty may be glorified, but this is not enough, for the body is the prison of the soul, which strives to return to its Creator, but can only achieve this in death. According to Pico della Mirandola, during life a person has free will: he can ascend to the angels or plunge into an unconscious animal state. The young Michelangelo was influenced by the optimistic philosophy of humanism and believed in the limitless possibilities of man. In the luxurious chambers of the Medici, in the atmosphere of the newly discovered Platonic Academy, in communication with people such as Angelo Poliziano and Pico Mirandolsky, the boy turned into a young man, matured in intelligence and talent.

Michelangelo's perception of reality as spirit embodied in matter undoubtedly goes back to the Neoplatonists. For him, sculpture was the art of "isolating" or freeing the figure enclosed in a stone block. It is possible that some of his most striking works, which appear "unfinished", may have been deliberately left that way, because it was at this stage of "liberation" that the form most adequately embodied the artist's intention.

Surrounded by luxury beautiful paintings and sculptures, in the elegant interiors of the Medici Palace, having access to the richest collection of monuments of ancient culture - coins, medallions, ivory cameos, jewelry - Michelangelo received the foundations of fine art. It was probably during this period that he chose sculpting as his life’s work. Having become familiar with the high, refined culture of the court of Lorenzo de' Medici, imbued with the ideas of the progressive thinkers of that time, having assimilated the ancient tradition and high skill of his immediate predecessors, Michelangelo began to independent creativity, starting work on sculptures for the Medici collection.

Early works (1489-1492)

“Let us return, however, to the garden of the Magnificent Lorenzo: this garden was overflowing with antiquities and very decorated with excellent paintings, and all this was collected in this place for beauty, for study and for pleasure, and the keys to it were always kept by Michelangelo, who far surpassed others in care in all his actions and always showing his readiness with lively persistence. For several months he copied Masaccio’s paintings in Carmine, reproducing these works so effectively that both artists and non-artists were amazed, and envy of him grew along with his fame.” Vasari

At the court of Lorenzo de' Medici, Magnificent Lorenzo, surrounded talented people, humanist thinkers, poets, artists, under the patronage of a generous and attentive nobleman, in the palace where art became a cult, Michelangelo’s main calling was discovered - sculpture. His earliest works in this art form reveal the true scale of his talent. Created by a sixteen-year-old boy, small relief compositions and statues, based on the study of nature, but executed in a completely antique spirit, are imbued with classical beauty and nobility:
- head of a laughing faun(1489, the statue has not survived),
- bas-relief “Madonna of the Stairs”, or “Madonna della Scala”(1490-1492, Buonarotti Palace, Florence),
- bas-relief “Battle of the Centaurs”(c. 1492, Buonarroti Palace, Florence),
-"Hercules"(1492, the statue has not survived),
- wooden crucifix(c. 1492, Church of Santo Spirito, Florence).



"Madonna of the Stairs" marble bas-relief (1490-1492)



Michelangelo "Madonna of the Stairs", c. 1490 -1491 Italian. Madonna della scala marble. Casa Buonarroti, Florence, Italy



Marble bas-relief. Fragment. 1490-1492 Michelangelo Buonarroti. Florence, Buonarroti Museum

“The same Lionardo, several years ago, kept in his house, in memory of his uncle, a bas-relief of the Mother of God, carved from marble by Michelangelo himself, a little more than a cubit high; in it, he, being a young man at that time and planning to reproduce the style of Donatello, did it so successfully, as if you see the hand of that master, but there is even more grace and design here. Lionardo then presented this work to Duke Cosimo de’ Medici, who revered it as the only thing of its kind, for no other bas-relief besides this sculpture was made by Michelangelo’s hand.” Vasari

At the beginning of his creative career, Michelangelo acted primarily as a sculptor. Already his first works testify to his originality and are marked by the features of the new, what his teachers could not give him: the painter Domenico Ghirlandaio and the sculptor Bertoldo. His first relief, “Madonna of the Staircase” (1489-1492, Florence, Buonarroti Museum), carved in marble when he was barely sixteen years old, differs from the works of his predecessors in the plastic power of the images, emphasized by the seriousness of the interpretation of the theme used hundreds of times.

“Madonna of the Stairs” is made in the traditional technique of 15th-century Italian sculptors of low, finely nuanced relief, reminiscent of Donatello’s reliefs, with which it is also related by the presence of babies (putti) depicted on the upper steps of the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs sits a Madonna with a child in her arms (hence the name of the relief). The subtle gradation of the sculpting of the forms of this three-plane relief gives it a picturesque character, as if emphasizing the connection of this type of sculpture with painting. If we take into account the fact that Michelangelo began his studies with the painter, then the reason for his early appeal to this type of sculpture and its corresponding interpretation becomes clearer. But the young Michelangelo, however, gives an example of the perfection of a non-traditional image: the Madonna and the Child Christ are endowed with power and inner drama unusual for Quattrocento art.

The main place in the relief belongs to the Madonna, majestic and serious. Her image is associated with the tradition of ancient Roman art. However, her special concentration, the strong-sounding heroic note, the contrast of powerful arms and legs with the grace and freedom of interpretation of the picturesquely melodious folds of her long robe, the baby in her arms, amazing in its childish strength - all this comes from Michelangelo himself. The special compactness, density, balance of the composition found here, the skillful comparison of volumes and shapes of different sizes and interpretations, the accuracy of the drawing, the correct construction of the figures, the subtlety of the processing of details anticipate his subsequent works. There is one more feature in “Madonna of the Stairs” that will characterize many of the artist’s works in the future - enormous internal fullness, concentration, the beating of life with external calm.

Madonnas of the 15th century are pretty and somewhat sentimental. Michelangelo's Madonna is tragically thoughtful, self-absorbed, she is not a pampered patrician or even a young mother touching in her love for her baby, but a stern and majestic maiden who is aware of her glory and knows about the tragic test destined for her.

Michelangelo sculpted Mary when she, holding a child at her breast, had to decide the future - the future for herself, for the baby, for the world. The entire left side of the bas-relief is occupied by heavy stair steps. Maria sits in profile on a bench, to the right of the stairs: the wide stone balustrade seems to end somewhere behind Maria’s right thigh, at the feet of her child. The viewer, looking at the thoughtful and tense face of the Mother of God, cannot help but feel what decisive moments she is experiencing, holding Jesus to her chest and, as if weighing in the palm of her hand the whole weight of the cross on which her son was destined to be crucified.

The Virgin, known as the Madonna della Scala, is now in the Buonarroti Museum in Florence.

Bas-relief "Battle of the Centaurs" (c. 1492)



Michelangelo. Battle of the Centaurs, 1492 Italian. Battaglia dei centauri, marble. Casa Buonarroti, Florence, Italy



Marble bas-relief. Fragment. OK. 1492. Michelangelo Buonarroti. Florence, Buonarroti Museum

“At this very time, on the advice of Poliziano, a man of extraordinary learning, Michelangelo, on a piece of marble received from his lord, carved the battle of Hercules with the centaurs, so beautiful that sometimes, looking at it now, one can take it for the work not of a youth, but of a master highly valued and tested in the theory and practice of this art. Nowadays it is kept in memory of him in the house of his nephew Leonardo, as a rare thing, which is what it is.” Vasari

The marble relief "Battle of the Centaurs" (Florence, Palazzo Buonarroti) (or "Battle of the Centaurs with the Lapiths") was carved in the form of a Roman sarcophagus from Carrian marble by the young Michelangelo for his noble patron, Lorenzo de' Medici, but probably due to whose death in 1492, remained unfinished.

The bas-relief depicts a scene from the Greek myth about the battle of the Lapith people with semi-animal centaurs who attacked them during a wedding feast. According to another version, the scene depicts one of the episodes of ancient mythology - the battle of the centaurs, the abduction of Deianira, the wife of Hercules, or the battle of Hercules with the centaurs. This work clearly shows the master's study of ancient Roman sarcophagi, as well as the influence of the work of such masters as Bertoldo, Pollailo and Pisani.

The plot was suggested by Angelo Poliziano (1454-1494), the closest friend of Lorenzo the Magnificent. Its meaning is the victory of civilization over barbarism. According to the myth, the Lapiths were victorious, but in Michelangelo's interpretation the outcome of the battle is unclear.

Protruding from the flat surface of marble are about two dozen naked figures of Greek warriors fighting mythical centaurs. In this early work The young master's passion for depicting the human body was reflected. The sculptor created compact and tense masses of naked bodies, demonstrating virtuoso skill in conveying movement through the play of light and shadow. The chisel marks and jagged edges remind us of the stone from which the figures are made. This relief gives the impression of truly explosive force; it amazes with its powerful dynamics, violent movement that permeates the entire composition, and the richness of its plasticity. In this high relief there is nothing of the graphic nature of the three-plane construction. It was solved by purely plastic means and anticipates another side of Michelangelo’s subsequent creations - his ineradicable desire to reveal all the diversity and richness of plasticity, movements of the human body. It was with this relief that the young sculptor declared with all his might the innovation of his method. And if in the theme “Battle of the Centaurs” there is a connection between Michelangelo’s art and one of its sources - ancient sculpture and, in particular, with the reliefs of ancient Roman sarcophagi, then new aspirations are clearly expressed in the interpretation of the theme. Michelangelo is little interested in the moment of narration, the story that was so detailed among the Roman masters. The main thing for the sculptor is the opportunity to show the heroism of a person who reveals his spiritual power and physical strength in battle.

In a tangle of bodies intertwined in mortal combat, we find Michelangelo’s first, but already surprisingly widespread embodiment main topic his work is based on the theme of struggle, understood as one of the eternal manifestations of existence. The figures of the fighters filled the entire relief field, amazing in its plastic and dramatic integrity. Among the tangle of combatants, individual ideally beautiful nude figures stand out, modeled with precise knowledge of the human anatomical structure. Some of them are brought to the foreground and presented in high relief, approaching a round sculpture. This allows you to select multiple viewpoints. Others are relegated to the background, their relief is lower and emphasizes the overall spatiality of the solution. Deep shadows contrast with midtones and brightly lit protruding parts of the relief, which gives the image a lively and extremely dynamic character. Some incompleteness of individual parts of the relief enhances by contrast the expressiveness of the fragments, finished with all care and subtlety. The manifested features of monumentality in this relatively small-sized work anticipate Michelangelo’s further conquests in this area.

"The warrior second from the left is preparing to throw a huge stone with his right hand. The blow can be addressed to the one who is in the center, in the top row, and at the same time his posture and turn of the body are opposed to the warrior, who stands with his back to the viewer and pulls the resisting enemy with his right hand hair. A man, in turn, is preparing to hit him, supporting his comrade with his left hand. They form the next contrapposto. This pair naturally suggests a transition to the old man on the left, pushing the stone with both hands, and to the young warrior at the left edge of the bas-relief - he was grabbed. behind the neck of someone. It is remarkable that any fragment simultaneously participates in several oppositions at once: this achieves end-to-end consistency of all contrappostos, facilitating the perception of the whole. In this complex interweaving of bodies, a special order of contrapposto movements can still be discerned. , but more expressively unfolds from the central group. Thus, in the bas-relief there is equality of all those participating in the battle, causing some discord, and at the same time an unobtrusive, rather even potential, hierarchy of mise-en-scenes, indicating the habit of order thinking. Michelangelo had nowhere and no one to borrow from a polyvisual composition containing the idea of ​​an order. Here I had to do everything for the first time and myself, but this does not mean timid or inept." V. I. Loktev

Researchers are still arguing about which episode of ancient mythology was reproduced young master, and this plot ambiguity itself confirms that the goal he set for himself was not to strictly follow a specific narrative, but to create an image of a broader plan. Many figures in relief, their dramatic meaning and sculptural interpretation, as if in a sudden revelation, foreshadow the motives of Michelangelo’s future works; the plastic language of the relief, with its freedom and energy, giving rise to an association with violently shimmering lava, reveals similarities with Michelangelo’s sculptural style of much later years. The freshness and completeness of the worldview, the swiftness of the rhythm give the relief an irresistible charm and uniqueness. It is not for nothing that Condivi testifies that Michelangelo in his old age, looking at this relief, said that he “realized the mistake he made in not giving himself entirely to sculpture” (Correspondence of Michelangelo Buonarroti and the life of the master, written by his student Ascanio Condivi).

But ahead of his time in The Battle of the Centaurs, Michelangelo got too far ahead. 3and with this bold breakthrough into the future, years of slower and more consistent creative development, deepened interest in the great heritage of ancient and Renaissance art, accumulation of experience in line with various, sometimes very contradictory traditions. Later, the master worked on a similar battle multi-figure composition “The Battle of Kashin” (1501-1504); a copy of the cardboard he created has survived to this day.

Study of anatomy. Statue "Hercules" (1492)

“After the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent, Michelangelo returned to his father’s house, infinitely saddened by the death of such a man, a friend of all talents. It was then that Michelangelo acquired a large block of marble, in which he carved Hercules, four braccia high, who stood for many years in the Palazzo Strozzi and was considered a miraculous creation, and then in the year of the siege this Hercules was sent by Giovanbattista della Palla to France to King Francis. They say that Piero de' Medici, who had long used his services when he became the heir of his father Lorenzo, often sent for Michelangelo when buying ancient cameos and other carved works, and one winter, when it was snowing heavily in Florence, ordered him to sculpt his in the courtyard there was a statue made of snow, which came out most beautiful, and Michelangelo revered him for his virtues to such an extent that the latter’s father, noticing that his son was valued on an equal basis with nobles, began to dress him more magnificently than usual.” Vasari

In 1492, Lorenzo died and Michelangelo left his house. When Lorenzo died, Michelangelo was seventeen years old. He conceived and executed a statue of Hercules larger than a man, in which his powerful talent was manifested. This was the first, complete attempt of a genius striving to express heroic ideas in art.

Michelangelo hardly knew the entertainment of a young man of his age, working on the statue of Hercules, he continued to study at the same time. Michelangelo studied anatomy on corpses, with the permission of the prior of the hospital of Santo Spirito. According to prof. S. Stam, Michelangelo began dissecting corpses around 1493. In one of the remote halls of the monastery of Santo Spirito, he spent his nights alone, dissecting corpses with an anatomical knife by the light of a lamp. Giving different positions to body parts and muscles, he studied the sizes and proportions and carefully finished the drawings, thus replacing the dead body living nature. Creating a living image, he seemed to see through the skin that covered the body, the entire mechanism of these movements.

The master retained his passion for anatomy throughout his life. The famous anatomist Andreas Vesalius (1515-1564) testified that Michelangelo was going to write an unusual anatomical treatise. The unwritten anatomy, about which Michelangelo said that it would be unlike the past, would become a textbook for a new compositional style.

Unfortunately, “Hercules” has not survived (it is depicted in the engraving of Israel Sylvester “The Courtyard of the Castle of Fontainebleau”). The snow figure was completed on January 20, 1494.

Wooden crucifix (1492)



Michelangelo Crucifixion of the Church of Santo Spirito, 1492 Italian. Crocifisso di Santo Spirito, wood, polychrome. Height: 142 cm, Santo Spirito, Florence



Fragment. 1492 Michelangelo Buonarroti. Church of Santo Spirito, Florence

“For the church of Santo Spirito in the city of Florence, he made a wooden crucifix, placed and still stands above the semicircle of the high altar with the consent of the prior, who provided him with premises where, often dissecting corpses for the study of anatomy, he began to perfect that great art of drawing which he subsequently acquired" Vasari

For many years the work was considered lost until it was discovered in the Florentine church of Santo Spirito. The wooden polychrome crucifix of the sacristy in the Church of Santo Spirito, known from sources but only recently identified, turned out to be completely unusual for our ideas about Michelangelo. The crucifix was created by a young 17-year-old master for the prior of the church, who patronized him.

Probably, the young master could follow the type of crucifix widespread in Italy in the 15th century, which dates back to Gothic times and therefore falls outside the circle of the most advanced quests for sculpture of the late Quattrocento. The head of Christ with his eyes closed is lowered to his chest, the rhythm of his body is determined by his crossed legs. The head and legs of the figure are placed in contrapposto, the Savior’s face is given a soft expression, and fragility and passivity are felt in the body. The subtlety of this work distinguishes it from the power of the figures in the marble relief. Among the works of Michelangelo that have come down to us there are no similar works.



Already in these early works Michelangelo, you can feel the originality and strength of his talent. Performed by a 15-17 year old artist, they not only seem completely mature, but also truly innovative for their time. In these youthful works, the main features of Michelangelo’s work emerge - a tendency towards monumental enlargement of forms, monumentality, plastic power and drama of images, reverence for the beauty of man; they show the presence of the young Michelangelo’s own sculptural style. Here we have before us ideal images of the mature Renaissance, built both on the study of antiquity and on the traditions of Donatello and his followers.

Along with his studies in sculpture, Michelangelo did not stop studying painting, mainly monumental, as evidenced by his drawings from Giotto’s frescoes. Along the way, independent motifs arise in Michelangelo’s graphics. The fifteen-year-old boy was convinced that it was impossible to draw, let alone create a sculpture, by looking at a person only from the outside. He was the first sculptor who decided to study the internal structure of the human body. This was strictly prohibited, so he even had to proceed with the law. He secretly, at night, entered the mortuary located at the monastery, opened the bodies of the dead, studied anatomy in order to show people in his drawings and in marble all the perfection of the human body.

The death in 1491 of Bertoldo, and the next year of Lorenzo de' Medici, seemed to have completed the period of Michelangelo's four-year training in the Medici gardens. Begins on your own creative path artist, who emerged, however, already during his years of study, when he performed his first works, marked by features of a bright individuality. These early works of his also testify to the qualitative shift that occurred in Italian sculpture - the transition from the Early to the High Renaissance.

Bologna (1494-1495)

Michelangelo's patron and regular customer, Lorenzo the Magnificent, died in 1492. Lorenzo de' Medici was a strong, charismatic ruler and successful leader. His son Pierrot, who inherited his father's empire, lacked these character traits. Within a few months he had completely lost influence. The life of the young sculptor has changed significantly since then. He had to leave beautiful Florence and go into exile.

After the death of Lorenzo de' Medici, due to the danger of a French invasion, the artist moved to Bologna for a while, following the remnants of the great Medici family. In Bologna, Michelangelo studied the works of Dante and Petrarch, under the influence of whose canzonas he began to create his first poems. He was greatly impressed by the reliefs of the Church of San Petronio, executed by Jacopo della Quercia. Here Michelangelo made three small statues for the tomb of St. Dominic, work on which was interrupted due to the death of the sculptor who began it.

After some time, Michelangelo moved to Venice. He lives in Venice until 1494, and then again moves to Bologna.

“A few weeks before the expulsion of the Medici from Florence, Michelangelo left for Bologna, and then to Venice, fearing, due to his closeness to this family, that some trouble would happen to him, since he too had seen the debauchery and bad rule of Piero dei Medici. Not finding anything to do in Venice, he returned to Bologna, where, due to an oversight, trouble befell him: when entering the gate, he did not take the exit certificate back, about which, for safety, Messer Giovanni Bentivogli issued an order, which stated that foreigners those with certificates are subject to a fine of 50 Bolognese lire. Michelangelo, who had found himself in such trouble, and had nothing to pay, was accidentally drawn to the attention of Messer Francesco Aldovrandi, one of the sixteen rulers of the city. When he was told what had happened, he took pity on Michelangelo and released him, and he lived with him for more than a year. Once Aldovrandi went with him to look at the shrine of St. Dominic, on which, as was said earlier, the old sculptors were working: Giovanni Pisano, and after him the master Nicola d'Arca. There were missing two figures about an elbow high: an angel carrying a candlestick , both St. Petronius and Aldovrandi asked whether Michelangelo would dare to make them, to which he answered in the affirmative. And indeed, having received the marble, he executed them in such a way that they became the best figures there, for which Messer Francesco Aldovrandi ordered to pay him. thirty ducats. Michelangelo spent a little more than a year in Bologna and would have stayed there longer: such was the courtesy of Aldovrandi, who loved him both for his drawing and because, as a Tuscan, he liked Michelangelo’s pronunciation and enjoyed listening to him read. to him the works of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio and other Tuscan poets" Vasari

Michelangelo tries his hand at various creative tasks, in additions to the already existing sculptural ensemble of Benedetto da Maiano's tomb of St. Dominic in the Church of San Domenico in Bologna, for which he created small marble statues:



St. Proclus (1494) and St. Petronius (1494)
Marble. 1494 Michelangelo Buonarroti. Church of San Domenico, Bologna



Angel holding a candelabra (1494-1495) for the altar of the chapel
Marble. 1494-1495 Michelangelo Buonarroti. Church of San Domenico, Bologna



Marble. Fragment. 1494-1495 Michelangelo Buonarroti. Church of San Domenico, Bologna

Their images are full of inner life and bear a clear imprint of the individuality of their creator. The figure of a kneeling angel is very natural and beautiful, precisely designed to be viewed from a certain point of view. With simple, economical gestures, he grasps the carved stand of the candelabra, the spacious robe flows in voluminous folds around his bowed legs. With the cuteness of her features and the detached expression on her face, the angel resembles an antique statue.

Inscribed in the previously created ensemble of the tomb, these statues did not disturb its harmony. The statues of St. Petronius and St. Proclus clearly show the influence of the works of Donatello, Masaccio and Jacopo della Quercia. They can be compared with the statues of saints in the outer niches of the facade of the Church of Or San Michele in Florence, created in the early period of Donatello's work, which Michelangelo was free to study in his home city.

First return to Florence

By the end of 1495, despite fairly good living conditions and the first successful orders completed in Bologna, Michelangelo nevertheless decided to return to Florence. However, the city of childhood became unkind to the servants of art. The accusatory sermons of the stern ascetic monk Savonarola slowly but steadily changed the worldview of the Florentines. In the squares of the city, where until recently they extolled talented artists, poets, philosophers, architects, fires blazed in which books and paintings burned. Already Sandro Botticelli, succumbing to the general disgust for the brilliantly beautiful, but defiled by sinful idolatry, personally throws his masterpieces into the fire. According to the teachings of the fiery monk, masters were supposed to create works of exclusively religious content. In such conditions, the young sculptor could not stay for long; his imminent departure was inevitable.

“... he returned with pleasure to Florence, where for Lorenzo, son of Pierfrancesco de' Medici, he carved from marble St. John as a child and immediately from another piece of marble a life-sized sleeping Cupid, and when it was finished, through Baldassarre del Milanese it , as a beautiful thing, was shown to Pierfrancesco, who agreed with this and said to Michelangelo: “If you bury it in the ground and then send it to Rome, forging it as an old one, I am sure that it will pass for an ancient one there and you will get much more for it, than if you sell it here." They say that Michelangelo decorated it in such a way that it looked ancient, which is nothing to be surprised at, because he had enough talent to do both this and better. Others claim that Milanese took it to Rome and buried it in one of his vineyards, and then sold it as an ancient one to Cardinal St. George for two hundred ducats. They also say that it was sold by someone acting for Milanese and writing to Pierfrancesco, deceiving the cardinal, Pierfrancesco and Michelangelo, that Michelangelo should have been given thirty crowns, since more was supposedly not received for Cupid. However, later it was learned from eyewitnesses that Cupid was made in Florence, and the cardinal, having found out the truth through his messenger, ensured that the person acting for Milanese took back Cupid, which then fell into the hands of Duke Valentino, who presented it to the Marchioness Mantuan, who sent him to her possessions, where he remains today. This whole story served as a reproach to Cardinal St. George, who did not appreciate the dignity of the work, namely its perfection, for new things are the same as ancient ones, if only they were excellent, and he who pursues more the name than the quality , only shows his vanity, but people of this kind, who attach more importance to appearances than to substance, are found at all times.” Vasari

Both statues - "Cupid" and "St. John" - have not survived.

In April or May 1496, Michelangelo completed “Cupid” and, following advice, gave it the appearance of an ancient Greek work, and sold it to Cardinal Riario in Rome, who, being sure that he was acquiring an antique, paid 200 ducats. An intermediary in Rome deceived Michelangelo and paid him only 30 ducats. Having learned about the forgery, the cardinal sent his man, who found Michelangelo and invited him to Rome. He agreed and on June 25, 1496 he entered the “eternal city”.



3. First Roman period (1496-1501)

“... Michelangelo’s fame became such that he was immediately summoned to Rome, where, by agreement with Cardinal St. George stayed with him for about a year, but did not receive any orders from him, since he knew little about these arts. At this very time, the cardinal's barber, who was also a painter and very diligently painted with tempera, became friends with Michelangelo, but did not know how to draw. And Michelangelo made for him a cardboard depicting St. Francis receiving the stigmata, and the barber executed it very carefully with paints on a small board, and painting work this one is now in the first chapel of the church of San Pietro a Montorio, on the left hand of the entrance. What were Michelangelo's abilities, Messer Jacopo Galli, a Roman nobleman, a gifted man, understood perfectly well after this, who ordered him a marble Cupid of natural size, and then a statue of Bacchus... Thus, during this stay in Rome, he achieved, while studying art, such that both his lofty thoughts and the difficult manner he applied with the lightest of ease seemed incredible, scaring off both those who were unfamiliar with such things and those who were accustomed to good things; after all, everything that was created before seemed insignificant compared to his things" Vasari

In 1496, Michelangelo went to Rome with a letter of recommendation from Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, addressed to the cardinal-philanthropist Raphael Riario, who enjoyed significant influence in the circle of the Roman clergy. Like Lorenzo de' Medici, the cardinal was passionate fan ancient art and owned an extensive collection of ancient sculptures.

Michelangelo entered Rome at the age of 21. Rome was the center of life for many people living in northern Italy. It was also the religious center of the Roman Catholic Church. The Pope lived there in a church complex called the Vatican. Many of the great masterpieces of Renaissance art were created in Rome, particularly commissioned by the pope or other important church officials. New opportunities opened up for Michelangelo’s work in Rome, however, restrictions also appeared. The free-thinking young man did not want to limit himself only to religious art, in the works of which religious ideas and aspirations should be expressed, the task of which, ultimately, is to renew and strengthen religious beliefs. Michelangelo felt closer to God, being in the process of creativity, creating magnificent statues that reflect the beauty of the human body.

For the artist and sculptor, Rome was of particular interest antique works arts that adorned the city and enriched it more than ever in the times of Michelangelo and Raphael thanks to excavations. Going beyond the Florentine artistic environment and closer contact with ancient tradition contributed to expanding the horizons of the young master, enlarging the scale of his artistic thinking. Not being carried away to the point of oblivion by ancient labels, he nevertheless carefully studied everything worthy of attention, which became one of the sources of his rich plasticity. With his brilliant instinct, the great master was deeply aware of the difference in the direction of ancient art and contemporary art. The ancients saw the naked body everywhere; in the Renaissance, the beauty of the body came to the fore again as an element necessary in art.

With a trip to Rome and work there, it opens up new stage works of Michelangelo. His works of this early Roman period are marked by a new scale, scope, and rise to the heights of mastery. Buonarroti's first stay in Rome lasted five years and in the late 1490s he created two major works:
- statue of "Bacchus" (1496-1497, National Museum, Florence), paying a peculiar tribute to the passion for ancient monuments,
- group “Lamentation of Christ”, or “Pieta”(1498-1501, St. Peter's Cathedral, Rome), where he puts new, humanistic content into the traditional Gothic scheme, expressing the grief of a young and beautiful woman about her lost son,
and not preserved:
- cardboard "St. Francis" (1496-1497) ,
- statue "Cupid"(1496-1497).

Rome is full of ancient monuments. In its very center there is now a kind of open-air museum - the ruins of a huge ensemble of ancient Roman forums. Many individual architectural monuments and sculptures of antiquity decorate the city squares and its museums.

A visit to Rome, contact with ancient culture, the monuments of which Michelangelo admired in the Medici collection in Florence, the discovery of the most famous monument of antiquity - the statue of Apollo (later called the Belvedere, after the place where the statue was exhibited for the first time), which coincided with his arrival in Rome - all this helped Michelangelo to more deeply and deeply appreciate ancient sculpture. Having creatively mastered the achievements of ancient masters, sculptors of the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance, Michelangelo showed the world his masterpieces. The generalized image is perfect wonderful person, found ancient art, he endowed with individual character traits, revealing the complexity inner world, human mental life.

Intoxicated Bacchus (1496-1498)

Michelangelo traveled to Rome, where he was able to explore many newly excavated ancient statues and ruins. Soon he created his first large-scale sculpture - more than life-size "Bacchus" (1496-1498, Bargello National Museum, Florence). This statue of the Roman god of wine, created in the city - the center of the Catholic Church, on a pagan rather than a Christian subject, rivaled ancient sculpture - the highest degree of praise in Renaissance Rome.



Bacchus and Satyr fragment
Marble. 1496-1498 Michelangelo Buonarroti. National Bargello Museum, Florence



Fragment. Marble. 1496-1498 Michelangelo Buonarroti. National Bargello Museum, Florence

Michelangelo showed the completed statue of Bacchus to Cardinal Riario, but he was restrained and did not express any particular enthusiasm for the work of the young sculptor. Probably, the range of his hobbies was limited to ancient Roman art, and therefore the works of his contemporaries were not of particular interest. However, other connoisseurs had a different opinion, and the statue by Michelangelo was generally highly appreciated. The Roman banker Jacopo Galli, who decorated his garden with a collection of Roman statues, was as passionate a collector as Cardinal Riario, and acquired a statue of Bacchus. Later, his acquaintance with the banker played a big role in Michelangelo’s career. Through his mediation, the sculptor made acquaintance with the French cardinal Jean de Villiers Fesanzac, from whom he received an important order.

“What were the abilities of Michelangelo, Messer Jacopo Galli, a Roman nobleman, a gifted man, perfectly understood after this, who ordered him a marble Cupid of natural size, and then a statue of Bacchus ten palms high, holding a cup in his right hand, and a tiger skin and a grape with his left a brush towards which a small satyr is reaching. From this statue one can understand that he wanted to achieve a certain combination of the marvelous members of his body, especially giving them the youthful flexibility characteristic of a man, and feminine fleshiness and roundness: one has to marvel at the fact that he is exactly in statues showed his superiority over all the new masters who worked before him" Vasari

Bacchus (Greek), aka Bacchus (Latin), or Dionysus - patron of winegrowers and winemaking in Greek mythology, V ancient times he was revered in cities and villages, and merry holidays were held in his honor (hence the bacchanals).

Michelangelo's Bacchus is very convincing. Bacchus is represented by the sculptor in the form of a naked youth with a cup of wine in his hand. The human-sized statue of an intoxicated Bacchus is intended for all-round viewing. His posture is unstable. Bacchus seems ready to fall forward, but maintains his balance by leaning back; his gaze is turned to the cup of wine. The muscles of the back look elastic, but relaxed muscles of the abdomen and thighs demonstrate physical, and therefore spiritual, weakness. The lowered left hand holds the skin and grapes. The drunken god of wine is accompanied by a small satyr who feasts on a bunch of grapes.

Like “The Battle of the Centaurs,” “Bacchus” thematically directly connects Michelangelo with ancient mythology, with its life-affirming, clear images. And if the “Battle of the Centaurs” is closer in the nature of its execution to the reliefs of ancient Roman sarcophagi, then in the setting of the figure of “Bacchus” the principle found by ancient Greek sculptors, in particular Lysippos, who was interested in the problem of conveying unstable movement, was used. But as in “The Battle of the Centaurs,” Michelangelo gave his own interpretation of the theme here. In Bacchus, instability is perceived differently than in the sculpture of the ancient sculptor. This is not a moment’s respite after strenuous movement, but a long-term state caused by intoxication, when the muscles are limply relaxed.

The image of a small goat-footed satyr accompanying Bacchus is noteworthy. Carefree, smiling cheerfully, he steals grapes from Bacchus. The motif of casual fun that permeates this sculptural group is an exceptional phenomenon in Michelangelo. Throughout his long creative life, he never returned to it.

The sculptor achieved a difficult task: to create the impression of instability without compositional imbalance, which could disrupt the aesthetic effect. The young sculptor masterfully dealt with the purely technical difficulties of staging a marble figure big size. Like the ancient masters, he introduced a support - a marble stump, on which he placed the satyr, thus playing up this technical detail compositionally and in meaning.

The impression of complete completion of the statue is given by the processing and polishing of the marble surface, and the careful execution of every detail. And although “Bacchus” does not belong to the highest achievements of the sculptor and, perhaps less than his other works, is marked by the individuality of the creator, it still testifies to his commitment to ancient images, the depiction of the naked body, as well as increased technical skill.

"Lamentation of Christ", or "Pieta" (c. 1498-1500)

Arriving in Rome in 1496, two years later Michelangelo received an order for a statue of the Virgin and Christ. He sculpted an incomparable sculptural group, including the figure of the Mother of God grieving over the body of the Savior taken down from the cross. This work undoubtedly indicates the beginning of the master’s creative maturity. The Lamentation of Christ group was originally intended for the Chapel of the Virgin Mary in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, and is still located in St. Peter's Basilica, in the first chapel on the right.



St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. "Pieta"



Michelangelo "Pieta", 1499. Marble. Height: 174 cm. St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican



Marble. OK. 1498-1500. Michelangelo Buonarroti. Cathedral of St. Petra, Rome

Fragments:















Fragment. Marble. OK. 1498-1500. Michelangelo Buonarroti. Cathedral of St. Petra, Rome

The order for the sculptural group was received thanks to the guarantee of the banker Jacopo Galli, who acquired the statue of “Bacchus” and some other works by Michelangelo for his collection. The contract was concluded on August 26, 1498, the customer was the French cardinal Jean de Villiers Fesanzac. According to the contract, the master was obliged to complete the work in a year, and received 450 ducats for it. The work was completed around 1500, after the death of the cardinal, who died in 1498. Perhaps this marble group was originally intended for the future tomb of the customer. By the time the Lamentation of Christ ended, Michelangelo was only 25 years old.

The contract contains the words of the guarantor, who stated “that this will be the best work of marble that exists in our days, and that no master in our days will make it better.” Time has confirmed the words of Galli, who turned out to be a far-sighted and subtle connoisseur of art. “The Lamentation of Christ” still has an irresistible effect with its perfection and depth of artistic solution.

This grandiose order opens a new stage in the life of the young sculptor. He opened his own workshop and hired a team of assistants. During this period, he repeatedly visited the Carr quarries, where he himself chose marble blocks for his future sculptures. For the “Pieta” a short but fairly wide block of marble was required, since according to his plan, the body of her adult Son was placed on the lap of the Virgin Mary.

This composition became a key work of Michelangelo's early Roman period, marking the beginning High Renaissance in Italian plastic. Some researchers compare the meaning of the marble group “Lamentation of Christ” with the meaning of the famous “Madonna in the Grotto” by Leonardo da Vinci, which opens the same stage in painting.

“... These things aroused the desire of Cardinal St. Dionysius, called the French Cardinal of Rouen, to leave, through the medium of an artist so rare, a worthy memory of himself in a city so famous, and he ordered him a marble, entirely round sculpture with the lamentation of Christ, which Upon its completion, it was placed in St. Peter's Cathedral in the chapel of the Virgin Mary, healer of fever, where the Temple of Mars used to be. Let it never occur to any sculptor, even if he were a rare artist, the thought that he could add something to such a design and to such grace and through his labors could someday achieve such subtlety and purity and cut marble with such skill as Michelangelo showed in this thing, for in it all the power and all the possibilities inherent in art are revealed. Among the beauties here, in addition to the divinely made robes, the deceased Christ attracts attention; and let it not even occur to anyone to see a naked body made so skillfully, with such beautiful limbs, with the muscles, vessels, and veins dressing its frame so finely trimmed, or to see a dead man more similar to a dead man than this dead man. Here is the most tender expression of the face, and a certain consistency in the binding and pairing of the arms, and in the connection of the torso and legs, and such a treatment of the blood vessels that you are truly thrown into amazement how the artist’s hand could, in the shortest possible time, so divinely and impeccably create such a wondrous thing; and, of course, it is a miracle that a stone, initially devoid of any form, could ever be brought to that perfection that nature has difficulty imparting to flesh. Michelangelo put so much love and work into this creation that only on it (which he did not do in his other works) he wrote his name along the belt tightening the chest of the Mother of God; It turned out that one day Michelangelo, approaching the place where the work was placed, saw there a large number of visitors from Lombardy, highly praising it, and when one of them turned to the other with the question of who did it, he answered: “ Our Milanese Gobbo." Michelangelo remained silent, and it seemed at least strange to him that his works were attributed to another. One night he locked himself there with a lamp, taking the chisels with him, and carved his name on the sculpture. And truly she is as one most beautiful poet said about her, as if addressing a real and living figure:
Dignity and beauty
And sorrow: you will groan over this marble!
He is dead, having lived, and taken down from the cross
Beware of raising your songs,
So as not to call from the dead until the time comes
The one who accepted grief alone
For everyone who is our master,
You are now father, husband and son,
O you, his wife, and mother, and daughter." Vasari

This beautiful marble sculpture remains to this day a monument to the full maturity of the artist’s talent. Sculpted in marble, this sculptural group amazes with its bold handling of traditional iconography, the humanity of the created images, and high craftsmanship. This is one of the most famous works in the history of world art.

“And it was not for nothing that he acquired the greatest glory for himself, and although some, after all, but still ignorant people say that his Mother of God is too young, have they not noticed or do they not know that virgins who have not been discredited in any way hold back for a long time and keep their facial expression undistorted, but in those burdened with grief, as Christ was, the opposite is observed? Why such a work brought his talent more honor and glory than all the previous ones taken together.” Vasari

Young Mary is depicted with the dead Christ on her knees, an image borrowed from northern European art. The earliest versions of the Pieta also included the figures of St. John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene. Michelangelo, however, limited himself to two key figures - the Virgin and Christ. Some researchers suggest that Michelangelo depicted himself and his mother in the sculptural group, who died when he was only six years old. Art historians note that his Virgin Mary is as young as the sculptor’s mother at the time of her death.

The theme of mourning Christ was also popular in gothic art, and during the Renaissance, but here it is interpreted quite restrainedly. Gothic knew two types of such mourning: either with the participation of the young Mary, whose ideally beautiful face is not able to darken the grief that befell her, or with the elderly Mother of God, gripped by terrible, heartbreaking despair. Michelangelo in his group decisively departs from the usual attitudes. He depicted Mary as young, but at the same time she is infinitely far from the conventional beauty and emotional immobility of Gothic Madonnas of this type. Her feeling is a living human experience, embodied with such depth and richness of shades that here for the first time we can talk about introducing a psychological element into the image. 3 and the young mother’s external restraint reveals the full depth of her grief; the mournful silhouette of a bowed head, a hand gesture that sounds like a tragic question, everything adds up to an image of enlightened grief.

(To be continued)

Cappella Medici

The Medici Chapel is part of the monumental complex of San Lorenzo. was the official church of the Medici family, who lived in a palace on Via Larga (now Via Cavour). The chapel itself became their mausoleum. Giovanni de’ Bicci de’ Medici (died 1429) was the first of the Medici family to bury himself and his wife Piccarda in Bruneleschi’s small sacristy. Later his son, Cosimo the Elder, was buried in the church. The project for a family mausoleum for the Medici was conceived in 1520, when Michelangelo began work on the New Sacristy, located opposite Bruneleschi's Old Sacristy on the other side of the church. Eventually Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, the future Pope Clement VII, planned to build a mausoleum for some members of his family, Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brothers, Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino (1492-1519) and Giuliano, Duke of Nemours (1479-1516).

The Medici Chapel was completed in 1524, with its white walls and pietra serena interior based on Brunneleschi's design. The entrance to the chapel is located at the back. The Medici Chapel is divided into three parts:

• crypt
• Princely Chapel (Cappella dei Principi)
• new treasury

Visit the Medici Chapel

• Medici Chapel
• Capelle Medicee
• Piazza Madonna degli Aldobrandini, 6, near
• entrance to the Medici Chapel from the piazza. S. Lorenzo

Working hours:

• daily from 8:15 to 13:50
• from March 19 to November 3 and from December 26 to January 5 from 8:15 to 17:00.
• Closed: second and fourth Sunday of the month; first, third, fifth Monday of the month; New Year, May 1, December 25.

Admission ticket:

• Full price: 6.00 €
• Reduced: €3.00 (children aged 18 to 25 years, school teachers)

What to see in the Medici Chapel

In the first hall Medici chapels- the Medici family tomb, designed by Buontalenti, contains the tombs of Cosimo the Old, Donatello, and the great dukes from the family of the Dukes of Lorraine that ruled after the Medici. From this hall you can ascend to the Chapel dei Principi ( Cappella dei Principe), or Princely Chapel, the decoration of which continued until the 18th century and where the Grand Dukes of Tuscany are buried: Cosimo III, Francesco I, Cosimo I, Ferdinand I, Cosimo II and Ferdinand II.

From the Princely Chapel a corridor leads to New treasury(Sagrestia Nuova), which is located symmetrically to the Old Treasury of the Church of San Lorenzo. On behalf of Pope Leo X, from the Medici family, who wanted to create a crypt for the younger members of the house, Michelangelo built a treasury. The resulting square room (11 x 11 m) is called the Medici Chapel.

In decorating the interior, the sculptor was guided by the decoration of the Old Sacristy, built according to Brunelleschi's design. He divided the walls with vertical fluted Corinthian pilasters and cut them with horizontal cornices. At the same time, Michelangelo resorted to Brunelleschi’s favorite decorative technique - juxtaposing a white wall with segments of dark gray stone. Michelangelo strives to extend this “frame” system in height, for which purpose he narrows upward the frame of the windows in the lunettes of the upper tier and gives the dome caissons a perspective reduction. The lower pilasters and cornice are perceived as the frames of sculptural tombs.

In this decision, the new, no longer Renaissance, principle of interior design, based on a combination of contrasts, is most clearly visible. Using the simplest techniques, Michelangelo achieves unprecedented dynamism, giving rise to a different artistic language. And from the Renaissance we suddenly find ourselves in the Baroque era.



Medici Chapel Tombs

In the design of the tombs, Michelangelo decisively violates the harmony and lightness of the Renaissance architectural frame. Visually, the heavy sculptures seem to want to come out of their architectural “frames,” barely holding on to the sloping lids of the sarcophagi. It is impossible to more accurately convey the feeling of cramped crypts, heaviness gravestones and an intense desire to live. Michelangelo completed only two of the planned tombs. The great-grandchildren of Cosimo the Old are buried in them. Helmet depicts Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino The allegorical figures on the tomb of the first are called “Evening” and “Morning”, of the second - “Night” and “Day”.