The creative path of Michelangelo Buonarroti. Periods of life and creativity

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564) is the most powerful artistic personality the earth has ever bore. Never, neither before nor after him, has any artist exerted such a predominant and lasting influence on his contemporaries and posterity; and although he, as a model, turned out to be fatal for the next generation, for whom the language of his forms was not, as for himself, an internal necessity, nevertheless, thanks to this, his own greatness comes to the fore all the more victoriously. His poetic works, which do not belong here, allow us to deeply penetrate into the struggle of his passionate, demanding love, lonely soul with himself, with his God and with the ideals of his art.

As an architect, Michelangelo became the founder of all the grandiose, unique quirks of the Baroque style. As a sculptor and painter, during the Renaissance he was such an exceptional depicter of man as no one else, but ordinary people whom he took for his paintings and statues, even with their inherent properties, imperceptibly in his hands turned into supermen and demigods. Powerful forms of the body and powerful movements, externally caused by the bold opposition of lines, and internally embraced by almost worldly or even entirely worldly aspirations, stemmed from his most intimate experiences. After Phidias, no artist was able to achieve the sublime as much as Michelangelo.

As an aspiring painter, Michelangelo, in the thirteenth year of his life, entered the apprenticeship of Domenico Ghirlandaio, as an aspiring sculptor a year later, and not earlier than 1488 (as Frey showed) - to a certain Bertoldo, then caretaker of the Medicean collection of antiquities at San Marco, a student Donatello, late in his life. The further development of the young Buonarroti into a painter took place before frescoes by Masaccio in the Brancacci Chapel, and in the sculptor - on the mentioned antiques of the Medici Garden. From that time on, he wanted to be looked at exclusively as a sculptor. But fate still led him to painting again. His most significant sculptural enterprises have reached us only partially completed, while in painting, imbued with his plastic spirit, he left the greatest works united by a common connection. He developed into an architect, although in distant dependence on Bramante and Giuliano da Sangallo, but essentially independently, thanks to the tasks that presented themselves to him.

His earliest sculptures show the claws of a lion. The marble flat relief “Madonna of the Stairs” in the Casa Buonarroti in Florence recalls the still later style of Donatello’s school, but with powerful forms main group and the children playing on the front stairs are abruptly removed from this school. Higher marble relief"Battle of the Centaurs" from the same collection, depicting a fierce battle between the strong and slim people and centaurs, whose bodies and movements are reproduced with a perfect understanding of the matter, reveals the direct influence of the reliefs of ancient sarcophagi.

Rice. 6. Painting Madonna on the stairs

In 1494, Michelangelo lived in Bologna and here he painted an angel with a candelabra on the sarcophagus of St. Dominic in San Domenico, then the figure of Bishop Petronius, as well as the recently re-exhibited group of the half-naked horseman Proculus. This group, more clearly than previous works, reveals the bold language of forms characteristic of the young master, still influenced by the Bolognese works of Jacopo della Querci. That Proculus is a work of Michelangelo, Justi also insists on this, contrary to Frey. Makovsky showed that the model for the angel was the ancient goddess of victory preserved in the Louvre. Returning to Florence, he executed in marble young John and sleeping Cupid, which was sold at the same time for antiques. It is still difficult to recognize the former in “Giovannino” along with Bode and Carl Justi. Berlin Museum, and the second together with Conrad Lange and Fabrizi in one piece of the Turin collection. Quite reliable, however, remains the naked marble Bacchus by Michelangelo in National Museum in Florence, the first work he performed in 1496 in Rome. The ancient and the modern, characteristic of the master, are inseparably united in this swaying figure, whose naked body is conveyed with such vital warmth.

In the marble group of the suffering Mother of God with the deceased Savior in her bosom, distinguished by such inner grandeur and now decorating the Church of St. Peter, Michelangelo embraced with his personal view of nature and the life of his heart everything that he owed to the school of Donatello in Florence, the works of Querci in Bologna and ancient sculpture in Florence and Rome.

This noble creation is still slightly surrounded by the severity of the 15th century, but is already completely imbued with the aspirations characteristic of Michelangelo. Returning to Florence a second time, the master in 1501 received an order from the city to carve a statue of young David from a colossal marble block left by one of his predecessors in the form of a fragment. This naked colossus of a youth, aiming with a sling, guarded the entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio from 1504 to 1873, and now stands imprisoned in the rotunda of the academy. The figure of the brave youth is executed with an amazing sense of nature, all individual parts, such as arms and legs, are executed with extreme care, and the magnificent head is animated by an angry expression. The restraint of movements is only partly explained by the narrowness of this block; Michelangelo managed to extract strong, strong, true to life and original forms from this random stump.

After these majestic and austere works, the beautiful marble group of the Madonna with a naked boy standing between her knees in the Church of the Virgin Mary in Bruges and the elegant round relief with the Madonna and two boys in the National Museum in Florence show the calmly poised and beautiful style of the 16th century in plastic creativity Michelangelo.

But then the first big painting task fell to his lot. In 1504, his hometown gave him the execution of a battle painting from Florentine history on the wall of the city council hall, located opposite the begun painting by Leonardo. Michelangelo chose an unexpected attack on bathing soldiers at the Battle of Cascina. He had no intention of feigning the confusion of battle. He clearly sought to represent in the noblest images every person, every group and to convey the variety, naturalness and excitement of movements. All these strong people are animated by only one feeling of fear of approaching danger, one desire to escape. Michelangelo's work on cardboard was interrupted in 1505 by his call to Rome, but even in its unfinished form it became a school for the whole world. Better idea about separate groups This vanished work is given to us by copper engravings by Mark Antony and Agostino Veneziano.

The charming relief of the Madonna in the Academy of Arts in London and the round painting in the Uffizi, this, perhaps, the only handmade easel painting by Michelangelo, already suggests the presence of cardboard with bathing soldiers. The Madonna sits on her knees in front of Joseph and stretches her arms back to receive the baby from him over her right shoulder, and her strong members are shown by placing them in downsides; the same should be noted regarding the unfinished marble statue Apostle Matthew of the Florentine Academy, depicted in a bold, sharp turn. The victory of the line over the motionless mass in this case signifies the victory of the spirit over the body, and already here begins Michelangelo’s style in conveying movement, which captivated the whole world.

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)

The third Titan of the Renaissance lived a long life. He worked both during the high Renaissance and during its decline. The greatest master of his era, Michelangelo surpassed everyone in the strength and richness of his picturesque images, civic pathos, and passion. Painter, sculptor, architect, poet Michelangelo contributed generous gift into the treasury of world culture.

Michelangelo Buonarroti was born in the town of Caprese, in Valtiberina, on “the sixth day of March 1475, four hours before dawn,” according to the story of biographer, student and friend Ascanio Kindivi. At the request of his father Ludovico, who was descended from the noble family of the Counts of Canossa and was the acting mayor of Chiusi and Caprese, Michelangelo was destined for a literary career.

After the expiration of his term as mayor and the death in 1481 of his wife Francesca di Neri di Minato del Sera, Ludovico settled in Settignano. He sends the brothers of the future artist to the guild of wool and silk fabrics, and Michelangelo ends up in the school of Francesco da Urbino. Grammar teacher. The lively mind of the boy, who was only six years old at the time, inspired big hopes, but, as Vasari, a biographer and admirer of Michelangelo, recalls, “at any moment when he was left alone, he devoted himself to drawings, for which he was shouted at, or even beaten by his father and all the elders, perhaps believing that this was a whim, little understandable to them, was base and unworthy of them ancient family". Time passes, but the situation, according to the father, does not improve: Michelangelo, moreover, made friends with a boy of the same age, Francesco Granacci, who visited the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio. He, according to Vasari, “developed his young talent in the drawings of the master that he was able to copy them." And then the father, unable to turn his son away from drawing, decides to send him to study "Domenico Ghirlandaio. When Michelangelo came to the Florentine artist’s studio, he was twelve years old, but his period of study lasted less than expected, since the maestro appreciated the talent of the young trainee. Unfortunately, very few works of art remain from this period, during which Michelangelo mainly had to copy the great masters of the 15th century, and not only Italian ones. But there is a widely known case, reported by both Condivi and Vasari, about how a young student copied a lithograph with a pen German artist Martin Schongauer's The Temptation of Saint Anthony. Vasari says that the creation of the drawing gave him "the title of the greatest" because he, "imitating the works of various old masters, made them so similar that it was impossible to distinguish, since he also tinted and aged the paper with smoke and other substances […] , so that the drawings seemed ancient, and then, when he compared them with his own, it was impossible to distinguish one from the other."

In 1489, Lorenzo de' Medici, the ruler of Florence, decided to open a large garden for young artists at the monastery of St. Mark on Larga Street, where a wonderful collection of sculptures and antique gems was kept. In this garden Lorenzo de' Medici organizes educational institution, which can be briefly called the "Medici Academy". Lorenzo's idea was to create a real school that would contribute to the formation of new talents, whose art would have no rivals for Florence. The keeper of the collection and mentor of the youth was the elderly Bertoldo di Giovanni, a sculpture and medalist who had once studied with Donatello. The most outstanding artists of Florence had to select from among the students of their workshops those who could worthily enter the school conceived by Lorenzo “The Magnificent,” as his contemporaries usually called him. Domenico Ghirlandaio selected Francesco Granacci and Michelangelo Buonarroti among his students. However, intellectual and artistic ability the latter is soon singled out among the school students.

Young Michelangelo comprehends not only art, but also gets acquainted with philosophy and literature. According to tradition, it is believed that it was the poet Angelo Poliziano, who told the myth about the struggle between the centaurs and the Lapiths, who proposed to the young artist recreate it. The bas-relief has been preserved - this is " "Battle of the Centaurs" from the Buonarroti Museum, carved shortly before the death of Lorenzo de' Medici.

Basically, the first works made by the artist are sculptures, since drawing served for teaching, and through sculptures he could translate his ideas into form. Of course, training with old Bertoldo di Giovanni helped Michelangelo discover the secret of Donatello's low relief, that is, the ability to give unusual depth to narrow marble tiles.

One of the important orders for Michelangelo was the creation of three small sculptures to decorate the 15th century sarcophagus of St. Domenic, located in the basilica of the same name in Bologna. He contributed to the stylistic evolution of Michelangelo, who combined his study of 15th-century Ferrara painting with lessons learned from the reliefs of the doors of Jacopo della Quercia of the Church of San Petronio in Bologna. The death of Lorenzo the Magnificent and the riots that engulfed Florence due to bad government the heir of Piero de' Medici, led Michelangelo to the decision to leave the city and head to Venice, and then to Bologna.

After a short stay in Florence, the sculptor, who was barely twenty-one years old, sent his steps to Rome, to Cardinal Riario, who had recently acquired the artist’s work, sold as an antique. Settling in the cardinal's palace, Michelangelo received a substantial commission from him, which marked the beginning of many that followed in his long career, although the statue, not appreciated by Riario, was subsequently acquired by Jacopo Galli. Influenced by the atmosphere of Rome, Michelangelo depicted the figure of a drunken Bacchus, which was directly inspired by ancient sculpture

The result of a direct acquaintance in August 1498 with the banker Jacopo Galli was an order that became one of the most famous works of the sculptor from Caprese: “Pieta” from the Vatican Cathedral, the only one signed by the master. The monumental version, which gave Mary the appearance of a very young girl, emphasized the eternal significance of mourning and compassion. The charm of the sculptural group finally established the fame of twenty-three-year-old Michelangelo: the work becomes a role model for his contemporaries. Raphael found in her a source of inspiration for his Pala Baglioni. And in subsequent centuries, artists looked at " Mourning"and studied.

Changes in the political situation in Florence and the election of Pietro Soderini as Gonfalonier contributed to Michelangelo's return to his hometown. This is how the second one begins, very fruitful period stay in Florence (from 1501 to 1505). During this period such masterpieces were created as " David", "M adonna with child", commissioned by the Muscoron family from Bruges, with whom Michelangelo maintained close commercial contacts. At the same time, Michelangelo sculpted the Tondo Tadde and Tondo Pitti.

The story of the tomb of Pope Julius II, which was to be completed by Michelangelo, turned out to be a long and painful one that affected the artist’s life. It is no coincidence that Michelangelo himself often spoke of the “tragedy of burial,” summing up all the bitterness and disappointment that this order brought. Conceived as the final monument to be located inside the renovated St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, the papal mausoleum, commissioned in 1505, was completed only in 1547, and in a greatly reduced version compared to the original plan, and was installed in San Pietro in Vincoli. To implement the project, the artist worked in collaboration with Rafaelo da Montelupo, Maso del Bosco and Scherano da Settignano, and the only statue completely executed by the master was “Moses”. Neither Julius II himself, who distracted Michelangelo from completing the task by entrusting him with painting the ceiling Sistine Chapel, nor his heirs fulfilled these obligations.

Despite this, Michelangelo created a beautiful series of slaves, of which four remained unfinished. The last created work of this period was the statue " Christ carrying the cross" commissioned by Roman commissioners for the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva (1518-1520).

Then all his energy is absorbed by the execution of the order of the Medici tombs for the New Sacristy of the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence. According to the wishes of two customers - Pope Leo X and the cousin of Cardinal Julius de' Medici, the future Clement VII, the building was to house the burials of Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Juilan. The burial of Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother consists of a simple pedestal, to the right of the entrance, on which is located Michelangelo's Madonna and Child statue, begun in 1521.

Two unusual innovations introduced by Michelangelo in the execution of the mausoleum were the addition of two sculptures of "Condottierres", as he called them. The architectural layout of the space of the walls against which they are located, the rejection of any semblance of portrait resemblance and the use of the technique of “incompleteness” when creating the faces of “Day” and “Evening”. On the other hand, even Vasari admitted that the “sketch” does not close on itself, giving the impression not of a completed work, but of a creative impulse. In 1534, Michelangelo leaves Florence and returns to Rome. When the Sacristy was almost completed, the artist also sculpted the “David - Apollo” from the Bargello and then the “Victory” created for the mausoleum of Julius II, later installed in the Pallazzo Vecchio. On last stage During his sculptural activity, Michelangelo created a bust of Brutus, commissioned by Cardinal Niccolò Ridolfi, but during these years the master’s work was predominantly dominated by the theme that occupied the artist in his youth - the theme of “Lamentation.”

It was the feeling of the proximity of death that pushed Michelangelo on this path, since, according to his plan, the so-called “Pieta Bandini”, created between 1550 and 1555, was to decorate his own burial, which the master wanted to place in the Roman church of Santa Maria Maggiore. It remained unfinished and even damaged. Michelangelo, being dissatisfied with the sculpture, smashed Christ's hand with a hammer.

Separately, I would like to highlight the works of Michelangelo, the artist. The first official opportunity for the master to demonstrate his talent as an artist was when Soderini, Gonfaloniere of Florence, commissioned him to create a huge fresco for the Council Chamber in the Palazzo Vecchio. The front wall was supposed to be painted by Leonardo da Vinci, depicting the famous episode of the “Battle of Anghiari”, from which a few sketches and later copies remained. It is worth remembering the work of Leonardo in order to better understand the fresco by Michelangelo, which was also lost.

Leonardo chose a military episode, and Michelangelo was inspired by the story of the 14th century historian Giovanni Villani. During the war between Florence and Pisa, the Florentine troops decided to camp near the town of Cascina and swim in the Arno to cool off. But when they were warned about the approach of enemies, they quickly dressed and, having met their enemies, won. Michelangelo chose the moment when the soldiers were collecting clothes and weapons on the banks of the Arno, that is, precisely the moment when all forces were concentrated before the battle. In other words, the artist from Caprese was attracted precisely by the energy of tense bodies, exactly the same thing that attracted him to " "Battle of the Centaurs". Other important works of the Florentine period were "The Holy Family with John the Baptist", better known as " Tondo Donny", "Descent from the Cross" And " Madonna and Child, John the Baptist and Four Angels" although art historians consider them to be later works. But, of course, the work that became the pinnacle of Michelangelo’s work as an artist and confirmed his fame was the painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Julius II, at the suggestion of Bramante, who probably wanted to give Michelangelo a difficult task and distract him from working on the tomb, asked the artist to make a new painting of the ceiling, which was previously decorated with an image of the starry sky. Michelangelo, who wanted to begin work on the tomb of Julius II as soon as possible, tried to refuse the task, offering to involve Raphael in the work, but ultimately, in order to appease the stubborn pope, with whom he had already come into disagreements more than once, he accepted the offer.

The work lasted from 1508 to 1512. - for four years of continuous and exhausting work, as a result of which more than a thousand meters of space was sketched with almost three hundred figures. He was so accustomed to working with his head thrown back that when he descended from the walkway, he was forced to take a similar position in order to read the letter. It is not for nothing that in one of the sketched caricatures in a letter of that time, Michelangelo is depicted with his head thrown back up.

Michelangelo painted the ceiling in two stages and finished it on August 15, 1511, on the day of the Ascension of Our Lady, which is why the chapel was dedicated to the holiday. The work not only aroused universal admiration, but also had a direct influence on Raphael, who placed the figure of Michelangelo in the form of Heraclitus in the “School of Athens”; he used the theme of the Sibyls in the lunette “Virtues” in the painting of the Stanza Segnatura and on the front part of the arch of the Chigi Chapel in Santa Maria della Pace. During the period of work, which lasted four years, Michelangelo's style changed, becoming more powerful. A clear confirmation of this can be the comparison of the figure of Zechariah, deliberately seated in an unusual chair, and Jonah, presented from a perspective. The prophet became a giant, barely able to fit in his place. Michelangelo returned to work on the Sistine Chapel twenty-five years after completing work on the ceiling. This time he creates the most painful work in the history of painting - “The Last Judgment”.

But this fresco was not Michelangelo’s last painting. Commissioned by Pope Paul III Farnese, he again creates frescoes in the Paolina Chapel in the Vatican. The chapel, built by Antonio la Sangallo in 1549, was a private chapel and its frescoes depicting the Conversion of St. Paul and the Crucifixion of St. Peter were similar to giant icons that called for meditation.

Considering the genius of Michelangelo, one cannot ignore his architectural talent, which was the first to be appreciated by Pope Leo X. It was he who chose, among the many presented projects, the one Buonarroti did for the facade of San Lorenzo, which the Medici considered almost a house church. In Michelangelo's project, he was amazed by the originality of the new approach to the interpretation of the classical architectural language as applied to a religious building, combined with numerous sculptural decorations of the building.

The artist from Caprese worked on the complex of San Lorenzo for quite a long time, since the pope entrusted him with work on the New Sacristy in 1520, and then Giulio de' Medici, who became after the death of his cousin Leo X, pope under the name of Clement VII, entrusts him in 1523 with the construction of the Laurentian Library.

To prolong the ephemeral dream of a republic that had appeared two years earlier, after the expulsion from the city of the Medici, the city made a desperate attempt to resist the superior forces of the army of Charles V. This was a very delicate moment in the life of the artist, because, taking part in the defense of Florence, he came into conflict with representatives of the family through which he succeeded and became famous. That is why, after the fall of republican rule (August 12, 1530), Michelangelo went into hiding until he received a pardon from Clement VII, after which he again began work on the complex of San Lorenzo. The buildings of the complex became the only architectural structure created by Buonarroti in the second Florentine period. Subsequently, they were finally completed by Vasari and Bartolomeo Ammanti.

Only in 1546 did the artist again have to solve architectural problems. It was during this period, after completing the decoration of the Paolina Chapel, that Paul III asked him to finish the family palace: Antonio da Sangallo, who had recently died, did not have time to finish it.

Michelangelo's enormous contribution to the urbanism of Rome was his work on the Capitoline Hill, begun in 1538, when the artist used, in parallel with the scenography of architectural structures, perspective techniques that would come into fashion a hundred years later.

And yet the work that occupied him until last day and what became his obsession was the construction of a new St. Peter's Basilica and its magnificent dome. Appointed as the architect for the construction of the cathedral in 1546, Michelangelo, adapting to Bramante’s grandiose project, simplified it and changed its dimensions, conceiving a building of a centralized layout, the dome of which became its plastic and symbolic completion. In the 17th century, due to the intervention of Maderno, St. Peter's Basilica, conceived by Michelangelo, lost its originality, retaining only the most significant part of the architect's original design in the dome. The artist was able to observe the construction until the foundation was erected. The latter period also includes the construction of Porta Pia and the reconstruction of Santa Maria degli Angeli.

The last thirty years of his life were marked by a gradual retreat from sculpture and painting and a turning mainly to architecture and poetry. Michelangelo's lyrics are distinguished by their depth of thought and high tragedy; It raises themes of love, harmony, and loneliness. Michelangelo's favorite poetic forms are madrigal and sonnet; They were not published during the author’s lifetime, although they were highly valued by his contemporaries. Michelangelo never returned to Florence. He died in Rome in 1564. After the death of the artist, his body was secretly taken from Rome and solemnly buried in the tomb of the famous Florentines - the Church of Santa Croce.

RENAISSANCE. The period of high renaissance. The Renaissance period made contributions of enormous importance to world artistic culture. It was a period of wars and economic weakening, but despite this, creative creation was the tireless need of the people of that time. Artistic life experienced a rise in drawing, engraving, sculpture and in all its other manifestations. The High Renaissance period represents the apogee of the Renaissance. It was a short period that lasted about 30 years, but in terms of quantity and quality, this period of time was like centuries.

Art High Renaissance is a summation of the achievements of the 15th century, but at the same time it is a new qualitative leap both in the theory of art and in its implementation. The extraordinary density of this period can be explained by the fact that the number of historical period working brilliant artists is a kind of record even for the entire history of art. It is enough to name such names as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo.

It is the latter that today’s story will be about. INTRODUCTION It can be said about many masters that their work constituted an era. These have long been ordinary words, being expressed at the address of Michelangelo, acquire the true fullness of their meaning. In addition to the fact that Michelangelo’s creative path was distinguished by its extraordinary chronological length, what is important is that it completely covers two of the most important stages in the development of the Italian Renaissance: the High Renaissance period and the Late Renaissance period.

Michelangelo's activity turned out to be equally grandiose in scale and fruitful in results in the three main types of plastic arts: sculpture, painting and architecture. Throughout his entire creative career, Michelangelo remained a bright reformer and the founder of the avant-garde art of the Renaissance. All this creates a special mark on world artistic culture, distinguishing Michelangelo even among many other great masters with whom Italy was so rich in the era of the highest flowering of its art. This special position of Michelangelo in the art of his time is perceived with extraordinary palpability in those two main centers of Italy that were the arena of his activity, in Florence and Rome. In each of these cities, in which a huge number of magnificent monuments have formed a kind of integral artistic organism, Michelangelo's main creations give rise to a feeling of indisputable dominance. Michelangelo, in the light of his tragic fate, is similar to his heroes and it is not for nothing that his life attracted the attention of writers and poets.

He was not a textbook ideal.

Acting in his art as a creator of images of monolithic integrity, as a person he may seem full of weaknesses and contradictions. Actions marked by extraordinary courage are replaced by attacks of weakness. The highest creative upsurges alternate with periods of uncertainty and doubt, with countless breaks in work on works of a much more modest scale.

Inexhaustible strength, unparalleled creative energy and so many unfinished works. Ethical and civic ideals were not something external and transitory for Michelangelo; it was like a part of his soul. Representing the embodiment of the teachings of Italian humanists about the perfect man, who combines physical beauty and strength of spirit, the images of Michelangelo, more than the works of any other artist, carry a visual expression of such an important quality of this ideal as the concept of virtu.

This concept acts as the personification of the active principle in a person, the purposefulness of his will, the ability to realize his lofty thoughts in spite of all obstacles. That is why Michelangelo, unlike other masters, depicts his heroes at a decisive moment in their lives. Equally gifted in all areas of the plastic arts, Michelangelo was still primarily a sculptor, as he himself repeatedly emphasized this. In addition to the fact that sculpture, like no other type of fine art, opens up favorable opportunities for the creation of monumental heroic images, it requires a particularly high degree of artistic generalization, due to which the creative volitional principle finds extremely vivid expression in it.

FIRST PERIOD YOUTH YEARS Let us turn to the stages covering Michelangelo's youth, from the early 1490s to his first trip to Rome in 1496. The first years of matser's formation passed under fairly favorable conditions for him.

After Michelangelo, a thirteen-year-old boy, set out on the path of an artist and was sent to study with Ghirlandaio, a year later he moved to art school in the Medici gardens at the Florentine monastery of San Marco. The Academy in the Medici Gardens was a higher level school. Not associated with the execution of official and private orders, it was deprived of a specific workshop environment. The spirit of the craft workshop gave way here to a more free and artistic atmosphere.

The leadership of the workshop by the experienced sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni ensured that students not only acquired deep professional knowledge, but also perceived the best traditions of Florentine sculpture of the 15th century. Finally, the attention of Lorenzo de Medici and the figures of Florentine culture grouped around him meant a lot to the school. Already at the age of fifteen, Michelangelo apparently stood out so much for his talent that Lorenzo took him under his special protection.

Having settled him in his palace, he introduced him to his circle, among which the head of the Neoplatonist school, the philosopher Marsilio Ficino and the poet Angelo Poliziano, stood out. Both are the first to come down to us sculptural works Michelangelo reliefs. Perhaps this is the result of the influence of Bertoldo, who felt stronger in relief than in a round statue, and at the same time a tribute to tradition for the 15th century, relief was one of the most important sections of sculpture. One can confidently say about one of these reliefs about the Battle of the Centaurs that this is an example of the purest sculpture that the 15th century, so rich in monuments of plastic art, has ever known.

The plot for this work was proposed to the sculptor by the poet Angelo Poliziano. Researchers call the Battle of Bertoldo in the Florentine National Museum and the relief compositions of ancient sarcophagi as primary sources in plastic art. Michelangelo's Battle of the Centaurs essentially ushered in a new era in Renaissance art, and for the history of sculpture it was a harbinger of a true revolution.

The special significance of the Battle of the Centaurs also lies in the fact that this relief already contains a unique program for Michelangelo’s future work. Not only did it express the leading theme of his art, the theme of struggle and heroic feat, here the type and appearance of his heroes have already been determined to a large extent, and new means of sculptural language have been brought to life.

As for the first of these two works of the Madonna at the Florence Staircase, Casa Buonarroti, Michelangelo is close in it to the sculptures of the 15th century, except in the very technique of low, extremely finely nuanced relief, requiring the master to masterly mastery of spatial plans within a very slight elevation plastic masses above the background plane. The significance of Michelangelo's first two works must also be appreciated as an important milestone in the evolution of Renaissance art in general, and in particular in the formation of the principles of High Renaissance art.

Michelangelo did not have time to complete his work on the Battle of the Centaurs when the death of Lorenzo de' Medici marked the beginning of decisive changes not only in the fate of the young master, who was now left to his own devices. The four years that separated Michelangelo's departure from the Medici Gardens from his first trip to Rome were a period of his further spiritual growth. But the development of his talent was not as rapid as one might expect after Michelangelo's first experiments in sculpture.

Unfortunately, information about the works of these years is incomplete, so most of them, even the most interesting ones, have not survived. Among them, the statue of Hercules, which came to France already in the 16th century and was installed in front of the castle of Fontainebleau. Giovannino’s statue of the young John the Baptist and the Sleeping Cupid, the acquisition of which by the Roman Cardinal Riario was the reason for Michelangelo’s departure to Rome in 1496, also disappeared. THE SECOND PERIOD FROM THE ROMAN MAILINGS TO MATTHEW The First Roman Period, which began in 1496, ushered in a new stage in the work of Michelangelo.

Perhaps for no one Rome did not mean as much as for Michelangelo, the scale of whose creative imagination found an inspiring example in the majestic monuments of the Eternal City. Michelangelo’s passion for ancient sculpture was so great that at first it overshadowed his work a distinct personal imprint inherent in it. An example of this is the statue of Bacchus, Florence, created in 1496-1497, National Museum.

The true Michelangelo begins in Rome with his first major work, which glorified the name of the master throughout Italy, with the Lamentation of Christ Pietà in the Cathedral of St. Petra. This group was created in 1497-1501. Some researchers connect the theme and idea of ​​this work with the tragic death of Savonarola, which made a deep impression on Michelangelo. In principle, Michelangelo’s Lamentation in the Cathedral of St. Peter, being one of the characteristic works of the first, classical phase of the High Renaissance, occupies approximately the same place in Renaissance sculpture as Leonard's Madonna in the Grotto, completed between 1490 and 1494, occupied in painting.

Both of these works are similar in their purpose, and Leonardo’s painting and Michelangelo’s group are compositions intended to decorate the altar of a church or chapel. As always, Michelangelo’s typical deviations from the traditional interpretation of the theme, bold violations of iconographic canons, attract attention.

An unusual motif for Italian Renaissance sculpture, the image of the Mother of God with the body of the dead Christ on her knees dates back to examples of Northern European sculpture of the 14th century. Michelangelo's Pieta is the first programmatic work of the High Renaissance deployed in sculpture, which represents a truly new word both in the content of its images and in their plastic embodiment. Here one can feel the connection with the images of Leonardo, but still Michelangelo went his own way. In contrast to the calmness of the closed and ideal images Leonardo and Michelangelo, by the nature of their dramatic talent, gravitated towards a vivid expression of feelings.

True, the example of the harmonious balance of Leonardo’s images was obviously so irresistible that in the Roman Pieta Michelangelo gave an unusually restrained decision for himself. However, this did not stop him from making here important step forward. Unlike Leonardo, in the appearance of whose characters one can see the features of a certain general ideal type, Michelangelo introduces into his images a shade of specific individualization, so his heroes, with all the ideal height and scale of their images, acquire a special imprint of a unique, almost personal character.

The Pieta belongs to the most finished works of Michelangelo; it is not only completed in all its smallest details, but also completely polished. But this was a traditional technique, from which Michelangelo in this case had not yet decided to move away.

The Roman Pieta made Michelangelo the first sculptor of Italy. She not only brought him fame, she helped him truly appreciate his creative powers, the growth of which was so rapid that this work very soon turned out to be a passed stage for him; he only needed a reason for this. Such a reason was found when, in 1501, Upon Michelangelo's return from Rome to Florence, official representatives of the guild circles approached him with a request regarding the possibility of using a huge block of marble, which had been unsuccessfully begun by the sculptor Agostino di Duccio. No matter how disfigured this marble block was, Michelangelo immediately saw his David in it.

Despite the unusual dimensions of the statue, about five and a half meters, and the very great compositional difficulties associated with the need to fit the figure into the extremely inconvenient dimensions of the marble block, the work proceeded without delay, and after just over two years, in 1504, it was completed. The idea itself Michelangelo embodied in a colossal statue precisely the image of David, which, according to generally accepted tradition, as evidenced by famous works Donatello and Verrocchio were portrayed in the guise of a fragile boy, which is perceived in this case not simply as a violation of some canonical rules, but as the master gaining complete creative freedom in the interpretation of motifs consecrated by centuries-old traditions.

Michelangelo is already in initial phase The High Renaissance in his David gives an example of the merging into an inextricable whole of the appearance of ideal beauty and human character, in which the main thing is an unusually bright embodiment of courage and concentrated will. The statue expresses not only readiness for a cruel and dangerous fight, but also unshakable confidence in victory.

The place that Michelangelo's David occupied in sculpture was to be occupied in painting by his Battle of Cascina, on which he worked in 1504-1506. The very scale of this fresco composition predisposed, if this plan were realized, to the creation of an outstanding image of monumental mural painting.

Unfortunately, Michelangelo, like his rival Leonardo, who was working on the Battle of Anghiari at that time, did not go further than cardboard. Vasari testifies to what the cardboard itself looked like, noting that the figures in it were executed in different manners, one outlined in charcoal, the other was drawn with strokes, and the other was shaded and highlighted with white, so Michelangelo wanted to show everything that he knew how to do in this art.

In 1505, Michelangelo was summoned by Julius II to Rome, where he designed the papal tomb. After the pope lost interest in this plan, Michelangelo, unable to bear the insulting treatment, voluntarily left Rome in April 1506 and returned to Florence, where he remained until the beginning of November of this year. Michelangelo began to carry out a very large order, which he received here back in 1503, when he undertook to complete twelve large statues Apostles for the Florence Cathedral.

But later, not having time to finish work on the first of the statues - Matthew, Michelangelo was forced to make reconciliation with the pope. This was followed by work in Bologna on bronze statue Julius II, and then departure to Rome, as a result of which work on the statues of the apostles for the Florence Cathedral was no longer resumed. Matthew attracts attention by its scale. With a height of 2.62 m, it significantly exceeds the size of life, this usual standard of Renaissance sculptures. This scale, combined with the large plasticity of forms characteristic of Michelangelo, gives Matthew a very great monumental expressiveness.

But the main thing in it is a new understanding of the image and the associated features of a new plastic language, which allows us to consider this sculpture a huge step forward compared to the Roman Pieta and David. Speaking from Matthew, who was not even half finished, we can say that he captures the viewer with some new furious drama. If in David the dramatic intensity of the image was justified by the plot mobilization of all the hero’s forces for a mortal battle, then in Matthew it is the idea of ​​​​an internal tragic conflict .

For the first time in Renaissance art, the master depicts a hero whose spiritual impulses escape the power of human will. THIRD PERIOD SISTINE PLAFOND The task that Michelangelo had to solve in painting the Sistine ceiling was very difficult. Firstly, it was a ceiling painting, and here the experience of the Renaissance masters was less than in ordinary mural painting.

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, together with the adjacent lunettes, is about six hundred square meters The development of a general compositional design for the painting alone presented a very difficult problem. Here, a simple sparse composition with a few isolated figures, as was previously customary, was replaced by a painting that was very complex in its construction, consisting of many episodes and individual images, including great amount figures. Michelangelo solved the problem posed to him fully armed with his mastery of the fundamentals of all plastic arts.

In this first major painting work, in essence, his talent as an architect was revealed for the first time. Since the rejection of the first version of the painting also meant the rejection of subordination to the architectural forms of the Sistine Chapel of an elongated room with a vaulted ceiling of proportions unfavorable for painting, Michelangelo had to create his own painting using painting methods the architectural basis on which the main organizing function is entrusted.

This architecture divides the painting into separate component parts, each of which has independent completeness, and in interaction with other parts forms a whole that is rare in its clear structure and logic. Michelangelo used both means of planimetric division of painting and means of plastic expressiveness, in particular, varying degrees of relief or depth of a particular image.

In the painting of the Sistine ceiling we find a vivid manifestation of the ethical maximalism characteristic of Michelangelo. Filled with high humanistic pathos, the master is least inclined to make any even external compromises with official churchliness. In close connection with the evolution of the ideological and content principles of painting was the evolution of its visual language. It is known that the compositional structure of the main scenes of the stories was not found by the artist immediately, but in the process of work itself.

Having completed the first three scenes of the Drunkenness of Noah, the Flood and the Sacrifice of Noah, Michelangelo dismantled the scaffolding, which allowed him to test the conditions for the viewer’s perception of the frescoes. At the same time, he became convinced that he had chosen an insufficiently large scale for the figures, and in the Flood and in the Sacrifice of Noah he oversaturated the compositions with figures, with the high height of the vault this impaired their visibility. In subsequent episodes, he avoided a similar drawback by enlarging the figures and reducing their number, as well as introducing important changes to the stylistic techniques of painting.

The Sistine ceiling became the comprehensive embodiment of the High Renaissance - its harmonious beginning and its conflicts, ideal human types and bright characters merging with this ideal basis. In subsequent works, Michelangelo will have to observe the process of a steady increase in the contradictions of time, the realization of the impracticability of Renaissance ideals, and subsequently their tragic collapse. FOURTH PERIOD TOMB OF JULIUS II The place that in Michelangelo's painting was occupied by the painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, in his sculpture could be occupied by the tomb of Julius II. However whole line Various circumstances were the reason that this monument was not realized in its original plan.

Many decades of work on the tombstone led to the creation of several essentially heterogeneous sculptural cycles, which are largely of independent value. The original plan, dating back to 1505, was distinguished by such an excessive number of sculptural works that it could hardly be realized.

Michelangelo conceived it as a two-tiered mausoleum, decorated with statues and reliefs, and he intended to carry out all the work with his own hands. However, subsequently he decided to reduce the number of sculptures and reduce the size of the tomb, which was a necessary measure. In 1513, having completed the painting of the Sistine ceiling, Michelangelo began work on the sculptures of the second version of the tomb - the statues of the Prisoners.

These works, together with Moses dating back to 1515-1516, mark a new important stage in Michelangelo’s work.

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Michelangelo Buonarroti(1475-1564) is the third great genius of the Italian Renaissance. In terms of personality scale, he approaches Leonardo. He was a sculptor, painter, architect and poet. The last thirty years of his work fell on the Late Renaissance. During this period, restlessness and anxiety, a premonition of impending troubles and upheavals, appear in his works.

Among his first creations, the statue “Boy Swinging”, which echoes the “Disco Thrower”, attracts attention. antique sculptor Mirona. In it, the master manages to clearly express the movement and passion of the young creature.

Two works - the statue of Bacchus and the Pieta group - created at the end of the 15th century, brought Michelangelo wide fame and glory. In the first, he was able to amazingly subtly convey the state of slight intoxication and unstable balance. The Pieta group depicts the dead body of Christ lying on the lap of the Madonna, mournfully bending over him. Both figures are fused into a single whole. The impeccable composition makes them surprisingly truthful and reliable. Departing from tradition. Michelangelo depicts the Madonna as young and beautiful. The contrast of her youth with the lifeless body of Christ further enhances the tragedy of the situation.

One of highest achievements Michelangelo appeared statue "David" which he risked sculpting from a block of marble lying unused and already damaged. The sculpture is very high - 5.5 m. However, this feature remains almost invisible. Ideal proportions, perfect plasticity, rare harmony of forms make it surprisingly natural, light and beautiful. The statue is filled with inner life, energy and strength. It is a hymn to human masculinity, beauty, grace and elegance.

Michelangelo's highest achievements also include works. created for the tomb of Pope Julius II - “Moses”, “Bound Slave”, “Dying Slave”, “Waking Slave”, “Crouching Boy”. The sculptor worked on this tomb with breaks for about 40 years, but never completed it. However then. that the sculptor managed to create what are considered the greatest masterpieces of world art. According to experts, in these works Michelangelo managed to achieve the highest perfection, ideal unity and correspondence of internal meaning and external form.

One of Michelangelo’s significant creations is the Medici Chapel, which he added to the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence and is decorated with sculptural tombstones. Two tombs of Dukes Lorenzo and Giuliano Medici They are sarcophagi with sloping lids, on which there are two figures - “Morning” and “Evening”, “Day” and “Night”. All the figures look joyless, they express anxiety and a gloomy mood. These were precisely the feelings Michelangelo himself experienced as his Florence was captured by the Spaniards. As for the figures of the dukes themselves, when depicting them, Michelangelo did not strive for portrait resemblance. He presented them as generalized images of two types of people: the courageous and energetic Giuliano and the melancholic and thoughtful Lorenzo.

Of Michelangelo's last sculptural works, the group “Entombment”, which the artist intended for his tomb, deserves attention. Her fate turned out to be tragic: Michelangelo broke her. However, it was restored by one of his students.

In addition to sculptures, Michelangelo created beautiful works painting. The most significant of them are paintings of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.

He tackled them twice. First, by order of Pope Julius II, he painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, spending four years on it (1508-1512) and doing a fantastically difficult and enormous job. He had to cover more than 600 square meters with frescoes. On huge surfaces Michelangelo's ceiling depicted Old Testament scenes - from the Creation of the world to the Flood, as well as scenes from everyday life - a mother playing with her children, an old man immersed in deep thought, a young man reading, etc.

For the second time (1535-1541) Michelangelo created the fresco “The Last Judgment”, placing it on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel. In the center of the composition, in a halo of light, there is the figure of Christ, raising his right hand in a menacing gesture. There are many naked human figures around him. Everything depicted on the canvas is in a circular motion, which begins at the bottom.

the spruce side, where the dead are depicted rising from their graves. Above them are souls who strive upward, and above them are the righteous. The very top part of the fresco is occupied by angels. At the bottom of the right side there is a boat with Charon, who drives sinners to hell. The biblical meaning of the Last Judgment is expressed clearly and impressively.

In the last years of his life, Michelangelo was engaged in architecture. He completes the construction of the Cathedral of St. Peter, making changes to Bramante's original project.

Michelangelo is one of the the most unique masters in the history of the plastic arts Individual talent, combined with favorable conditions of the era, led Michelangelo to artistic achievements so large-scale and multifaceted that it is difficult to find analogues in the entire history of the plastic arts.

The time in which Michelangelo lived and worked was one of the peaks of the spiritual evolution of mankind. Perhaps no other country during a single historical era didn't give the world so much outstanding masters like Italy during the Renaissance. Over the course of three centuries, the colossal artistic potential of the Renaissance took shape - a time saturated to the limit with the spirit of intense creative creation.

When assessing the individual stages that make up the history of Renaissance culture, it would be wrong to assert the unconditional predominance of one of them over the other. Equally unfair would be the judgment that each new generation of masters of that era must necessarily surpass their predecessors. Are we talking about the early Renaissance period associated with the name of Giotto, or about the art of the High Renaissance (15th century), which was represented by the Bruneddeschis. Donatello, Alberti, Piero della Francesca, Maptegna, Botticelli and Giovanni Bellini, or, finally, about the late Renaissance - about the time of Palladio, Veronese and Tintoretto, we will have to note that at all successive stages of the evolution of Renaissance art, artistic values ​​were created, which are still of great importance today.

But still, the artistic contribution that such masters as Michelangelo, Bramante, Leonardo, Raphael, Giorgione and Titian made during the Renaissance is invaluable. These artists were given a special fate. For, in addition to the unique qualities of each of the Renaissance stages separately, the general dynamics of the progressive development of the entire era as a whole means a lot. This dynamic has its own meaning and its own historical pathos. The line of this development is diverse, and in its movement in time, along with various kinds of individual fluctuations, it records more significant regularities! and growth and descent. The chronological period (1490-1530) was therefore called the era of the High Renaissance.

A new round in the development of society has set new challenges for art - renewal artistic language both in poetry and in painting. The Renaissance, so to speak, “chose” the fine arts, where artistic images their expressiveness was far superior to literature, music and science.

The creative and life path of Michelangelo occupies almost ninety years of Italian history. The work of the great master is not limited to the High Renaissance. Within this period, only the first half of it passed creative path. Unlike the overwhelming majority of other masters of this stage, whose activity was limited to precisely this period of time, Michelangelo retained the fullness of creative activity in the next, final phase of the era during the Late Renaissance. From this it can be seen that Michelangelo’s work covers two major stages, each of which is marked by a range of ideas and images in different directions, with its own special means of artistic language.

One more thing worth noting important point- throughout his entire life, which captured both stages of Renaissance art, Michelangelo was always at the forefront of the artistic process, leading the search for a new artistic language, defining with his creativity the main line of the era. What is the burning reason for this circumstance, which so noticeably distinguished Michelangelo from other great masters of the 16th century? ^Two interrelated factors played a role here; first of all - specific features his artistic worldview and creative method, and then - the all-round talent that allowed Michelangelo to express himself with such extraordinary energy in all types of plastic arts.

First, let's talk about the first of these factors. As you know, the art of the Renaissance marked the discovery real person and the real world around him. For the Italian Renaissance, this formula was always characterized by the predominance of the human image over its environment - a kind of anthropocentrism of the creative worldview. Michelangelo embodies titanism, generated by the confrontation between secular views and the “divine” principle; subsequently, such confrontation is rewarded, and the person exalts himself, freeing himself from the dogmas of the incomprehensibility of the world that fettered his will. For Michelangelo, there is no world outside of man - the human image embraces and exhausts everything. As for showing the real environment of a person, the master is not interested in it, or almost not. In man and only in him, in. his appearance, inner world, in his feelings and actions he discovers inexhaustible possibilities for revealing all that exists.

The Renaissance ideal of a person - strong, self-confident, in which physical beauty was combined with the energy of passions and the power of the mind. - was embodied in its various aspects by many of Michelangelo’s predecessors and contemporaries. Michelangelo does not look for his heroes in the world of ideas, does not strive for abstract perfection, does not turn to divine transcendence. To a greater extent than other masters, he highlights the core of human character: the heroic principle, understood primarily as a person’s ability to take active action, to overcome all the obstacles that stand in his way. A man from Michelangelo's creations is captured at the decisive moments of his life, at moments when his fate is determined and when personal valor elevates his deed to the level of feat. This great master managed to find what makes one most strongly feel the beating of a person’s heart, his flesh and blood, and understand his feelings and experiences.

“Today’s painters paint according to a stereotypical pattern,” Michelangelo writes in his diaries. “There is no glimpse of any innovation in their works. Yes, they are not trying to bring anything new to art. Everyone now has before their eyes thousands of examples of ready-made solutions left over from the heyday of Tuscan art. It’s much calmer to paint figures than to put yourself at risk by introducing movement into the frozen composition of the same Girlan Dayo or Rogsgllm.”

Therefore, Michelangelo's characters appear before us in the highest tension of strength - in moments of gloomy thoughtfulness, affirmation of their victory, or in their pain and torment, or in heroic death. That is why they are so impressively tragic when an insoluble conflict settles within them, manifesting itself in the consciousness of the incompatibility of what should be and what is possible, when their former self-confidence collapses and a growing feeling of powerlessness in the face of the ineradicable EVIL OF LIFE.

Michelalgedo is an all-rounder. A statue and a fresco, a drawing and an architectural structure - everything that he created is saturated with plastic energy and the richness of artistic language. As we know, versatility in itself is not an exception, but rather a typical side of Renaissance masters, many of whom successfully tested their strengths in various fields of artistic activity. However, only one Michelaigelo managed to make a truly epoch-making contribution to all sections of the plastic arts, regardless of whether it was sculpture or painting, graphics or architecture. In any case, we can say without hesitation that in each of the named sections, Michelangelo’s works can rightfully be regarded as achievements of a decisive order.

Michelangelo is an artist and sculptor, he welds elements of architecture and painting (the Sistine Chapel) into a form of synthetic integrity that has not been achieved by any other Renaissance master. Thus, the striking unity of the initial factors of Michelangelo’s creative method results in a rare variety of final artistic results.

The strength of personality and the truly titanic scale of Michelangelo’s deeds served as a guarantee of the insurmountable greatness of his spirit in the most difficult trials of the Burden. More than any other Italian master of the 16th century. Michelangelo's biography is presented as the spiritual path of a man who was a participant in the main events of the era, which found a deep response in his consciousness and work.

Michelangelo began his career as an artist as a thirteen-year-old boy. After a one-year stay (1489) in the workshop of the outstanding Florentine painter Domenico Ghirlandaio, he moved to the school of sculpture created under the auspices of Lorsipo Medici in the Medici Gardens at the Florentine monastery of San Marco. In this school, led by Bertoldo, Michelangelo immediately attracted attention and was soon accepted into the cultural circles of Florence and accepted on an equal footing by the outstanding figures of that time - Polnziano, Marsilio Ficno, Pica della Mirandola. Michelangelo chose sculpture, although his visual creativity in skill and strength would be equally great in this form of art. Already in Michelangelo's early sculptural works, experts discover the true scale of his talent. There is essentially nothing studentlike in the small relief compositions “Madonna of the Stairs” and “Battle of the Centaurs” created by a sixteen-year-old boy. It's not enough to say that they demonstrate bold and confident artistry - they are clearly ahead of their time.

The first of these works, performed in the traditional style Italian sculptors XV century the technique of flat, subtly nuanced relief will give R TO the same time an example of a completely non-traditional image: Madonna and Young Chrpstos are endowed with power and internal drama unusual for Quattrocento art. In "Battle of the Centaurs" the relief gives the impression of truly explosive power. In a tangle of bodies. intertwined in mortal combat, the main theme of Michelangelo’s work is already visible - the theme of struggle, understood as one of the eternal manifestations of existence.

Behind the bold breakthrough into the future in the work of Michelangelo, there is a process of slow and consistent formation, in-depth study of ancient and Renaissance art, trying oneself in various, sometimes very contradictory traditions,

Along with his studies in sculpture, Michelangelo did not stop studying painting, mainly monumental; independent motifs appeared in his graphics. But the period of apprenticeship for Michelangelo is so fleeting that it almost does not exist: he knows for certain what he depicts, while showing literacy and deep competence.

An important step in creative formation Mnke Langelo was inspired by his stay in Rome from 1496 to 1501. Going beyond the Florentine artistic environment and closer contact with the ancient tradition contributed to broadening the horizons of the young master, enlarging the scale of his artistic thinking. True, the earliest Roman work - the statue of Bacchus - is an example of a not yet very deep implementation of ancient impulses. Although, as Michelangelo himself wrote, he did not strive to follow Greek traditions: “I will try to properly pump him up with wine, and this will be the main difference from the Greek models... When the sculpture is finished, let it become clear to everyone that Bacchus had enough , and his intoxicated state will be expressed on his face and in his movements. For the Greeks, this is just an allegory of enjoying the aroma of ripe grapes, and I have the right to call my work Tipsy Bacchus.”

The main work of these years is the Pieta (Lamentation of Christ) in the Roman Cathedral of St. Peter, commissioned by the Abbot of Saint-Deca, the French envoy to the Vatican. This is the first serious work of Michelangelo the master, but at the same time, a work that caused many personal doubts and brought him dissatisfaction with himself: “The French prelate and his entourage like the work more and more, which worries and upsets me somewhat. I admit that , in my opinion, I was never able to express the NICHR in its entirety in “Pieta”. The sculptural composition is too timid and smooth to represent anything new.” It should be noted that in this work Michelangelo “restrains himself”, tries to follow the requirements of the customer, but at the same time he depicts Mary as young, while 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. Behind the young mother's external restraint one can discern the depth of her grief. Even the group’s difficult compositional motif - a seated virgin holding the body of her son in her lap - seems logical and natural here. After completing the Roman Pietà, Michelangelo created the Madonna and Child, a small (1.28 m high) sculptural group, which later ended up in the Notre Dame Church in the Dutch city of Bruges. This work opens a line of images in the work of Mnkelgshzhedo, marked by the features of a peculiar lyricism; Particularly attractive is the Madonna herself, in whom classical beauty and inner strength of personality are combined with soft poetry.

At the same time, Michelangelo begins: work on statues of saints for the Piccolomini altar in the Siena Cathedral. The background for the statues is formed by a multi-part architectural composition of panels and niches in several tiers around the main arched niche of the altar (architect Andrei Breno). Being limited in his capabilities by the alien style of the general design of the altar, very closely related to the spirit of the Quattrocento, Michelangelo created four statues, monotonous in type, far from his characteristic plastic manner. To some extent, the figure of the Apostle Paul, who is more lively and energetic in terms of movement, can be considered an exception among them.

In 1501, Michelangelo returned to Florence and received a responsible order from the Florentine Signoria (republican self-government): to sculpt a statue of David from a huge marble block, damaged by one unlucky sculptor. In 1504 the work was completed. This work solidifies Michelangelo's title as the first sculptor of Italy.

The unusual dimensions of “David”, its gigantism (height 4.54 m) are an indicator of the real strength of the hero, because it is not without reason that this work was intended to embody the image of the mighty defender of Republican Florence. Michelangelo continued here the line of psychological interpretation begun in the Roman “Pieta,” but the psychologism of “David” is of a special, enlarged order, according to the scale and nature of this image. In the beautiful face of the young hero, in his gaze with which he meets the enemy, one can capture that formidable expressiveness that contemporaries considered an integral property of Michelangelo’s creations. The sculptor himself wrote: “David is the embodiment of my aesthetic and political impulses, all my passions... I conveyed all my feelings and aspirations to David, which only I know... He is different from his predecessors and no longer looks like an effeminate youth devoid of muscles. I overturned the traditional idea of ​​David." Without resorting to strong compositional dynamics or complex movement, the master created a type of hero full of courage, power and readiness for action.

Around the same time, Michelangelo received another order - to paint one of the walls of the Great Council Hall of the Palace of the Signoria with frescoes. Mixangelo's fresco composition "The Battle of Cascina" was supposed to be paired with Leonardo da Vinci's fresco - "The Battle of Anghiari" on the opposite wall of the hall. Michelangelo only managed to complete sketches on cardboard for the frescoes. The urgent departure of the master from Rome prevented work on the painting. The cardboard has not survived to this day, but an old copy, drawings and engravings allow us to conclude that in the evolution of Michelangelo’s painting this work turned out to be just as important milestone, like "DaBid" in his sculpture. What was depicted here was not the battle itself, but the minutes preceding it, when the Florentine soldiers bathing and the Arno River were immediately raised by a combat alarm, they climbed ashore, donned armor and took up arms to meet the enemy,

The cutman motif allowed Michelangelo to present his characters naked and embody the heroic beginning of the IR in the most vicissitudes and expressive body language. The artist convincingly showed how the impulse to action - the alarm signal - directly turns into the action itself, in which a person acts in the indestructible integrity of his nature and readiness to fight.

R 1505, at the invitation of Pope Julius and Michelangelo moves to Rome. He was entrusted with the creation of the papal tomb. The project developed by the master was grandiose: it provided for the construction of a monumental mausoleum, including forty sculptures and bronze bas-reliefs, which Michelangelo intended to complete with his own hands. This plan, however, was not destined to come true. Julius II lost interest in his undertaking and insulted Michelangelo, after which the master left Rome without permission and returned to Florence.

In 1508, having returned to Rome after reconciliation with Julius II, Michelangelo began work on one of his most striking and main works - the painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. In this work, Michelangelo managed to realize his cherished dream: to create the grandest fresco cycle that has ever existed in the world. The colossal fresco with a total area of ​​over six hundred square meters (completed by Michelangelo in twenty-six months of work during 1508 - 1512) did not have even remote prototypes in the previous painting of the Italian Renaissance, either in its ideological program or in terms of the system of monumental painting itself. The Sistine Chapel is a vast room 34 m long, 12 m wide and 18 m high. Based on the actual configuration of the chapel vault, Michelangelo continued and developed its architecture by means of painting, highlighting along its longitudinal axis the middle, flattest part (the so-called mirror) and placing in it episodes of biblical references about the days of creation and the life of the first people on earth. The corner triangular sails are occupied by very large compositions based on scenes from other parts of the Bible. In the spaces between the windows, the artist placed the figures of twelve prophets and sibyls (soothsayers), and in the triangular formworks and semicircular lunettes formed behind the windows - images of the ancestors of Christ. These main images appear surrounded by many figures of an auxiliary order - ideally beautiful young slaves (in the corners of biblical scenes in the middle part of the vault), small Atlanteans (on the sides of the prophets and sibyls), interpreted in sculptural forms, and various other images.

“There are a lot of subjects that interest me, and I’m afraid that I won’t have enough space allotted for painting.,. It feels as if the scenes that have already been written are growing, filling the entire vault one by one..., and my imagination continues to generate more and more new scenes and images.. > The result is a sooty multi-part system, each component of which, while being perceived as an independent element, at the same time enters as an integral part into the overall whole. In this structure, Michelangelo was able to accommodate a kind of universal history of existence, captured in narrative compositions, from the initial cosmogonic shifts and the first acts of creation to the tragic catastrophes that befell the human race and individual events that were important in its fate. The painting also presents a number of individual images that embody different facets of human types and characters and moments of their active manifestation. But the main impression from the painting is the feeling of heroic strength that it radiates, a force that is not overwhelming, but elevates a person, forcing him to see his true scale,

Color plays a huge role in painting. First of all, this refers to the unusually successfully found general range of solid, taken close-ups tones, in which the juxtaposition of the light background of architectural motifs with the tones of a naked body and strong-sounding spots of clothing - energetic strokes of blue, ocher-yellow, grassy green and different shades of red - looks so organic for fresco coloring. A truly stunning coloristic impression is made by the “Copper Serpent” in the corner sail near the altar wall, in which shades of gray-green and olive acquired an unexpectedly sinister sound, enhancing the tragic intent of this composition.

The Sistine ceiling became a comprehensive embodiment of the High Renaissance - its harmonious beginning and its conflicts, ideal human types and bright characters merging with this ideal basis. Certain parts of the painting (“Copper Serpent”) foreshadow moments of crisis in the near future - this is the apotheosis of the Renaissance spirit at the time of its highest rise. In Michelangelo's subsequent works we will have to observe the process of a steady increase in the contradictions of the time, the awareness of the impracticability of Renaissance ideals, and subsequently their tragic collapse.

Since 1512, after the death of Yulil P, Michelangelo resumed work on his tomb according to a new project. However, this time the work of the great master was interrupted; he only managed to create three statues - two “Prisoners” and “Moses”, which are among the most famous creations of Michelangelo. In "Prisoners" the dramatic phase of the High Renaissance is already clearly visible in the thematic concept. In “Moses” the master returns to the image of a man of titanic proportions - the spiritual leader of the people, filled with unshakable will.

In these works, the master’s plastic style has noticeably changed: now the statue requires a semicircular walk, during which not only various plastic motifs replace each other, but also multiple variations in the emotional and dramatic concept of the image.

In 1516, Leo X, who succeeded Julius II on the papal throne, set Michelangelo an important artistic task, in solving which he had to prove himself not only as a sculptor, but also as an architect. Michelangelo was entrusted with the construction of the monumental facade of the Florentine church of San Dorenzo, built in the 15th century. Filippo Brunelleschi and was under the special patronage of the Medici family. But due to lack of funds, the project was not implemented. Only Michelangelo's sketches and the architectural model of the facade have reached us, the style of which corresponds to the classical trends in the architecture of the High Renaissance, which Bramante embodied in his work.

In parallel with this work, Michelangelo was busy executing less significant architectural commissions. including additions to the famous Florentine Palazzo Medici, built in the 15th century. Michelozzo and belonging to the most famous examples of Florentine Quattrocento architecture; the construction of a new sacristy for the same church, which was supposed to serve as a tomb for representatives of the Medici family and is called the Medici Chapel.

The construction of the chapel lasted from 1519 to 1534. During this time, Florence experienced many events: the expulsion of the Medici in 1527, the restoration of the republican system and the subsequent siege of the city by the united armies of the pope and the emperor. During the siege, Michelangelo was appointed inspector general of all fortification works.

In 1531 the city fell, the Medici again came to power, and a deep reaction reigned in Florence, as in most Italian states that found themselves dependent on Spain. The acute crisis political situation that has arisen in the country is reflected in the works of Michelangelo. It is these transitional features from one stage to another that are captured in the artistic complex of the Medici Chapel.

The Medici Chapel is a small sacristy with “royals of the Dukes Lorenzo of Urbino and Giuliano of Ngmoor along the side walls of the chapel and a statue of the Madonna and Child against the wall opposite the altar. Having moved the tombs to the walls, Michelangelo seemed to take a step towards traditional type tombstones, widespread in Italy in the 15th century. In reality, his decision turned out to be of a fundamentally different kind. Quattrocento tombstones are relatively small, self-contained compositions that are not always connected with the architecture that surrounds them. Michelangelo not only increased the scale of the tombs, but also used life-size figures in them, thereby achieving such a complete fusion of elements of architecture and sculpture that each of the tombs turns out to be an inextricable part not only of the wall to which it adjoins, but also of the entire ensemble of the chapel. Just as sculpture here is unthinkable without architecture, so architecture does not exist without sculpture, which forms the key points of the overall architectural composition.

The main thing in the artistic ensemble of the Medici Chapel is the feeling of tragic tension and painful conflict that is immediately transmitted to the viewer. It is palpable in many successively drawn contrasts: in the narrowness of the chapel’s space in width and its upward direction, in the contrast of the white marble of the walls and the languid stone in the pilasters, archivolts and window casings that separate them, in the very rhythm of the architectural forms.

We catch certain shades of the feeling that dominates the chapel in the statues of the thoughtfully detached Lorenzo and the strong, but lost readiness for action, Giuliano, in the allegorical figures on the sarcophagi, designed to embody the idea of ​​​​the transience of time - “Morning”, “Evening”, “Day” and night". “Night bowed her head to her chest, placing her foot on yoga; Day stared at me from behind his raised shoulder, as if expressing dissatisfaction with my presence; Aurora made an effort to fall back into sleep, and finally, Evening, in anticipation of the upcoming rest after work, stretched out at full height on the stone that gave birth to it, and raised his slightly worn shoulders, awaiting the onset of dusk,” - this is how Michelangelo saw the passage of time and That's how I was able to express it. All the images he created seem to be separated by a certain distance from the viewer and reside in their own special world of sorrow and tension. Only Madonna - key image chapel - acts as an image that participates in the viewer with the world of its feelings, the depth and complexity of which do not obscure their simple human appearance.

In parallel with the work on the Medici Chapel, Michelangelo was engaged in the construction of the Laurezziana Library, a famous repository of valuable manuscripts and books, part of the complex of the same church of San Lorenzo. Here Michelangelo completely 01 seemed to use elements of sculpture. The effect of breathtaking expressiveness in the lobby with its complex system double columns, which, being pushed into the recesses of the wall, go around a small space in two tiers. The impression is completed by an unusual three-flight staircase with semicircular steps and very low railings. Filling most of the lobby area with its mass, it collapses on the visitor like a stream of lava. Having climbed this staircase, the reader finds himself in a very elongated hall, the architecture of which is calm and clear. Everything in this room, from the capital, carved music stands with manuscripts to the pattern of the wooden ceiling and the inlaid pattern of the floor, was made according to Michelangelo’s sketches.

In 1534, Michelangelo moved from Florence (where he could not feel safe due to his participation in the heroic defense of the city) to Rome and remained there until the end of his life.

In 1533, Paul III Farnese commissioned Michelangelo to paint the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel with the Last Judgment fresco. Michelangelo refuses this work for a long time, but under pressure from the head of the Vatican he gives up and gets to work. This time the master refused to divide the painted surface into separate independent parts and filled the huge wall with a single composition with many characters.

The theme of “The Last Judgment” sounds like a hymn to human pain. “In my place, any artist would depict a green flowering lawn on which heroes gathered, crowned with golden halos,” says the master. - ...I tore God’s chosen ones from the earth’s firmament, and on our land I will leave only damned sinners and demons in the flesh. It was especially important for me to show this gulf that separates one from the other. All the characters crowding around Christ are deprived of the mystical detachment characteristic of them in the works of the old masters... Before my fresco, the viewer will stop and think, for my righteous people are similar to him and are endowed with features characteristic of him. But when the fresco is finished, will the artists and writers understand it, will the true meaning of what I wanted to say reach them?..”

The personified personification of the Supreme Court is Christ - an image completely free from the signs of a conventional religious hierarchy, and filled with truly formidable power. He is depicted in the central part of the fresco, surrounded by the Mother of God and saints; his raised hand, bringing down a curse on the bearers of sin, simultaneously turns out to be the dynamic center of the composition. At the feet of Christ and the saints and righteous crowded around him are a host of bodies of sinners, between which angels scurry, “in whom there is nothing angelic left.”

Among the individual images of the fresco, the viewer's attention is drawn to the martyred saints with the attributes of their torment: St. Sebastian with arrows, St. Lawrence with the iron grate on which he was burned, and St. Bartholomew, holding a knife in one hand and in the other the skin that his torturers tore off; Michelangelo depicted his own face in the form of a distorted face on this skin. The inclusion of such an unusual and bold motif in the fresco is evidence of the acuteness of the artist’s personal attitude towards the embodied theme.

Michelangelo's last two sculptural creations are the Pieta from Padestripis in the Florence Cathedral and the Pietà Rondanini. Both works are the clearest evidence of how far Michelangelo had gone from the range of ideas and from the artistic language of his previous works. We are accustomed to Michelangelo's plastic images as the personification of an effective principle, conflict, struggle. In the later works, Michelangelo's heroes have already crossed the line of this kind of conflict. In their appearance, in the nature of their feelings and actions, traits of simple humanity were revealed. Having lost their titanic power, they were enriched with spirituality, which colors their every mental movement, every plastic nuance. It is symptomatic that we are no longer looking at individual statues, but rather sculptural groups. Michelangelo embodies in his groups the theme of mutual human community in its various aspects - from the inextricable blood closeness of mother and son to the feeling of deep spiritual solidarity that unites the companions of Christ.

In the Pietà Palestrina, which the master intended for his own tombstone (according to Vasari, the sculptor gave Nicodemus, supporting the body of Christ, his own portrait features), he set himself the task of achieving complete figurative and plastic unity in a group no longer consisting of two, and of four figures. This work had a dramatic fate - Michelangelo, in a fit of sharp dissatisfaction with his work, broke up the group (it was later restored by his students). But even in an unfinished form, without a sufficiently accurately identified main visual aspect, this group has enormous influencing power. The images of all participants merge into a single whole: the overall slow pace of movement, the tragic fracture of the figure of the dead Christ, his outstretched arms enveloping loved ones as if in an embrace; There is an atmosphere of the highest spirituality in the group.

These features were revealed even more strongly in Pieta Rondanini. Here the hands of Christ are pressed to the body, and there seems to be no space between his figure and the figure of the Madonna. external communications, but the more strongly their internal connection, participation and subordination to a single all-pervading feeling is expressed. Broken outlines appeared, carrying a feeling of incorporeality, the proportions of the figures changed sharply, their silhouettes stretched out - all this is perceived as the dissolution of matter into a higher spiritual principle. This sculptural group ends Michelangelo's artistic career.

The creative and life path of Michelangelo occupied almost ninety years of Italian history: from the “Battle of the Centaurs,” the prologue of Michelangelo’s art and at the same time one of the initial works of the classical phase of the Renaissance, to the “Pieta Rondapia,” the epilogue of the artistic activity of the great master, a work where in its very character The sculptor’s worldview and means of artistic expression departed so far from Renaissance norms that here we can talk about his inner closeness only to the late art of Rembrandt.

Michelangelo is one of the greatest creators in the history of world culture. In his works, passions and contradictions, torment and all-encompassing love are expressed in poetic images. He loved his age as it was destined to be. His creativity and humanity, citizenship and skill merged in a high and indissoluble unity. He told the pain of his heart to all humanity

Who betrays the cause to the point of self-forgetfulness

And in zeal the stone scorches with heat,

By biting into marble, life is breathed into it.

His creations will gain immortality.

The more bitter the trials and hardships,

The cold and heat of the stone makes it worse;

The soul cleanses itself from filth,

He burns with fire to find salvation.

Like steel, tempered in the crucible of life:

I blaze with passions without burning.

And should I be afraid of the mortal end?

My thoughts are directed towards eternity.

Flint strikes steel sparks,

I will make hearts burn with fire