Childhood
Michelangelo was born on March 6, 1475 at Caprese, Tuscany. At the age of 13, Michelangelo�s father, Ludovico Buonarroti, placed him in the workshop of the painter Domenico Ghirlandaio in Florence. After two years, Michelangelo studied at the sculpture school at the Medici gardens and was invited to the house of Lorenzo de� Medici, the Magnificent. Michelangelo had the opportunity in the Medici house to get acquainted with the Medici children, two of whom became popes. He also met humanists like Marsilio Ficino, and the poet Angelo Poliziano. While he was there, Michelangelo created 2 sculptures by the time he was 16, the Battle of the Centaurs, and the Madonna of the Stairs. These sculptures show that he had achieved a personal style at a very early age.
Family/Social Life
Michelangelo�s family was a quite strict one, especially his father. Michelangelo�s father naturally opposed his son�s liking of art, since art was considered a manual craft and a lowly occupation. Through Michelangelo�s grandmother, he was distantly related to the Medici family. The Medici family was very successful bankers and the most influential family in all of Florence. By looking at Michelangelo�s art itself, his family life is shown through the art. He had little or no formal training, and his propensity was frustrated by his father, and encouraged by his patron, Lorenzo de� Medici. A fundamental factor in Michelangelo�s art is his love of male beauty which attracted him both aesthetically and emotionally.
Professional Life
In 1503, Michelangelo returned to Rome and was summoned by the newly appointed Pope Julius II. During this time, Michelangelo was constantly busy with many tasks, such as building the Pope�s tomb. The most famous of his works was the painting on the ceiling of the Vatican�s Sistine Chapel. This monumental painting took four years to complete. In 1513, Pope Julius died and his successor, Leo X, one of the Medici children, ordered Michelangelo to reconstruct the fa�ade of the basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence and adorn it with sculptures. The three years that it took him to make all of the drawings and models for the fa�ade became the most frustrating period of his career, for the Medici family cut off his finances and cancelled his work. Soon after, the Medici family came back, but with a different project, this time for a family funerary chapel in the basilica of San Lorenzo.
Golden Years
In the final days of Michelangelo�s career leading up to his death, the one fresco that will always be remembered was the Last Judgment, the largest fresco in that century. The Last Judgment, which was completed in 1541, depicted Judgment Day, where Jesus, with a clap of thunder, puts into motion the inevitable separation, with the saved ascending on the left side of the painting, and the damned descending on the right. As with his tradition, Michelangelo portrayed all the figures nude, but formal draperies were added a decade later, as the cultural climate became more conservative. Michelangelo died, giving himself up to God, on February 18, 1564.