text:
Michelangelo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
For other uses, see Michelangelo (disambiguation).
Michelangelo
Portrait of Michelangelo by Daniele da Volterra
Born
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni
(1475-03-06)6 March 1475
Caprese near Arezzo, Republic of Florence (present-day Tuscany, Italy)
Died
18 February 1564(1564-02-18) (aged 88)
Rome, Papal States (present-day Italy)
Known for
Sculpture, painting, architecture, and poetry
Notable work
David
Pietà
The Last Judgment
Sistine Chapel ceiling
Movement
High Renaissance
Signature
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni or more commonly known by his first name Michelangelo (/ˌmaɪkəlˈændʒəloʊ/; Italian: [mikeˈlandʒelo di lodoˈviːko ˌbwɔnarˈrɔːti siˈmoːni]; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564) was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet of the High Renaissance born in the Republic of Florence, who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art.[1] Considered the greatest living artist during his lifetime, he has since been described as one of the greatest artists of all time.[1] Despite making few forays beyond the arts, his artistic versatility was of such a high order that he is often considered a contender for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man, along with his rival and fellow Florentine Medici client, Leonardo da Vinci.
A number of Michelangelo's works of painting, sculpture and architecture rank among the most famous in existence.[1] His output in these fields was prodigious; given the sheer volume of surviving correspondence, sketches and reminiscences, he is the best-documented artist of the 16th century. He sculpted two of his best-known works, the Pietà and David, before the age of thirty. Despite holding a low opinion of painting, he also created two of the most influential frescoes in the history of Western art: the scenes from Genesis on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, and The Last Judgment on its altar wall. His design of the Laurentian Library pioneered Mannerist architecture.[2] At the age of 74, he succeeded Antonio da Sangallo the Younger as the architect of St. Peter's Basilica. He transformed the plan so that the western end was finished to his design, as was the dome, with some modification, after his death.
Michelangelo was the first Western artist whose biography was published while he was alive.[1] In fact, two biographies were published during his lifetime. One of them, by Giorgio Vasari, proposed that Michelangelo's work transcended that of any artist living or dead, and was "supreme in not one art alone but in all three".[3]
In his lifetime, Michelangelo was often called Il Divino ("the divine one").[4] His contemporaries often admired his terribilità—his ability to install a sense of awe. Attempts by subsequent artists to imitate[5] Michelangelo's impassioned, highly personal style resulted in Mannerism, the next major movement in Western art after the High Renaissance.
Contents
[hide]
1 Life
1.1 Early life, 1475–1488
1.2 Apprenticeships, 1488–1492
1.3 Bologna, Florence and Rome, 1492–1499
1.4 Florence, 1499–1505
1.5 Sistine Chapel ceiling, 1505–1512
1.6 Florence under Medici popes, 1513 – early 1534
1.7 Rome, 1534–1546
1.8 St Peter's Basilica, 1546–1564
2 Personal life
3 Works
3.1 Madonna and Child
3.2 Male figure
3.3 Sistine Chapel ceiling
3.4 Figure compositions
3.5 Architecture
3.6 The final years
4 Legacy
5 See also
6 Footnotes
7 References
8 Further reading
9 External links
Life
See also: List of works by Michelangelo
Early life, 1475–1488
Michelangelo was born on 6 March 1475[a] in Caprese near Arezzo, Tuscany[6] (known today as Caprese Michelangelo). For several generations, his family had been small-scale bankers in Florence; but the bank failed, and his father, Ludovico di Leonardo Buonarroti Simoni, briefly took a government post in the small town of Caprese, where Michelangelo was born.[1] At the time of Michelangelo's birth, his father was the town's Judicial administrator and local administrator of Chiusi. Michelangelo's mother was Francesca di Neri del Miniato di Siena.[7] The Buonarrotis claimed to descend from the Countess Mathilde of Canossa—a claim that remains unproven, but which Michelangelo believed.[8]
Several months after Michelangelo's birth, the family returned to Florence, where he was raised. During his mother's later prolonged illness, and after her death in 1481 (when he was six years old), Michelangelo lived with a nanny and her husband, a stonecutter, in the town of Settignano, where his father owned a marble quarry and a small farm.[7] There he gained his love for marble. As Giorgio Vasari quotes him:
"If there is some good in me, it is because I was born in the subtle atmosphere of your country of Arezzo. Along with the milk of my nurse I received the knack of handling chisel and hammer, with which I make my figures."[6]
Apprenticeships, 1488–1492
As a young boy, Michelangelo was sent to Florence to study grammar under the Humanist Francesco da Urbino.[6][9][b] However, he showed no interest in his schooling, preferring to copy paintings from churches and seek the company of other painters.[9]
The city of Florence was at that time Italy's greatest centre of the arts and learning.[10] Art was sponsored by the Signoria (the town council), the merchant guilds, and wealthy patrons such as the Medici and their banking associates.[11] The Renaissance, a renewal of Classical scholarship and the arts, had its first flowering in Florence.[10] In the early 15th century, the architect Filippo Brunelleschi, having studied the remains of Classical buildings in Rome, had created two churches, San Lorenzo's and Santo Spirito, which embodied the Classical precepts.[12] The sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti had laboured for fifty years to create the bronze doors of the Baptistry, which Michelangelo was to describe as "The Gates of Paradise".[13] The exterior niches of the Church of Orsanmichele contained a gallery of works by the most acclaimed sculptors of Florence: Donatello, Ghiberti, Andrea del Verrocchio, and Nanni di Banco.[11] The interiors of the older churches were covered with frescos (mostly in Late Medieval, but also in the Early Renaissance style), begun by Giotto and continued by Masaccio in the Brancacci Chapel, both of whose works Michelangelo studied and copied in drawings.[14]
During Michelangelo's childhood, a team of painters had been called from Florence to the Vatican to decorate the walls of the Sistine Chapel. Among them was Domenico Ghirlandaio, a master in fresco painting, perspective, figure drawing and portraiture who had the largest workshop in Florence.[11] In 1488, at age 13, Michelangelo was apprenticed to Ghirlandaio.[15] The next year, his father persuaded Ghirlandaio to pay Michelangelo as an artist, which was rare for someone of fourteen.[16] When in 1489, Lorenzo de' Medici, de facto ruler of Florence, asked Ghirlandaio for his two best pupils, Ghirlandaio sent Michelangelo and Francesco Granacci.[17]
The Madonna of the Stairs (1490–92), Michelangelo's earliest known work in marble
From 1490 to 1492, Michelangelo attended the Humanist academy the Medici had founded along Neo-Platonic lines. There his work and outlook were influenced by many of the most prominent philosophers and writers of the day, including Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola and Poliziano.[18] At this time, Michelangelo sculpted the reliefs Madonna of the Steps (1490–1492) and Battle of the Centaurs (1491–1492).[14], the latter based on a theme suggested by Poliziano and commissioned by Lorenzo de Medici.[19] Michelangelo worked for a time with the sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni. When he was seventeen, another pupil, Pietro Torrigiano, struck him on the nose, causing the disfigurement that is conspicuous in the portraits of Michelangelo.[20]
Bologna, Florence and Rome, 1492–1499
Lorenzo de' Medici's death on 8 April 1492 brought a reversal of Michelangelo's circumstances.[21] Michelangelo left the security of the Medici court and returned to his father's house. In the following months he carved a polychrome wooden Crucifix (1493), as a gift to the prior of the Florentine church of Santo Spirito, which had allowed him to do some anatomical studies of the corpses from the church's hospital.[22] Between 1493 and 1494 he bought a block of marble, and carved a larger than life statue of Hercules, which was sent to France and subsequently disappeared sometime in the 18th century.[19][c] On 20 January 1494, after heavy snowfalls, Lorenzo's heir, Piero de Medici, commissioned a snow statue, and Michelangelo again entered the court of the Medici.
In the same year, the Medici were expelled from Florence as the result of the rise of Savonarola. Michelangelo left the city before the end of the political upheaval, moving to Venice and then to Bologna.[21] In Bologna, he was commissioned to carve several of the last small figures for the completion of the Shrine of St. Dominic, in the church dedicated to that saint. At this time Michelangelo studied the robust reliefs carved by Jacopo della Quercia around main portal of the Basilica of St Petronius, including the panel of The Creation of Eve the composition of which was to reappear on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.[23] Towards the end of 1494, the political situation in Florence was calmer. The city, previously under threat from the French, was no longer in danger as Charles VIII had suffered defeats. Michelangelo returned to Florence but received no commissions from the new city government under Savonarola. He returned to the employment of the Medici.[24] During the half year he spent in Florence, he worked on two small statues, a child St. John the Baptist and a sleeping Cupid. According to Condivi, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, for whom Michelangelo had sculpted St. John the Baptist, asked that Michelangelo "fix it so that it looked as if it had been buried" so he could "send it to Rome ... pass [it off as] an ancient work and ... sell it much better." Both Lorenzo and Michelangelo were unwittingly cheated out of the real value of the piece by a middleman. Cardinal Raffaele Riario, to whom Lorenzo had sold it, discovered that it was a fraud, but was so impressed by the quality of the sculpture that he invited the artist to Rome.[25] [d] This apparent success in selling his sculpture abroad as well as the conservative Florentine situation may have encouraged Michelangelo to accept the prelate's invitation.[24]
Michelangelo's Pietà, St Peter's Basilica (1498–99)
Michelangelo arrived in Rome 25 June 1496[26] at the age of 21. On 4 July of the same year, he began work on a commission for Cardinal Raffaele Riario, an over-life-size statue of the Roman wine god Bacchus. Upon completion, the work was rejected by the cardinal, and subsequently entered the collection of the banker Jacopo Galli, for his garden.
In November 1497, the French ambassador to the Holy See, Cardinal Jean de Bilhères-Lagraulas, commissioned him to carve a Pietà, a sculpture showing the Virgin Mary grieving over the body of Jesus. The subject, which is not part of the Biblical narrative of the Crucifixion, was common in religious sculpture of Medieval Northern Europe and would have been very familiar to the Cardinal.[27] The contract was agreed upon in August of the following year. Michelangelo was 24 at the time of its completion.[27] It was soon to be regarded as one of the world's great masterpieces of sculpture, "a revelation of all the potentialities and force of the art of sculpture". Contemporary opinion was summarised by Vasari: "It is certainly a miracle that a formless block of stone could ever have been reduced to a perfection that nature is scarcely able to create in the flesh."[28] It is now located in St Peter's Basilica.
Florence, 1499–1505
Main article: David (Michelangelo)
The Statue of David, completed by Michelangelo in 1504, is one of the most renowned works of the Renaissance.
Michelangelo returned to Florence in 1499. The republic was changing after the fall of its leader, anti-Renaissance priest Girolamo Savonarola, who was executed in 1498, and the rise of the gonfaloniere Piero Soderini. Michelangelo was asked by the consuls of the Guild of Wool to complete an unfinished project begun 40 years earlier by Agostino di Duccio: a colossal statue of Carrara marble portraying David as a symbol of Florentine freedom to be placed on the gable of Florence Cathedral.[29] Michelangelo responded by completing his most famous work, the statue of David, in 1504. The masterwork definitively established his prominence as a sculptor of extraordinary technical skill and strength of symbolic imagination. A team of consultants, including Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci, was called together to decide upon its placement, ultimately the Piazza della Signoria, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. It now stands in the Academia while a replica occupies its place in the square.[30]
With the completion of the David came another commission. In early 1504 Leonardo da Vinci had been commissioned to paint The Battle of Anghiara in the council chamber of the Palazzo Vecchio, depicting the battle between Florence and Milan in 1440. Michelangelo was then commissioned to paint the Battle of Cascina. The two paintings are very different: Leonardo depicts soldiers fighting on horseback, while Michelangelo has soldiers being ambushed as they bathe in the river. Neither work was completed and both were lost forever when the chamber was refurbished. Both works were much admired, and copies remain of them, Leonardo's work having been copied by Rubens and Michelangelo's by Bastiano da Sangallo.[31]
Also during this period, Michelangelo was commissioned by Angelo Doni to paint a "Holy Family" as a present for his wife, Maddalena Strozzi. It is known as the Doni Tondo and hangs in the Uffizi Gallery in its original magnificent frame, which Michelangelo may have designed.[32][33] He also may have painted the Madonna and Child with John the Baptist, known as the Manchester Madonna and now in the National Gallery, London.[34]
Sistine Chapel ceiling, 1505–1512
Main article: Sistine Chapel ceiling
Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel; the work took approximately four years to complete (1508–12)
In 1505 Michelangelo was invited back to Rome by the newly elected Pope Julius II and commissioned to build the Pope's tomb, which was to include forty statues and be finished in five years.[35] Under the patronage of the pope, Michelangelo experienced constant interruptions to his work on the tomb in order to accomplish numerous other tasks. Although Michelangelo worked on the tomb for 40 years, it was never finished to his satisfaction.[35] It is located in the Church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome and is most famous for the central figure of Moses, completed in 1516.[36] Of the other statues intended for the tomb, two, known as the Rebellious Slave and the Dying Slave, are now in the Louvre.[35]
During the same period, Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which took approximately four years to complete (1508–1512).[36] According to Condivi's account, Bramante, who was working on the building of St. Peter's Basilica, resented Michelangelo's commission for the pope's tomb and convinced the pope to commission him in a medium with which he was unfamiliar, in order that he might fail at the task.[37] Michelangelo was originally commissioned to paint the Twelve Apostles on the triangular pendentives that supported the ceiling, and to cover the central part of the ceiling with ornament.[38] Michelangelo persuaded Pope Julius to give him a free hand and proposed a different and more complex scheme, representing the Creation, the Fall of Man, the Promise of Salvation through the prophets, and the genealogy of Christ. The work is part of a larger scheme of decoration within the chapel that represents much of the doctrine of the Catholic Church.[38]
The composition stretches over 500 square metres of ceiling[39] and contains over 300 figures.[38] At its centre are nine episodes from the Book of Genesis, divided into three groups: God's creation of the earth; God's creation of humankind and their fall from God's grace; and lastly, the state of humanity as represented by Noah and his family. On the pendentives supporting the ceiling are painted twelve men and women who prophesied the coming of Jesus, seven prophets of Israel, and five Sibyls, prophetic women of the Classical world.[38] Among the most famous paintings on the ceiling are The Creation of Adam, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the Deluge, the Prophet Jeremiah, and the Cumaean Sibyl.
Florence under Medici popes, 1513 – early 1534
Moses for the tomb of Pope Julius II
In 1513, Pope Julius II died and was succeeded by Pope Leo X, the second son of Lorenzo dei Medici.[36] Pope Leo commissioned Michelangelo to reconstruct the façade of the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence and to adorn it with sculptures. He agreed reluctantly and spent three years creating drawings and models for the façade, as well as attempting to open a new marble quarry at Pietrasanta specifically for the project. In 1520 the work was abruptly cancelled by his financially strapped patrons before any real progress had been made. The basilica lacks a façade to this day.[40]
In 1520 the Medici came back to Michelangelo with another grand proposal, this time for a family funerary chapel in the Basilica of San Lorenzo.[36] Fortunately for posterity, this project, occupying the artist for much of the 1520s and 1530s, was more fully realised. Michelangelo used his own discretion to create the composition of the Medici Chapel, which houses the large tombs of two of the younger members of the Medici family, Giuliano, Duke of Nemours, and Lorenzo, his nephew. It also serves to commemorate their more famous predecessors, Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano, who are buried nearby. The tombs display statues of the two Medici and allegorical figures representing Night and Day, and Dusk and Dawn. The chapel also contains Michelangelo's Medici Madonna.[41] In 1976 a concealed corridor was discovered with drawings on the walls that related to the chapel itself.[42][43]
Pope Leo X died in 1521 and was succeeded briefly by the austere Adrian VI, and then by his cousin Giulio Medici as Pope Clement VII.[44] In 1524 Michelangelo received an architectural commission from the Medici pope for the Laurentian Library at San Lorenzo's Church.[36] He designed both the interior of the library itself and its vestibule, a building utilising architectural forms with such dynamic effect that it is seen as the forerunner of Baroque architecture. It was left to assistants to interpret his plans and carry out instruction. The library was not opened until 1571, and the vestibule remained incomplete until 1904.[45]
In 1527, Florentine citizens, encouraged by the sack of Rome, threw out the Medici and restored the republic. A siege of the city ensued, and Michelangelo went to the aid of his beloved Florence by working on the city's fortifications from 1528 to 1529. The city fell in 1530, and the Medici were restored to power.[36] Michelangelo fell out of favour with the young Alessandro Medici, who had been installed as the first Duke of Florence. Fearing for his life, he fled to Rome, leaving assistants to complete the Medici chapel and the Laurentian Library. Despite Michelangelo's support of the republic and resistance to the Medici rule, he was welcomed by Pope Clement, who reinstated an allowance that he had previously granted the artist and made a new contract with him over the tomb of Pope Julius.[46]
Rome, 1534–1546
The Last Judgement (1534–1541)
In Rome, Michelangelo lived near the church of Santa Maria di Loreto. It was at this time that he met the poet Vittoria Colonna, marchioness of Pescara, who was to become one of his closest friends until her death in 1547.[47]
Shortly before his death in 1534 Pope Clement VII commissioned Michelangelo to paint a fresco of The Last Judgement on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel. His successor, Paul III, was instrumental in seeing that Michelangelo began and completed the project, which he laboured on from 1534 to October 1541.[36] The fresco depicts the Second Coming of Christ and his Judgement of the souls. Michelangelo ignored the usual artistic conventions in portraying Jesus, showing him as a massive, muscular figure, youthful, beardless and naked.[48] He is surrounded by saints, among whom Saint Bartholomew holds a drooping flayed skin, bearing the likeness of Michelangelo. The dead rise from their graves, to be consigned either to Heaven or to Hell.[48]
Once completed, the depiction of Christ and the Virgin Mary naked was considered sacrilegious, and Cardinal Carafa and Monsignor Sernini (Mantua's ambassador) campaigned to have the fresco removed or censored, but the Pope resisted. At the Council of Trent, shortly before Michelangelo's death in 1564, it was decided to obscure the genitals and Daniele da Volterra, an apprentice of Michelangelo, was commissioned to make the alterations.[49] An uncensored copy of the original, by Marcello Venusti, is in the Capodimonte Museum of Naples.[50]
Michelangelo worked on a number of architectural projects at this time. They included a design for the Capitoline Hill with its trapezoid piazza displaying the ancient bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius. He designed the upper floor of the Palazzo Farnese and the interior of the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, in which he transformed the vaulted interior of an Ancient Roman bathhouse. Other architectural works include San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, the Sforza Chapel (Capella Sforza) in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore and the Porta Pia.[51]
St Peter's Basilica, 1546–1564
Main article: St Peter's Basilica § Architecture
The dome of St Peter's Basilica
While still working on the Last Judgement, Michelangelo received yet another commission for the Vatican. This was for the painting of two large frescos in the Cappella Paolina depicting significant events in the lives of the two most important saints of Rome, the Conversion of Saint Paul and the Crucifixion of Saint Peter. Like the Last Judgement, these two works are complex compositions containing a great number of figures.[52] They were completed in 1550. In the same year, Giorgio Vasari published his Vita, including a biography of Michelangelo.[53]
In 1546, Michelangelo was appointed architect of St. Peter's Basilica, Rome.[36] The process of replacing the Constantinian basilica of the 4th century had been underway for fifty years and in 1506 foundations had been laid to the plans of Bramante. Successive architects had worked on it, but little progress had been made. Michelangelo was persuaded to take over the project. He returned to the concepts of Bramante, and developed his ideas for a centrally planned church, strengthening the structure both physically and visually.[54] The dome, not completed until after his death, has been called by Banister Fletcher, "the greatest creation of the Renaissance".[55]
As construction was progressing on St Peter's, there was concern that Michelangelo would pass away before the dome was finished. However, once building commenced on the lower part of the dome, the supporting ring, the completion of the design was inevitable.
On 7 December 2007, a red chalk sketch for the dome of St Peter's Basilica, possibly the last made by Michelangelo before his death, was discovered in the Vatican archives. It is extremely rare, since he destroyed his designs later in life. The sketch is a partial plan for one of the radial columns of the cupola drum of Saint Peter's.[56]
Personal life
Ignudo fresco from 1509 on the Sistine Chapel ceiling
Michelangelo, drawn from sight by Francisco de Holanda in the late 1530s.
Michelangelo was a devout Catholic whose faith deepened at the end of his life.[57] He was abstemious in his personal life, and once told his apprentice, Ascanio Condivi: "However rich I may have been, I have always lived like a poor man."[58] Condivi said he was indifferent to food and drink, eating "more out of necessity than of pleasure"[58] and that he "often slept in his clothes and ... boots."[58] His biographer Paolo Giovio says, "His nature was so rough and uncouth that his domestic habits were incredibly squalid, and deprived posterity of any pupils who might have followed him."[59] He may not have minded, since he was by nature a solitary and melancholy person, bizzarro e fantastico, a man who "withdrew himself from the company of men."[60]
It is impossible to know for certain whether Michelangelo had physical relationships (Condivi ascribed to him a "monk-like chastity"),[61] but the nature of his sexuality is made apparent in his poetry.[62] He wrote over three hundred sonnets and madrigals. The longest sequence displaying a great romantic friendship, was written to Tommaso dei Cavalieri (c. 1509–1587), who was 23 years old when Michelangelo met him in 1532, at the age of 57. These make up the first large sequence of poems in any modern tongue addressed by one man to another; they predate by fifty years Shakespeare's sonnets to the fair youth:
I feel as lit by fire a cold countenance
That burns me from afar and keeps itself ice-chill;
A strength I feel two shapely arms to fill
Which without motion moves every balance.
— (Michael Sullivan, translation)
Cavalieri replied: "I swear to return your love. Never have I loved a man more than I love you, never have I wished for a friendship more than I wish for yours." Cavalieri remained devoted to Michelangelo until his death.[63]
In 1542, Michelangelo met Cecchino dei Bracci who died only a year later, inspiring Michelangelo to write forty-eight funeral epigrams. Some of the objects of Michelangelo's affections, and subjects of his poetry, took advantage of him: the model Febo di Poggio asked for money in response to a love-poem, and a second model, Gherardo Perini, stole from him shamelessly.[63]
The openly homoerotic nature of the poetry has been a source of discomfort to later generations. Michelangelo's grandnephew, Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger, published the poems in 1623 with the gender of pronouns changed,[64] and it was not until John Addington Symonds translated them into English in 1893 that the original genders were restored. Even in modern times some scholars continue to insist that, despite the restoration of the pronouns, they represent "an emotionless and elegant re-imagining of Platonic dialogue, whereby erotic poetry was seen as an expression of refined sensibilities".[63]
Late in life, Michelangelo nurtured a great platonic love for the poet and noble widow Vittoria Colonna, whom he met in Rome in 1536 or 1538 and who was in her late forties at the time. They wrote sonnets for each other and were in regular contact until she died. These sonnets mostly deal with the spiritual issues that occupied them.[65] Condivi recalls Michelangelo's saying that his sole regret in life was that he did not kiss the widow's face in the same manner that he had her hand.[47]
Works
Madonna and Child
The Madonna of the Steps is Michelangelo's earliest known work in marble. It is carved in shallow relief, a technique often employed by the master-sculptor of the early 15th century, Donatello, and others such as Desiderio da Settignano.[66] While the Madonna is in profile, the easiest aspect for a shallow relief, the child displays a twisting motion that was to become characteristic of Michelangelo's work. The Taddeo Tondo of 1502 shows the Christ Child frightened by a Bullfinch, a symbol of the Crucifixion.[32] The lively form of the child was later adapted by Raphael in the Bridgewater Madonna. The Bruges Madonna was, at the time of its creation, unlike other such statues depicting the Virgin proudly presenting her son. Here, the Christ Child, restrained by his mother's clasping hand, is about to step off into the world.[67] The Doni Tondo, depicting the Holy Family, has elements of all three previous works: the frieze of figures in the background has the appearance of a low-relief, while the circular shape and dynamic forms echo the Taddeo Tondo. The twisting motion present in the Bruges Madonna is accentuated in the painting. The painting heralds the forms, movement and colour that Michelangelo was to employ on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.[32]
The Madonna of the Steps (1490–92)
The Taddei Tondo (1502)
Madonna and Child. Bruges, Belgium (1504)
The Doni Tondo (1504–06)
Male figure
The kneeling angel is an early work, one of several that Michelangelo created as part of a large decorative scheme for the Arca di San Domenico in the church dedicated to that saint in Bologna. Several other artists had worked on the scheme, beginning with Nicola Pisano in the 13th century. In the late 15th century, the project was managed by Niccolò dell'Arca. An angel holding a candlestick, by Niccolò, was already in place.[68] Although the two angels form a pair, there is a great contrast between the two works, the one depicting a delicate child with flowing hair clothed in Gothic robes with deep folds, and Michelangelo's depicting a robust and muscular youth with eagle's wings, clad in a garment of Classical style. Everything about Michelangelo's angel is dynamic.[69] Michelangelo's Bacchus was a commission with a specified subject, the youthful God of Wine. The sculpture has all the traditional attributes, a vine wreath, a cup of wine and a fawn, but Michelangelo ingested an air of reality into the subject, depicting him with bleary eyes, a swollen bladder and a stance that suggests he is unsteady on his feet.[68] While the work is plainly inspired by Classical sculpture, it is innovative for its rotating movement and strongly three-dimensional quality, which encourages the viewer to look at it from every angle.[70] In the so-called Dying Slave, Michelangelo has again utilised the figure with marked contraposto to suggest a particular human state, in this case waking from sleep. With the Rebellious Slave, it is one of two such earlier figures for the Tomb of Pope Julius II, now in the Louvre, that the sculptor brought to an almost finished state.[71] These two works were to have a profound influence on later sculpture, through Rodin who studied them at the Louvre.[72] The Bound Slave is one of the later figures for Pope Julius' tomb. The works, known collectively as The Captives, each show the figure struggling to free itself, as if from the bonds of the rock in which it is lodged. The works give a unique insight into the sculptural methods that Michelangelo employed and his way of revealing what he perceived within the rock.[73]
Angel by Michelangelo, early work (1494–95)
Bacchus by Michelangelo, early work (1496–97)
Dying slave, Louvre (1513)
Bound slave, known as Atlas (1530–34)
Sistine Chapel ceiling
Main article: Sistine Chapel ceiling
The Sistine Chapel ceiling was painted between 1508 and 1512.[36] The ceiling is a flattened barrel vault supported on twelve triangular pendentives that rise from between the windows of the chapel. The commission, as envisaged by Pope Julius II, was to adorn the pendentives with figures of the twelve apostles.[74] Michelangelo, who was reluctant to take the job, persuaded the Pope to give him a free hand in the composition.[75] The resultant scheme of decoration awed his contemporaries and has inspired other artists ever since.[76] The scheme is of nine panels illustrating episodes from the Book of Genesis, set in an architectonic frame. On the pendentives, Michelangelo replaced the proposed Apostles with Prophets and Sibyls who heralded the coming of the Messiah.[75]
The Sistine Chapel Ceiling (1508–12)
Michelangelo began painting with the later episodes in the narrative, the pictures including locational details and groups of figures, the Drunkenness of Noah being the first of this group.[75] In the later compositions, painted after the initial scaffolding had been removed, Michelangelo made the figures larger.[75] One of the central images, The Creation of Adam is one of the best known and most reproduced works in the history of art. The final panel, showing the Separation of Light from Darkness is the broadest in style and was painted in a single day. As the model for the Creator, Michelangelo has depicted himself in the action of painting the ceiling.[75]
The Drunkenness of Noah
The Deluge (detail)
The Creation of Adam (1510)
The First day of Creation
As supporters to the smaller scenes, Michelangelo painted twenty youths who have variously been interpreted as angels, as muses, or simply as decoration. Michelangelo referred to them as "ignudi".[77] The figure reproduced may be seen in context in the above image of the Separation of Light from Darkness. In the process of painting the ceiling, Michelangelo made studies for different figures, of which some, such as that for The Libyan Sibyl have survived, demonstrating the care taken by Michelangelo in details such as the hands and feet.[78] The Prophet Jeremiah, contemplating the downfall of Jerusalem, is an image of the artist himself.
Studies for The Libyan Sibyl
The Libyan Sibyl (1511)
The Cumaean Sibyl
The Prophet Jeremiah (1511)
Ignudo
Figure compositions
Michelangelo's relief of the Battle of the Centaurs, created while he was still a youth associated with the Medici Academy, is an unusually complex relief in that it shows a great number of figures involved in a vigorous struggle. Such a complex disarray of figures was rare in Florentine art, where it would usually only be found in images showing either the Massacre of the Innocents or the Torments of Hell. The relief treatment, in which some of the figures are boldly projecting, may indicate Michelangelo's familiarity with Roman sarcophagus reliefs from the collection of Lorenzo Medici, and similar marble panels created by Nicola and Giovanni Pisano, and with the figurative compositions on Ghiberti's Baptistry Doors.
The composition of the Battle of Cascina, is known in its entirety only from copies, as the original cartoon, according to Vasari, was so admired that it deteriorated and was eventually in pieces. It reflects the earlier relief in the energy and diversity of the figures, with many different postures, and many being viewed from the back, as they turn towards the approaching enemy and prepare for battle.
In The Last Judgment it is said that Michelangelo drew inspiration from a fresco by Melozzo da Forlì in Rome's Santi Apostoli. Melozzo had depicted figures from different angles, as if they were floating in the Heaven and seen from below. Melozzo's majestic figure of Christ, with windblown cloak, demonstrates a degree of foreshortening of the figure that had also been employed by Andrea Mantegna, but was not usual in the frescos of Florentine painters. In The Last Judgement Michelangelo had the opportunity to depict, on an unprecedented scale, figures in the action of either rising heavenward or falling and being dragged down.
In the two frescos of the Pauline Chapel, The Crucifixion of St. Peter and The Conversion of Saul, Michelangelo has used the various groups of figures to convey a complex narrative. In the Crucifixion of Peter soldiers busy themselves about their assigned duty of digging a post hole and raising the cross while various people look on and discuss the events. A group of horrified women cluster in the foreground, while another group of Christians is led by a tall man to witness the events. In the right foreground, Michelangelo walks out of the painting with an expression of disillusionment.
Battle of the Centaurs (1492)
Copy of the lost Battle of Cascina by Bastiano da Sangallo
The Last Judgment, detail of the Redeemed. (see whole image above)
The Crucifixion of St. Peter
Architecture
Michelangelo's architectural commissions included a number that were not realised, notably the façade for Brunelleschi's Church of San Lorenzo in Florence, for which Michelangelo had a wooden model constructed, but which remains to this day unfinished rough brick. At the same church, Giulio de' Medici (later Pope Clement VII) commissioned him to design the Medici Chapel and the tombs of Giuliano and Lorenzo Medici.[79] Pope Clement also commissioned the Laurentian Library, for which Michelangelo also designed the extraordinary vestibule with columns recessed into niches, and a staircase that appears to spill out of the library like a flow of lava, according to Pevsner, ... revealing Mannerism in its most sublime architectural form.[80]
In 1546 Michelangelo produced the highly complex ovoid design for the pavement of the Campidoglio and began designing an upper storey for the Farnese Palace. In 1547 he took on the job of completing St Peter's Basilica, begun to a design by Bramante, and with several intermediate designs by several architects. Michelangelo returned to Bramante's design, retaining the basic form and concepts by simplifying and strengthening the design to create a more dynamic and unified whole.[81] Although the late 16th-century engraving depicts the dome as having a hemispherical profile, the dome of Michelangelo's model is somewhat ovoid and the final product, as completed by Giacomo della Porta is more so.[81]
The vestibule of the Laurentian Library has Mannerist features which challenge the Classical order of Brunelleschi's adjacent church.
Michelangelo's redesign of the ancient Capitoline Hill included a complex spiralling pavement with a star at its centre.
Michelangelo's design for St Peter's is both massive and contained, with the corners between the apsidal arms of the Greek Cross filled by square projections.
The exterior is surrounded by a giant order of pilasters supporting a continuous cornice. Four small cupolas cluster around the dome.
The final years
In his old age, Michelangelo created a number of Pietàs in which he apparently reflects upon mortality. They are heralded by the Victory, perhaps created for the tomb of Pope Julius II but left unfinished. In this group, the youthful victor overcomes an older hooded figure, with the features of Michelangelo.
Self-portrait of the artist as Nicodemus
The Pietà of Vittoria Colonna is a chalk drawing of a type described as "presentation drawings", as they might be given as a gift by an artist, and were not necessarily studies towards a painted work. In this image, Mary's upraise arms and upraised hands are indicative of her prophetic role. The frontal aspect is reminiscent of Masaccio's fresco of the Holy Trinity in the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella, Florence.
In the Florentine Pietà, Michelangelo again depicts himself, this time as the aged Nicodemus lowering the body of Jesus from the cross into the arms of Mary his mother and Mary Magdalene. Michelangelo smashed the left arm and leg of the figure of Jesus. His pupil Tiberio Calcagni repaired the arm and drilled a hole in which to fix a replacement leg which was not subsequently attached. He also worked on the figure of Mary Magdalene.[82][83]
The last sculpture that Michelangelo worked on (six days before his death), the Rondanini Pietà could never be completed because Michelangelo carved it away until there was insufficient stone. The legs and a detached arm remain from a previous stage of the work. As it remains, the sculpture has an abstract quality, in keeping with 20th-century concepts of sculpture..[84][85]
Michelangelo died in Rome in 1564, at the age of 88 (three weeks before his 89th birthday). His body was taken from Rome for interment at the Basilica of Santa Croce, fulfilling the maestro's last request to be buried in his beloved Florence.[86]
Statue of Victory (1534), Palazzo Vecchio, Florence
The Pietà of Vittoria Colonna (c. 1540)
The Rondanini Pietà (1552–64)
Legacy
Main article: List of works by Michelangelo
Michelangelo's tomb in the Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence.
Michelangelo, with Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael, is one of the three giants of the Florentine High Renaissance. Although their names are often cited together, Michelangelo was younger than Leonardo by 23 years, and older than Raphael by eight. Because of his reclusive nature, he had little to do with either artist and outlived both of them by more than forty years. Michelangelo took few sculpture students. He employed Francesco Granacci, who was his fellow pupil at the Medici Academy, and became one of several assistants on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.[38] Michelangelo appears to have used assistants mainly for the more manual tasks of preparing surfaces and grinding colours. Despite this, his works were to have a great influence on painters, sculptors and architects for many generations to come.
While Michelangelo's David is the most famous male nude of all time and destined to be reproduced in order to grace cities around the world, some of his other works have had perhaps even greater impact on the course of art. The twisting forms and tensions of the Victory, the Bruges Madonna and the Medici Madonna make them the heralds of the Mannerist art. The unfinished giants for the tomb of Pope Julius II had profound effect on late-19th- and 20th-century sculptors such as Rodin and Henry Moore.
Michelangelo's foyer of the Laurentian Library was one of the earliest buildings to utilise Classical forms in a plastic and expressive manner. This dynamic quality was later to find its major expression in Michelangelo's centrally planned St Peter's, with its giant order, its rippling cornice and its upward-launching pointed dome. The dome of St Peter's was to influence the building of churches for many centuries, including Sant'Andrea della Valle in Rome and St Paul's Cathedral, London, as well as the civic domes of many public buildings and the state capitals across America.
Artists who were directly influenced by Michelangelo include Raphael,[87] who imitated Michelangelo's prophets in two of his works, including his depiction of the great master in the School of Athens. Other artists, such as Pontormo, drew on the writhing forms of the Last Judgement and the frescoes of the Capella Paolina.[88]
The Sistine Chapel ceiling was a work of unprecedented grandeur, both for its architectonic forms, to be imitated by many Baroque ceiling painters, and also for the wealth of its inventiveness in the study of figures. Vasari wrote:
The work has proved a veritable beacon to our art, of inestimable benefit to all painters, restoring light to a world that for centuries had been plunged into darkness. Indeed, painters no longer need to seek for new inventions, novel attitudes, clothed figures, fresh ways of expression, different arrangements, or sublime subjects, for this work contains every perfection possible under those headings.[89]
See also
Italy portal
Biography portal
Visual arts portal
Book: Key artists
Michelangelo and the Medici
Michelangelo phenomenon
Restoration of the Sistine Chapel frescoes
The Agony and the Ecstasy
The Titan: Story of Michelangelo (1950 documentary)
Footnotes
a. ^ Michelangelo's father marks the date as 6 March 1474 in the Florentine manner ab Incarnatione. However, in the Roman manner, ab Nativitate, it is 1475.
b. ^ Sources disagree as to how old Michelangelo was when he departed for school. De Tolnay writes that it was at ten years old while Sedgwick notes in her translation of Condivi that Michelangelo was seven.
c. ^ The Strozzi family acquired the sculpture Hercules. Filippo Strozzi sold it to Francis I in 1529. In 1594, Henry IV installed it in the Jardin d'Estang at Fontainebleau where it disappeared in 1713 when the Jardin d'Estange was destroyed.
d. ^ Vasari makes no mention of this episode and Paolo Giovio's Life of Michelangelo indicates that Michelangelo tried to pass the statue off as an antique himself.
References
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Michelangelo at Encyclopædia Britannica
Jump up ^ https://books.google.com/books?id=vSfOCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT2&dq=michelangelo+pioneered+mannerist+style&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=michelangelo%20pioneered%20mannerist%20style&f=false, Foreword
Jump up ^ https://books.google.com/books?id=-fKcCwAAQBAJ&pg=PR7&dq=vasari+wrote,+Michelangelo+is&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=vasari%20wrote%2C%20Michelangelo%20is&f=false, p. VII
Jump up ^ Emison, Patricia. A (2004). Creating the "Divine Artist": from Dante to Michelangelo. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-13709-7.
Jump up ^ Art and Illusion, E. H. Gombrich, ISBN 978-0-691-07000-1
^ Jump up to: a b c J. de Tolnay, The Youth of Michelangelo, p. 11
^ Jump up to: a b C. Clément, Michelangelo, p. 5
Jump up ^ A. Condivi, The Life of Michelangelo, p. 5
^ Jump up to: a b A. Condivi, The Life of Michelangelo, p. 9
^ Jump up to: a b Coughlan, Robert; (1978), The World of Michelangelo, Time-Life; pp. 14–15
^ Jump up to: a b c Coughlan, pp. 35–40
Jump up ^ Giovanni Fanelli, (1980) Brunelleschi, Becocci Firenze, pp. 3–10
Jump up ^ H. Gardner, p. 408
^ Jump up to: a b Coughlan, pp. 28–32
Jump up ^ R. Liebert, Michelangelo: A Psychoanalytic Study of his Life and Images, p. 59
Jump up ^ C. Clément, Michelangelo, p. 7
Jump up ^ C. Clément, Michelangelo, p. 9
Jump up ^ J. de Tolnay, The Youth of Michelangelo, pp. 18–19
^ Jump up to: a b A. Condivi, The Life of Michelangelo, p. 15
Jump up ^ Coughlan, p. 42
^ Jump up to: a b J. de Tolnay, The Youth of Michelangelo, pp. 20–21
Jump up ^ A. Condivi, The Life of Michelangelo, p. 17
Jump up ^ Bartz and König, p. 54
^ Jump up to: a b J. de Tolnay, The Youth of Michelangelo, pp. 24–25
Jump up ^ A. Condivi, The Life of Michelangelo, pp. 19–20
Jump up ^ J. de Tolnay, The Youth of Michelangelo, pp. 26–28
^ Jump up to: a b Hirst and Dunkerton pp. 47–55
Jump up ^ Vasari, Lives of the painters: Michelangelo
Jump up ^ Paoletti and Radke, pp. 387–89
Jump up ^ Goldscheider, p. 10
Jump up ^ Paoletti and Radke, pp. 392–93
^ Jump up to: a b c Goldscheider, p. 11
Jump up ^ Hirst and Dunkerton, p. 127
Jump up ^ Hirst and Dunkerton, pp. 336–46; 83–105
^ Jump up to: a b c Goldscheider, pp. 14–16
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i Bartz and König, p. 134
Jump up ^ Coughlan, p. 112
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Goldscheider, pp. 12–14
Jump up ^ Bartz and König, p. 43
Jump up ^ Coughlan, pp. 135–36
Jump up ^ Goldscheider, pp. 17–18
Jump up ^ Peter Barenboim, Sergey Shiyan, Michelangelo: Mysteries of Medici Chapel, SLOVO, Moscow, 2006. ISBN 5-85050-825-2
Jump up ^ Peter Barenboim, "Michelangelo Drawings – Key to the Medici Chapel Interpretation", Moscow, Letny Sad, 2006, ISBN 5-98856-016-4
Jump up ^ Coughlan, pp. 151–52
Jump up ^ Bartz and König, p. 87
Jump up ^ Coughlan, pp.159–61
^ Jump up to: a b A. Condivi (ed. Hellmut Wohl), The Life of Michelangelo, p. 103, Phaidon, 1976.
^ Jump up to: a b Bartz and König, pp. 100–102
Jump up ^ Bartz and König, pp. 102, 109
Jump up ^ Goldscheider, pp. 19–20
Jump up ^ Goldscheider, pp. 8, 21, 22
Jump up ^ Bartz and Kŏnig, p. 16
Jump up ^ Ilan Rachum, The Renaissance, an Illustrated Encyclopedia, Octopus (1979) ISBN 0-7064-0857-8
Jump up ^ Gardner, pp. 480–81
Jump up ^ Banister Fletcher, 17th ed. p. 719
Jump up ^ "Michelangelo 'last sketch' found". BBC News. 7 December 2007. Retrieved 9 February 2009.
Jump up ^ "Crucifixion by Michelangelo, a drawing in black chalk". The British Museum.
^ Jump up to: a b c Condivi, The Life of Michelangelo, p. 106.
Jump up ^ Paola Barocchi (ed.) Scritti d'arte del cinquecento, Milan, 1971; vol. I p. 10.
Jump up ^ , Condivi, p. 102.
Jump up ^ Hughes, Anthony, "Michelangelo", page 326. Phaidon, 1997.
Jump up ^ Scigliano, Eric: "Michelangelo's Mountain; The Quest for Perfection in the Marble Quarries of Carrara" Archived 30 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine., Simon and Schuster, 2005. Retrieved 27 January 2007
^ Jump up to: a b c Hughes, Anthony: "Michelangelo", p. 326. Phaidon, 1997.
Jump up ^ Rictor Norton, "The Myth of the Modern Homosexual", p.143. Cassell, 1997.
Jump up ^ Vittoria Colonna, Sonnets for Michelangelo. A Bilingual Edition edited and translated by Abigail Brundin, The University of Chicago Press 2005. ISBN 0-226-11392-2, p.29.
Jump up ^ Bartz and König, p. 8
Jump up ^ Bartz and König, p. 22
^ Jump up to: a b Goldscheider, p. 9
Jump up ^ Hirst and Dunkerton, pp. 20–21
Jump up ^ Bartz and König, pp. 26–27
Jump up ^ Bartz and König, pp. 62–63
Jump up ^ Yvon Taillandier, Rodin, New York: Crown Trade Paperbacks, (1977) ISBN 0-517-88378-3
Jump up ^ Coughlan, pp. 166–67
Jump up ^ Goldscieder p. 12
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Paoletti and Radke, pp. 402–03
Jump up ^ Vasari, et al.
Jump up ^ Bartz and König
Jump up ^ Coughlan
Jump up ^ Goldscheider
Jump up ^ Nikolaus Pevsner, An Outline of European Architecture, Pelican, 1964
^ Jump up to: a b Gardner
Jump up ^ https://books.google.com/books?id=Raf5I8SLQhQC&pg=PA28&dq=Pieta+michelangelo+Calcagni+leg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjKv--82ubUAhULOj4KHVk4BiAQ6AEIOjAD#v=onepage&q=Pieta%20michelangelo%20Calcagni%20leg&f=false, p. 28
Jump up ^ https://books.google.com/books?id=jDCKhi-QHSoC&pg=PA58&dq=Pieta+Calcagni+Mary+Magdalene&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj46Lb02ubUAhUGVj4KHQ5BBncQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=Pieta%20Calcagni%20Mary%20Magdalene&f=false, p. 58
Jump up ^ https://books.google.com/books?id=xy8qxGlF4jcC&pg=PA117&dq=Rondanini+Piet%C3%A0+arm&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwih8Yn1pebUAhUq74MKHZf9DJ4Q6AEIMzAC#v=onepage&q=Rondanini%20Piet%C3%A0%20arm&f=false, p. 117
Jump up ^ https://books.google.com/books?id=Law0AQAAIAAJ&q=Rondanini+Piet%C3%A0+vasari&dq=Rondanini+Piet%C3%A0+vasari&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjsssqVqObUAhUh64MKHfa1D_YQ6AEIRzAG, p. 154
Jump up ^ Coughlan, p. 179
Jump up ^ https://books.google.com/books?id=sM8oDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA49&dq=raphael+influenced+by+Michelangelo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwix2Y6o3-bUAhXHOT4KHV-HBt0Q6AEIPDAD#v=onepage&q=raphael%20influenced%20by%20Michelangelo&f=false, p. 49
Jump up ^ https://books.google.com/books?id=WFuhUtCOmhsC&pg=PA96&dq=influenced+by+Michelangelo+raphael+Pontormo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwinxPnn3ubUAhVCgj4KHUVSDo44ChDoAQhSMAk#v=onepage&q=influenced%20by%20Michelangelo%20raphael%20Pontormo&f=false, p. 96
Jump up ^ Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists: Michelangelo
Further reading
Ackerman, James (1986). The Architecture of Michelangelo. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-00240-8.
Clément, Charles (1892). Michelangelo. Harvard University, Digitized 25 June 2007: S. Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, ltd.: London.
Condivi, Ascanio; Alice Sedgewick (1553). The Life of Michelangelo. Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 0-271-01853-4.
Baldini, Umberto; Liberto Perugi (1982). The Sculpture of Michelangelo. Rizzoli. ISBN 0-8478-0447-X.
Barenboim, Peter and Shiyan, Sergey (2011). Michelangelo in the Medici Chapel: Genius in details (English, Russian). Moscow: Looom. ISBN 978-5-9903067-1-4
Bartz, Gabriele; Eberhard König (1998). Michelangelo. Könemann. ISBN 3-8290-0253-X.
Einem, Herbert von (1973). Michelangelo. Trans. Ronald Taylor. London: Methuen.
Gardner, Helen; Fred S. Kleiner, Christin J. Mamiya, Gardner's Art through the Ages. Thomson Wadsworth, (2004) ISBN 0-15-505090-7.
Gilbert, Creighton (1994). Michelangelo On and Off the Sistine Ceiling. New York: George Braziller.
Goldscheider, Ludwig (1953). Michelangelo: Paintings, Sculptures, Architecture. Phaidon.
Goldscheider, Ludwig (1953). Michelangelo: Drawings. Phaidon.
Hartt, Frederick (1987). David by the Hand of Michelangelo—the Original Model Discovered, Abbeville, ISBN 0-89659-761-X
Hibbard, Howard (1974). Michelangelo. New York: Harper & Row.
Hirst, Michael and Jill Dunkerton. (1994) The Young Michelangelo: The Artist in Rome 1496–1501. London: National Gallery Publications, ISBN 1-85709-066-7
Liebert, Robert (1983). Michelangelo: A Psychoanalytic Study of his Life and Images. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-02793-1.
Néret, Gilles (2000). Michelangelo. Taschen. ISBN 978-3-8228-5976-6.
Paoletti, John T. and Radke, Gary M., (2005) Art in Renaissance Italy, Laurence King, ISBN 1-85669-439-9
Pietrangeli, Carlo, et al. (1994). The Sistine Chapel: A Glorious Restoration. New York: Harry N. Abrams
Sala, Charles (1996). Michelangelo: Sculptor, Painter, Architect. Editions Pierre Terrail. ISBN 978-2-87939-069-7.
Saslow, James M. (1991). The Poetry of Michelangelo: An Annotated Translation. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Rolland, Romain (2009). Michelangelo. BiblioLife. ISBN 1-110-00353-6.
Seymour, Charles, Jr. (1972). Michelangelo: The Sistine Chapel Ceiling. New York: W. W. Norton.
Stone, Irving (1987). The Agony and the Ecstasy. Signet. ISBN 0-451-17135-7.
Summers, David (1981). Michelangelo and the Language of Art. Princeton University Press.
Tolnay, Charles (1947). The Youth of Michelangelo. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Tolnay, Charles de. (1964). The Art and Thought of Michelangelo. 5 vols. New York: Pantheon Books.
Wallace, William E. (2011). Michelangelo: The Artist, the Man and his Times. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 1-107-67369-0.
Wilde, Johannes (1978). Michelangelo: Six Lectures. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Michelangelo.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Michelangelo Buonarroti.
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Michelangelo
Michelangelo at Encyclopædia Britannica
The Digital Michelangelo Project
Works by Michelangelo at Project Gutenberg
Works by or about Michelangelo at Internet Archive
Works by Michelangelo at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
Michelangelo at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
The BP Special Exhibition Michelangelo Drawings – closer to the master
Michelangelo's Drawings: Real or Fake? How to decide if a drawing is by Michelangelo.
"Michelangelo: The Man and the Myth"
[show]
v
t
e
Michelangelo
List of works
Key: *Attributed, †Lost
[show]
Sculptures
Florence, c. 1488–1492
†Head of a Faun
Madonna of the Stairs
Battle of the Centaurs
Crucifix
Bologna, 1494–1495
Additions to the Arca di San Domenico (St Petronius, St Proclus, Angel)
Rome, 1496–1500
†Sleeping Cupid
Bacchus
†Standing Cupid
Pietà
Florence, 1501–1505
David
Madonna of Bruges
Additions to the Piccolomini Altarpiece (Saints Peter, Paul, Pius and Gregory)
Pitti Tondo
Taddei Tondo
St. Matthew
*Rothschild Bronzes
Tomb of Pope Julius II, 1505–1545
Moses
Rebellious Slave
Dying Slave
Young Slave
Bearded Slave
Atlas Slave
Awakening Slave
The Genius of Victory
Rachel
Leah
Florence, 1516–1534
Christ Carrying the Cross
Medici Chapel
Giuliano de' Medici
Night
Day
Dusk
Dawn
Medici Madonna
Apollo
Crouching Boy
Rome, 1534–1564
Brutus
Florentine Pietà
*Palestrina Pietà
Rondanini Pietà
[show]
Paintings
Panel paintings
The Torment of Saint Anthony
Manchester Madonna
The Entombment
Doni Tondo
†Leda and the Swan
Salone dei Cinquecento
†Battle of Cascina
Sistine Chapel
Ceiling
Separation of Light from Darkness
The Creation of the Sun, Moon and Vegetation
The Creation of Adam
The Last Judgment
Cappella Paolina
The Martyrdom of St Peter
The Conversion of Saul
[show]
Architecture
Florence
New Sacristy and Laurentian Library in the Basilica of San Lorenzo
Rome
Piazza del Campidoglio
Palazzo Farnese
St. Peter's Basilica
San Giovanni dei Fiorentini
Porta Pia
Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri
[show]
More
Works on paper
Study of a Kneeling Nude Girl for The Entombment
Male Back With a Flag
Epifania
Milieu
Cecchino dei Bracci
Tommaso dei Cavalieri
Vittoria Colonna
Ascanio Condivi
Gherardo Perini
Sebastiano del Piombo
Febo di Poggio
Luigi del Riccio
Related
Art patronage of Julius II
Casa Buonarroti
Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects
Michelangelo and the Medici
Replicas of David
Replicas of the Pietà
Restoration of the Sistine Chapel frescoes
The Titan: Story of Michelangelo (1950 documentary)
The Agony and the Ecstasy (1961 novel, 1965 film)
[show]
v
t
e
Decoration of the Sistine Chapel
Life of Moses
Moses Leaving to Egypt 1
Youth of Moses 2
The Crossing of the Red Sea 3/4/5
The Descent from Mount Sinai 3/6
The Punishment of the Rebels 2
The Testament and Death of Moses 7/8
Life of Christ
The Baptism of Christ 1
The Temptations of Christ 2
The Vocation of the Apostles 4
The Sermon on the Mount 3
The Delivery of the Keys 1
The Last Supper 3
Ceiling 9
(Gallery)
Scenes from
Genesis
The Separation of Light from Darkness
The Creation of the Sun, Moon and Vegetation
The Separation of Land and Water
The Creation of Adam
The Creation of Eve
The Fall of Man and the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden
The Sacrifice of Noah
The Flood
The Drunkenness of Noah
Prophets
Jonah
Jeremiah
Ezekiel
Joel
Zechariah
Isaiah
Daniel
Sibyls
Persian Sibyl
Erythraean Sibyl
Delphic Sibyl
Cumaean Sibyl
Libyan Sibyl
Altar wall
The Last Judgment 9
Tapestries
The Lives of Saints Peter and Paul 10
Key: 1 Pietro Perugino
2 Sandro Botticelli
3 Cosimo Rosselli
4 Domenico Ghirlandaio
5 Biagio d'Antonio
6 Piero di Cosimo
7 Luca Signorelli
8 Bartolomeo della Gatta
9 Michelangelo
10 Raphael
Pope Sixtus IV
Art patronage of Julius II
Restoration of the Sistine Chapel frescoes
Pope portal
Vatican City portal
Catholicism portal
Authority control
WorldCat Identities
VIAF: 24585191
LCCN: n80152368
ISNI: 0000 0001 2124 3640
GND: 118582143
SELIBR: 292503
SUDOC: 026650800
BNF: cb11885845q (data)
ULAN: 500010654
MusicBrainz: 96a0fd8f-e753-4e47-8131-4b905b363ff5
MGP: 131589
NLA: 36432281
NDL: 00449952
NKC: jn19992000718
ICCU: IT\ICCU\CFIV\017291
BNE: XX1161659
CiNii: DA08122726
KulturNav: 3dd01cf0-86c5-4fa2-9c40-b1cf2a71c344
RKD: 55890
SNAC: w6sq93s5
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Michelangelo&oldid=820831212"
Categories:
Michelangelo
1475 births
1564 deaths
Italian Renaissance architects
Italian Renaissance painters
Italian Renaissance sculptors
Architects of Roman Catholic churches
Artist authors
Burials at Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence
Gay artists
Italian ecclesiastical architects
Italian Roman Catholics
LGBT artists from Italy
LGBT Roman Catholics
People celebrated in the Lutheran liturgical calendar
People from the Province of Arezzo
Renaissance artists
Renaissance painters
Renaissance sculptors
Roman Catholic Church painters
Roman Catholic Church sculptors
Sonneteers
Tuscan painters
Tuscan sculptors
15th-century people of the Republic of Florence
16th-century people of the Republic of Florence
16th-century Italian architects
15th-century Italian painters
Italian male painters
16th-century Italian painters
15th-century Italian sculptors
Italian male sculptors
16th-century Italian sculptors
Hidden categories:
Articles with Encyclopædia Britannica links
Webarchive template wayback links
Wikipedia indefinitely semi-protected pages
Use British English from September 2016
Biography with signature
Articles with hCards
Articles with Project Gutenberg links
Articles with Internet Archive links
Articles with LibriVox links
Use dmy dates from October 2011
AC with 19 elements
Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers
Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers
Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers
Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers
Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers
Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers
Wikipedia articles with ULAN identifiers
Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz identifiers
Wikipedia articles with NLA identifiers
Wikipedia articles with SBN identifiers
Wikipedia articles with RKDartists identifiers
Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers
Navigation menu
Personal tools
Not logged in
Talk
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Namespaces
Article
Talk
Variants
Views
Read
View source
View history
More
Search
Navigation
Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store
Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page
Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page
Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version
In other projects
Wikimedia Commons
Wikiquote
Wikisource
Languages
Адыгэбзэ
Afrikaans
Alemannisch
አማርኛ
Аҧсшәа
العربية
Aragonés
ܐܪܡܝܐ
Armãneashti
অসমীয়া
Asturianu
Avañe'ẽ
Aymar aru
Azərbaycanca
বাংলা
Bân-lâm-gú
Башҡортса
Беларуская
Беларуская (тарашкевіца)
भोजपुरी
Bikol Central
Bislama
Български
Boarisch
བོད་ཡིག
Bosanski
Brezhoneg
Буряад
Català
Чӑвашла
Cebuano
Čeština
Chamoru
Chavacano de Zamboanga
Corsu
Cymraeg
Dansk
Davvisámegiella
Deutsch
Eesti
Ελληνικά
Emiliàn e rumagnòl
Español
Esperanto
Estremeñu
Euskara
فارسی
Fiji Hindi
Føroyskt
Français
Frysk
Furlan
Gaeilge
Gaelg
Gàidhlig
Galego
贛語
𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌹𐍃𐌺
客家語/Hak-kâ-ngî
한국어
Hausa
Hawaiʻi
Հայերեն
हिन्दी
Hrvatski
Ido
Ilokano
বিষ্ণুপ্রিয়া মণিপুরী
Bahasa Indonesia
Interlingua
Interlingue
Ирон
IsiXhosa
IsiZulu
Íslenska
Italiano
עברית
Basa Jawa
Kalaallisut
ಕನ್ನಡ
Kapampangan
ქართული
Қазақша
Kernowek
Kiswahili
Kreyòl ayisyen
Kurdî
Кыргызча
Ladino
Лезги
لۊری شومالی
Latina
Latviešu
Lëtzebuergesch
Lietuvių
Limburgs
Lingála
Livvinkarjala
La .lojban.
Lumbaart
Magyar
Македонски
Malagasy
മലയാളം
Malti
Māori
मराठी
მარგალური
مصرى
مازِرونی
Bahasa Melayu
Baso Minangkabau
Mirandés
Монгол
မြန်မာဘာသာ
Dorerin Naoero
Nederlands
Nedersaksies
नेपाली
नेपाल भाषा
日本語
Нохчийн
Nordfriisk
Norsk
Norsk nynorsk
Occitan
Олык марий
Oʻzbekcha/ўзбекча
ਪੰਜਾਬੀ
Pangasinan
پنجابی
Patois
ភាសាខ្មែរ
Picard
Piemontèis
Plattdüütsch
Polski
Português
Qaraqalpaqsha
Qırımtatarca
Ripoarisch
Română
Runa Simi
Русиньскый
Русский
Саха тыла
Sardu
Scots
Seeltersk
Shqip
Sicilianu
සිංහල
Simple English
Slovenčina
Slovenščina
Ślůnski
Soomaaliga
کوردی
Српски / srpski
Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
Basa Sunda
Suomi
Svenska
Tagalog
தமிழ்
Taqbaylit
Tarandíne
Татарча/tatarça
తెలుగు
ไทย
Türkçe
Українська
اردو
Vahcuengh
Vèneto
Vepsän kel’
Tiếng Việt
Volapük
Võro
文言
West-Vlams
Winaray
吴语
ייִדיש
Yorùbá
粵語
Zazaki
Žemaitėška
中文
Kabɩyɛ
Edit links
This page was last edited on 16 January 2018, at 21:30.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Cookie statement
Mobile view
Enable previews

values: mw-page-base noprint

values: mw-head-base noprint

attrs: class id

values: firstHeading firstHeading en

values: siteSub noprint

values: jump-to-nav mw-jump

values:
/wiki/Michelangelo_(disambiguation)
mw-disambig
Michelangelo (disambiguation)

attrs: role class

values:
note
hatnote navigation-not-searchable

value: span

value: th

attrs: colspan style

value: tr

values: Miguel Ángel, por Daniele da Volterra (detalle).jpg

value: td

values: Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

values:
/wiki/Western_art
mw-redirect
Western art

values:
/wiki/Renaissance_man
mw-redirect
Renaissance man

values:
/wiki/Mathilde_of_Canossa
mw-redirect
Mathilde of Canossa

values:
/wiki/Pico_della_Mirandola
mw-redirect
Pico della Mirandola

values:
/wiki/Madonna_of_the_Steps
mw-redirect
Madonna of the Steps

values:
/wiki/Piero_di_Lorenzo_de%27_Medici
mw-redirect
Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici

values:
/wiki/St_Peter%27s_Basilica
mw-redirect
St Peter's Basilica

values:
/wiki/Louvre_Museum
mw-redirect
Louvre Museum

values:
/wiki/Twelve_Apostles
mw-redirect
Twelve Apostles

values:
/wiki/Genesis_creation_story
mw-redirect
Genesis creation story

values:
/wiki/Fall_of_Man
mw-redirect
Fall of Man

values:
/wiki/Genealogy_of_Christ
mw-redirect
Genealogy of Christ

values:
/wiki/Deluge_myth
mw-redirect
Deluge myth

values:
/wiki/Basilica_of_San_Lorenzo,_Florence
mw-redirect
Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence

values:
/wiki/Lorenzo_the_Magnificent
mw-redirect
Lorenzo the Magnificent

values:
/wiki/Santa_Maria_di_Loreto_(Rome)
mw-redirect
Santa Maria di Loreto (Rome)

values:
/wiki/Saint_Bartholomew
mw-redirect
Saint Bartholomew

values: Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects

values:
/wiki/Banister_Fletcher
mw-redirect
Banister Fletcher

values: display: inline-block; margin-left: 1em;

values: Bridgewater Madonna (page does not exist)

values:
/wiki/Bruges_Madonna
mw-redirect
Bruges Madonna

values:
gallery mw-gallery-traditional
max-width: 972px;_width: 972px;

values:
/wiki/Santi_Apostoli
mw-redirect
Santi Apostoli

values: The Crucifixion of St. Peter (Michelangelo)

values:
/wiki/Farnese_Palace
mw-redirect
Farnese Palace

values:
/wiki/Holy_Trinity
mw-redirect
Holy Trinity

values:
/wiki/Basilica_of_Santa_Maria_Novella
mw-redirect
Basilica of Santa Maria Novella

values:
/wiki/Basilica_of_Santa_Croce,_Florence
mw-redirect
Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence

values:
/wiki/School_of_Athens
mw-redirect
School of Athens

values: display:table-cell;padding:0.2em 0.2em 0.2em 0.3em;vertical-align:middle

values: margin:0.5em 0 0.5em 1em;border:solid #aaa 1px

values: Restoration of the Sistine Chapel frescoes

values: -moz-column-width: 30em; -webkit-column-width: 30em; column-width: 30em; list-style-type: decimal;

values:
nofollow
external text
https://librivox.org/author/2073

values:
nofollow
http://michelangelo.syr.edu/
external text

values: background: #EAEAAE; text-align: center;;background: #EEDD82;background:none transparent;border:none;-moz-box-shadow:none;-webkit-box-shadow:none;box-shadow:none;

values: background: #EAEAAE; text-align: center;

values: background: #EAEAAE; text-align: center;;

values: width:1%;background: #EAEAAE; text-align: center

values:
/wiki/Cristo_della_Minerva
mw-redirect
Cristo della Minerva

values: Portrait of Giuliano de' Medici (1479–1516)

values: nowraplinks collapsible autocollapse navbox-subgroup

values: The Torment of Saint Anthony (Michelangelo)

values: The Creation of the Sun, Moon and Vegetation

values: Study of a Kneeling Nude Girl for The Entombment

values: nowraplinks hlist collapsible collapsed navbox-inner

values: navigation navbox Michelangelo padding:3px

values:
row
navbox-group
background: gold;width:1%

values:
/wiki/Moses_Leaving_to_Egypt_(Perugino)
mw-redirect
Moses Leaving to Egypt (Perugino)

values: The Crossing of the Red Sea (Sistine Chapel)

values: Descent from Mount Sinai (Sistine Chapel)

values:
/wiki/Punishment_of_the_Rebels
mw-redirect
Punishment of the Rebels

values:
navbox-image
5
width:1px;padding:0px 0px 0px 2px

values:
row
navbox-group
width:1%;background: gold

values: nowraplinks hlist collapsible autocollapse navbox-inner

values:
nofollow
external text
https://viaf.org/viaf/24585191

values:
nofollow
external text
http://isni.org/isni/0000000121243640

values:
nofollow
external text
https://d-nb.info/gnd/118582143

values:
nofollow
external text
https://libris.kb.se/auth/292503

values:
nofollow
external text
https://www.idref.fr/026650800

values:
nofollow
external text
https://nla.gov.au/anbd.aut-an36432281

values:
nofollow
external text
https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/55890

values: Category:Architects of Roman Catholic churches

values: Category:Burials at Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence

values: Category:People celebrated in the Lutheran liturgical calendar

values: Category:People from the Province of Arezzo

values: Category:Roman Catholic Church sculptors

values: Category:15th-century people of the Republic of Florence

values: Category:16th-century people of the Republic of Florence

values: Category:Articles with Encyclopædia Britannica links

values: Category:Webarchive template wayback links

values: Category:Wikipedia indefinitely semi-protected pages

values: Category:Use British English from September 2016

values: Category:Articles with Project Gutenberg links

values: Category:Articles with Internet Archive links

values: Category:Use dmy dates from October 2011

values: Category:Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers

values: Category:Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers

values: Category:Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers

values: Category:Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers

values: Category:Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers

values: Category:Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers

values: Category:Wikipedia articles with ULAN identifiers

values: Category:Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz identifiers

values: Category:Wikipedia articles with NLA identifiers

values: Category:Wikipedia articles with SBN identifiers

values: Category:Wikipedia articles with RKDartists identifiers

values: Category:Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers

values: Discussion about edits from this IP address [ctrl-alt-n]

values: A list of edits made from this IP address [ctrl-alt-y]

values: You are encouraged to create an account and log in; however, it is not mandatory

values: You're encouraged to log in; however, it's not mandatory. [ctrl-alt-o]

values:
/wiki/Michelangelo
View the content page [ctrl-alt-c]
c

values: Discussion about the content page [ctrl-alt-t]

values: p-namespaces navigation vectorTabs p-namespaces-label

values:
p-variants
navigation
vectorMenu emptyPortlet
p-variants-label

values:
This page is protected.
You can view its source [ctrl-alt-e]

values: Past revisions of this page [ctrl-alt-h]

values: p-views navigation vectorTabs p-views-label

values:
p-cactions
navigation
vectorMenu emptyPortlet
p-cactions-label

values:
mw-wiki-logo
/wiki/Main_Page
Visit the main page

values:
/wiki/Main_Page
Visit the main page [ctrl-alt-z]
z

values: Featured content – the best of Wikipedia

values: Find background information on current events

values:
/wiki/Special:Random
Load a random article [ctrl-alt-x]
x

values: portal navigation p-navigation p-navigation-label

values: Guidance on how to use and edit Wikipedia

values: About the project, what you can do, where to find things

values: A list of recent changes in the wiki [ctrl-alt-r]

values: portal navigation p-interaction p-interaction-label

values: List of all English Wikipedia pages containing links to this page [ctrl-alt-j]

values: Recent changes in pages linked from this page [ctrl-alt-k]

values:
/wiki/Wikipedia:File_Upload_Wizard
Upload files [ctrl-alt-u]
u

values: A list of all special pages [ctrl-alt-q]

values: Permanent link to this revision of the page

values: Link to connected data repository item [ctrl-alt-g]

values: Printable version of this page [ctrl-alt-p]

values: portal navigation p-wikibase-otherprojects p-wikibase-otherprojects-label

values:
uls-settings-trigger
Language settings
0
button
true

values: Микеланджело – Kabardian

values: ማይክል አንጄሎ ቡናሮቲ – Amharic

values: Микеланџьело – Abkhazian

values: ميكيلانجيلو – Arabic

values: interlanguage-link interwiki-ar badge-Q17437796 badge-featuredarticle

values: ܡܝܟܠܐܢܓܠܘ – Aramaic

values: মাইকেলেঞ্জেল' – Assamese

values: মাইকেলেঞ্জেলো – Bangla

values: Michelangelo Buonarroti – Chinese (Min Nan)

values: Микеланджело – Bashkir

values: Мікеланджэла Буанароці – Belarusian

values: interlanguage-link interwiki-be badge-Q17437796 badge-featuredarticle

values: Мікелянджэлё – Belarusian (Taraškievica orthography)

values: माइकलएंजेलो – Bhojpuri

values: Микеланджело Буонароти – Bulgarian

values: མེ་ཀེ་ལན་ཇུ་ལོ། – Tibetan

values: Микеланжело – Russia Buriat

values: interlanguage-link interwiki-ca badge-Q17437796 badge-featuredarticle

values: Микеланджело – Chuvash

values: Μιχαήλ Άγγελος – Greek

values: interlanguage-link interwiki-es badge-Q17437796 badge-featuredarticle

values: interlanguage-link interwiki-eo badge-Q17437798 badge-goodarticle

values: میکل‌آنژ – Persian

values: interlanguage-link interwiki-gl badge-Q17437796 badge-featuredarticle

values: 𐌼𐌹𐌺𐌴𐌻𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌶𐌾𐌴𐌻𐍉 – Gothic

values: 미켈란젤로 부오나로티 – Korean

values: Միքելանջելո – Armenian

values: माइकल एंजेलो – Hindi

values: মাইকেলেঞ্জেলো – Bishnupriya

values: Микеланджело – Ossetic

values: interlanguage-link interwiki-it badge-Q17437798 badge-goodarticle

values: מיכלאנג'לו – Hebrew

values: ಮೈಕೆಲ್ಯಾಂಜೆಲೊ – Kannada

values: მიქელანჯელო ბუონაროტი – Georgian

values: Микеланджело – Kazakh

values: Микеланжело Буонарроти – Kyrgyz

values: Микеланджело – Lezghian

values: interlanguage-link interwiki-lt badge-Q17437798 badge-goodarticle

values: interlanguage-link interwiki-hu badge-Q17437796 badge-featuredarticle

values: Микеланџело Буонароти – Macedonian

values: മൈക്കെലാഞ്ജലോ – Malayalam

values: interlanguage-link interwiki-ml badge-Q17437796 badge-featuredarticle

values: interlanguage-link interwiki-mt badge-Q17437796 badge-featuredarticle

values: मिकेलेंजेलो – Marathi

values: მიქელანჯელო ბუონაროტი – Mingrelian

values: Микеланжело – Mongolian

values: မိုက်ကယ် အိန်ဂျလို – Burmese

values: माइकलएन्जेलो – Nepali

values: माइकेलएञ्जेलो – Newari

values: ミケランジェロ・ブオナローティ – Japanese

values: Микеланджело – Chechen

values: Michelangelo Buonarroti – Northern Frisian

values: Michelangelo Buonarroti – Norwegian Nynorsk

values: Микеланджело – Eastern Mari

values: ਮੀਕੇਲਾਂਜਲੋ – Punjabi

values: ម៉ីហ្គេលាំងជេល៉ូ – Khmer

values: interlanguage-link interwiki-pt badge-Q17437796 badge-featuredarticle

values: Мікеланджело – Rusyn

values: Микеланджело – Russian

values: Микеланджело – Sakha

values: Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni – Saterland Frisian

values: මයිකල් ආන්ජලෝ – Sinhala

values: interlanguage-link interwiki-sk badge-Q17437796 badge-featuredarticle

values: Микеланђело Буонароти – Serbian

values: Michelangelo Buonarotti – Serbo-Croatian

values: interlanguage-link interwiki-fi badge-Q17437798 badge-goodarticle

values: மைக்கலாஞ்சலோ – Tamil

values: Микеланджело – Tatar

values: మైఖేలాంజెలో – Telugu

values: มีเกลันเจโล – Thai

values: Мікеланджело Буонарроті – Ukrainian

values: interlanguage-link interwiki-uk badge-Q17437796 badge-featuredarticle

values: مائیکل اینجلو – Urdu

values: מיקעלאנדזשעלא – Yiddish

values: mediawiki ltr sitedir-ltr mw-hide-empty-elt ns-0 ns-subject page-Michelangelo rootpage-Michelangelo skin-vector action-view


text:
Core (optical fiber)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
The structure of a typical single-mode fiber.
1. Core 8 µm diameter
2. Cladding 125 µm dia.
3. Buffer 250 µm dia.
4. Jacket 400 µm dia.
Light propagating in a multi-mode fiber
The core of a conventional optical fiber is a cylinder of glass or plastic that runs along the fiber's length.[1] The core is surrounded by a medium with a lower index of refraction, typically a cladding of a different glass, or plastic. Light travelling in the core reflects from the core-cladding boundary due to total internal reflection, as long as the angle between the light and the boundary is less than the critical angle. As a result, the fiber transmits all rays that enter the fiber with a sufficiently small angle to the fiber's axis. The limiting angle is called the acceptance angle, and the rays that are confined by the core/cladding boundary are called guided rays.
The core is characterized by its diameter or cross-sectional area. In most cases the core's cross-section should be circular, but the diameter is more rigorously defined as the average of the diameters of the smallest circle that can be circumscribed about the core-cladding boundary, and the largest circle that can be inscribed within the core-cladding boundary. This allows for deviations from circularity due to manufacturing variation.
Another commonly quoted statistic for core size is the mode field diameter. This is the diameter at which the intensity of light in the fiber falls to some specified fraction of maximum (usually 1/e2 ≈ 13.5%). For single-mode fiber, the mode field diameter is larger than the physical diameter of the core, because the light penetrates slightly into the cladding as an evanescent wave.
The three most common core sizes are:
9 µm diameter (single-mode)
50 µm diameter (multi-mode)
62.5 µm diameter (multi-mode)[2]
See also[edit]
Buffer (optical fiber)
References[edit]
Jump up ^ Insulation/circuits. Lake Publishing Corporation. 1978.
Jump up ^ "The FOA Reference For Fiber Optics - Optical Fiber". www.thefoa.org. Retrieved 2016-04-10.

This article related to telecommunications is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
v
t
e
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Core_(optical_fiber)&oldid=811212183"
Categories:
Fiber optics
Telecommunications stubs
Hidden categories:
Articles needing additional references from July 2017
All articles needing additional references
All stub articles
Navigation menu
Personal tools
Not logged in
Talk
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Namespaces
Article
Talk
Variants
Views
Read
Edit
View history
More
Search
Navigation
Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store
Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page
Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page
Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version
Languages
فارسی
Edit links
This page was last edited on 20 November 2017, at 05:31.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Cookie statement
Mobile view
Enable previews

key: html

type: local

value: div

attrs: id class

values: mw-page-base noprint

values: mw-head-base noprint

value: a

attrs: id class lang

values: firstHeading firstHeading en

values: siteSub noprint

values: jump-to-nav mw-jump

value: img

attrs: alt src width height srcset data-file-width data-file-height

attrs: href class

attrs: href title

value: b

attrs: class href

values: Help:Introduction to referencing with Wiki Markup/1

value: i

value: small

values: plainlinks metadata ambox ambox-content ambox-Refimprove

attrs: alt src width height class srcset data-file-width data-file-height

values:
/wiki/Single-mode_fiber
mw-redirect
Single-mode fiber

values:
/wiki/Multi-mode_fiber
mw-redirect
Multi-mode fiber

values:
/wiki/Index_of_refraction
mw-redirect
Index of refraction

values:
/wiki/Critical_angle_(optics)
mw-redirect
Critical angle (optics)

values:
/wiki/Evanescent_wave
mw-redirect
Evanescent wave

values:
reflist mw-references-wrap
list-style-type: decimal;

values: position: absolute; right: 15px; display: none;

values:
metadata plainlinks stub
presentation
background:transparent

values: Category:Articles needing additional references from July 2017

values: Category:All articles needing additional references

values: Discussion about edits from this IP address [ctrl-alt-n]

values: A list of edits made from this IP address [ctrl-alt-y]

values: You are encouraged to create an account and log in; however, it is not mandatory

values: You're encouraged to log in; however, it's not mandatory. [ctrl-alt-o]

values:
/wiki/Core_(optical_fiber)
View the content page [ctrl-alt-c]
c

values: Discussion about the content page [ctrl-alt-t]

values: p-namespaces navigation vectorTabs p-namespaces-label

values:
p-variants
navigation
vectorMenu emptyPortlet
p-variants-label

values: Past revisions of this page [ctrl-alt-h]

values: p-views navigation vectorTabs p-views-label

values:
p-cactions
navigation
vectorMenu emptyPortlet
p-cactions-label

values:
mw-wiki-logo
/wiki/Main_Page
Visit the main page

values:
/wiki/Main_Page
Visit the main page [ctrl-alt-z]
z

values: Featured content – the best of Wikipedia

values: Find background information on current events

values:
/wiki/Special:Random
Load a random article [ctrl-alt-x]
x

values: portal navigation p-navigation p-navigation-label

values: Guidance on how to use and edit Wikipedia

values: About the project, what you can do, where to find things

values: A list of recent changes in the wiki [ctrl-alt-r]

values: portal navigation p-interaction p-interaction-label

values: List of all English Wikipedia pages containing links to this page [ctrl-alt-j]

values: Recent changes in pages linked from this page [ctrl-alt-k]

values:
/wiki/Wikipedia:File_Upload_Wizard
Upload files [ctrl-alt-u]
u

values: A list of all special pages [ctrl-alt-q]

values: Permanent link to this revision of the page

values: Link to connected data repository item [ctrl-alt-g]

values: Printable version of this page [ctrl-alt-p]

values:
uls-settings-trigger
Language settings
0
button
true

values: هسته (فیبر نوری) – Persian

values: /static/images/wikimedia-button-1.5x.png 1.5x, /static/images/wikimedia-button-2x.png 2x

values: /static/images/poweredby_mediawiki_132x47.png 1.5x, /static/images/poweredby_mediawiki_176x62.png 2x

values:
suggestions
display: none; font-size: 13px;

values: mediawiki ltr sitedir-ltr mw-hide-empty-elt ns-0 ns-subject page-Core_optical_fiber rootpage-Core_optical_fiber skin-vector action-view