Michelangelo Dining at the Medici Palace

Every family has its troubles, and the Medici family was no exception. Michelangelo saw it on his first night at the dinner table, right after Lorenzo the Magnificent hobbled into the packed main dining room of the Medici Palace with his arm wrapped around Michelangelo's shoulder. Everyone stood and applauded, wanting to know who this new boy was - everyone except Lorenzo's 18-year-old eldest son Piero.

Piero de' Medici was one of those boys of privilege who was easy to hate, the kind of person who kicked dogs just to feel better about himself. A boy who loved to make people squirm as he ordered them about, knowing everyone had to treat him with respect no matter how nasty and arrogant he was.

When Lorenzo reached his seat at the middle of the table, he raised his hand and the room quickly fell silent. "I'd like to introduce you to Michelangelo, a promising young sculptor who will be living in our home from now on. I plan to raise him as if he were my own son."

Michelangelo was sweating under his new purple silk robe as he sat next to Lorenzo. The room was full of smart sounding people who told jokes in Latin. Sandro Botticelli, the famous painter, was there as was Marsilio Ficino, the Plato scholar, and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, the author of Oration of the Dignity of Man, a veritable Bible of Humanism. Michelangelo had never seen so many beautiful people or so much food. The table was covered with plates of boar, venison, and peacock, and goblets of red Tuscan wine. He tried eating the meat but wasn't hungry with Piero studying his every move from across the table.

The first person who spoke to Michelangelo was Angelo Poliziano, teacher to the Medici children and also a famous poet who loved the sonnets and letters of Petrarch.

"So Michelangelo, I understand you studied under Senora Urbino for seven years. I'd be interested to know what he taught you about Petrarch's Secret Book."

Michelangelo shrugged his shoulders in embarrassment. "I'm sorry, but I don't know that book." He had read about Petrarch's love for Laura in the Canzoniere that was written in Italian but none of Latin works.

Piero de' Medici laughed at this response, then picked a piece of peacock meat from his teeth with his fingers. "That's because you're nothing but a peasant in a rich man's clothing. How could a mere commoner like you know anything about the Secret Book?"

Lorenzo pressed his palms firmly on the table and studied his eldest son. "That's enough, Piero. Since you are the expert, why don't you tell us what the Secret Book is supposed to mean."

"There is no secret to the book," said Piero. "Petrarch was just an old man who was troubled by love for a woman he could never have."

Lorenzo turned to his second son Giovanni, who at 15 was the same age as Michelangelo. Giovanni was a pleasant soul - an attractive, bookish, fair-haired boy who was preparing for a life in the church. He had already been named a cardinal two years before, and soon he would leave for Pisa to study theology and canon law. Eventually, 23 years later, Giovanni would be elected Pope Leo X. "And what do you think the Secretum is about, Giovanni?" said Lorenzo.

"I learned that greatness does not bring happiness," said Giovanni with his chin held high.

Not yet finished, Lorenzo turned to his adopted son Giulio, age 12, the illegitimate son of his murdered brother Giuliano. Giulio had lost not only his father but also his mother, which left him depressed throughout his life. And yet this Gloomy Gus proved capable enough to be elected Pope Clement VII ten years after his cousin Giovanni became pope. "And you, little Giulio. What do you think Petrarch's book is trying to say?"

"It taught me that love is the cause of all despair," said Giulio.

"Well, Michelangelo," said Lorenzo, turning to the newest member of his family. "Now you know what the secret book is all about."

Michelangelo looked puzzled. "All I know is no one seems to agree on what it means."

"You're wasting your time, father," Piero broke in. "He'll never figure it out. I'll bet he can't even read Latin."

The pain started in Lorenzo's gout riddled left big toe and shot up his spine to his shoulders. Everyone gasped as The Magnificent wreathed in pain. A servant ran to him with a glass full of crushed gemstones and he gobbled it down even though this never seemed to help.

"I'll tell you the secret, Michelangelo," said Poliziano in a raised voice trying to deflect the attention off Lorenzo. "The answer lies within you, just as it lies within each of us. But don't worry. I'll teach you how to find it."

Poliziano meant it. He was ready to teach Michelangelo Latin so he could read the Secret Book and other books about humanism. But just like Bertoldo, Poliziano knew he didn't have much time.

His friend Lorenzo was not a well man. The gout attacks were more frequent now, just like the ones Lorenzo's father suffered through...just before he died. And God help them all when they lost Lorenzo, for that would make Piero the Unfortunate the head of the Medici family and the first citizen of Florence.

David Clark's quest to solve the Sistine Chapel mystery started after his wife was killed shortly after they began a piece jigsaw puzzle of the ceiling. After five years of extensive research, he realized the ceiling is a brilliant diversion that hides a secret message by overwhelming the eye. Like a jigsaw puzzle it lures us to pull its hundreds of pieces together to make sense of the whole. However, its meaning cannot be found by putting the pieces together, but through finding the one piece Michelangelo left missing: the piece he lacks in his own life story.

Michelangelo's Puzzle will be told in 90 weekly pieces that when put together will reveal the meaning of the Sistine Chapel Ceiling on November 1, 2012, the 500th anniversary of the ceiling's dedication. Follow the story at http://sistinepuzzle.com/.

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Michelangelo Beaten for His Dream

Michelangelo could have said nothing in response to Vasari's biography, and we would have never known that his father beat him for wanting to be a painter. Little has been made of the beatings in the countless books about Michelangelo, as if it was no big deal for a father to beat his son for not doing what he wanted. But given Michelangelo's need to set the record straight some sixty years later, it must have mattered greatly to him that the world know what happened to him.

This is the way I imagine it all went down.

To set the scene, it is the early spring of 1488. Michelangelo is 13, his father Lodovico 39. Perhaps Lodovico believes his own self worth depends on the success of his sons, and dreams of being a man of great means, of wearing fine clothes and holding his head high as he walked around Florence.

But the reality is he lives in a rented house on Via Bentaccordi, lacks the ability and gumption to work himself, and thinks less of tradesmen who make a living by getting their hands dirty.

Of course, that's all Michelangelo wants to do. He cares nothing of means, is never comfortable unless working with his hands, and dreams of being a great fresco painter. Although Michelangelo wants to please his father, he also wants to paint. And now that his friend Francesco Granacci has found a way for him to do that, he has to confront his father.

As Michelangelo makes his way through the streets on his way home he smells the tannins of the leather shops for which the Santa Croce quarter is known. He knows his father is waiting for him, having consumed a great deal of wine, as he always does on the days he skips school.

When Michelangelo gets home his father is seething at the door. "How many times have I told you not to skip school," Lodovico said smacking his son across the face with the back of his hand cutting Michelangelo's lip. "You'll go back to school and forget this silly dream of yours."

"No, father, I won't," Michelangelo said. "I'm quitting school."

"What did you say?" his father said raising his hand readying to strike again.

"I'm going to join Ghirlandaio's workshop and become an apprentice painter."

"Not in my lifetime you won't," said Lodovico delivering another blow to Michelangelo's jaw knocking him to the floor.

Michelangelo looks at a speck of mud on at his father's polished leather boot. Then he sits up, staring at his father.

"I have to paint," Michelangelo said. "That's all I want to do for the rest of my life."

"I don't care what you want," said Lodovico tugging down on his red satin robe. "You'll do as I say."

Michelangelo rises to his knees.

"But I can be a great painter if you let me try."

"You, a great painter?" Lodovico says laughing. " I've seen your drawings. You're not that good. As a matter of fact I think you're a dreadful artist."

"I believe I can be the best painter alive," Michelangelo said wanting to believe he can be.

"So you think you can be as good as Ghirlandaio, or Botticelli, or Leonardo da Vinci. You'll never be that good. You'll fail at painting just as you failed at school."

"You're wrong, father," Michelangelo said. "I can be that good."

"Look at you, begging on your knees, bleeding. You're a disgrace to me and your brothers. You're nothing. And you'll always be nothing. You'll never amount to anything."

Michelangelo slowly rises to his feet. "But I want to try," he said.

"And how are you going to do that, boy?" Lodovico said crossing his arms. "Do you think I'm going to pay Ghirlandaio to teach you after all of the money I've wasted on you already?"

This is the moment Michelangelo has been waiting for.

"You won't have to pay Ghirlandaio anything," he said. "He thinks I'm good enough to pay you, if you'll let me join his workshop."

Lodovico raises his right hand to his chin. "Pay me? How much is he willing to pay?"

How much of this is true? We know from Condivi that Lodovico Buonarroti beat his son for wanting to become a painter and from Vasari that he changed his mind and signed a three year contract with Domenico Ghirlandaio to teach Michelangelo how to paint. But we don't know how that happened.

Although the above scene is pure conjecture on my part, a confrontation like this makes sense to me. More importantly, I just can't believe a father would beat his son without saying something to dissuade him of his ways. What he said and how he said it we'll never know. But why wouldn't Lodovico plant the seeds of doubt, the fear of failure in his son, not wanting him to ever become a painter?

The beatings may have stopped when Michelangelo became an apprentice painter, but the real wounds may have been mental, not physical. Perhaps the greatest damage to Michelangelo's dream was done before he ever picked up a paint brush.

David Clark's quest to solve the Sistine Chapel mystery started after his wife was killed shortly after they began a piece jigsaw puzzle of the ceiling. After five years of extensive research, he realized the ceiling is a brilliant diversion that hides a secret message by overwhelming the eye. Like a jigsaw puzzle it lures us to pull its hundreds of pieces together to make sense of the whole. However, its meaning cannot be found by putting the pieces together, but through finding the one piece Michelangelo left missing: the piece he lacks in his own life story.

Michelangelo's Puzzle will be told in 90 weekly pieces that when put together will reveal the meaning of the Sistine Chapel Ceiling on November 1, 2012, the 500th anniversary of the ceiling's dedication. Follow the story at http://sistinepuzzle.com/.

View the original article here

Michelangelo Defies Pope, Flees Rome

April 17, 1506 - Michelangelo must have known he could be dead before morning if he tried to escape Rome that night. It would be a dark dangerous ride; the sliver of a crescent moon wouldn't rise until four that morning.

If the thieves and cutthroats who preyed on lone riders didn't get him, he still had to outrun the pope's soldiers for 170 miles. The odds of his making it safely back to Florence were long. Yet despite the danger, he had to leave Rome on that cool spring night: to stay invited a fate worse than death.

Michelangelo must have wondered how it all went so wrong. At 31, he was the greatest sculptor since antiquity having already created the Pieta and the David. He came to Rome the year before to sculpt forty statues for the pope's tomb. Yet sculpting was not what Pope Julius wanted from him now.

Instead of working with stone, Julius wanted Michelangelo to do something he had never done before - paint a fresco. And not just any fresco, but one that would cover the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Just after sundown, Michelangelo told his two servants to sell off all of his furniture and follow him to Florence with the money. Then he mounted a horse, slipped through the city gate, and galloped north into the dark along the Via Cassia.

The pope's spies saw Michelangelo leave the city. And his servants probably told Julius where he was going. The pope, known for his terribilita, immediately dispatched a company of soldiers probably with a warning to either come back with Michelangelo or not at all. The race was on.

When Michelangelo told this story years later, he said he arrived safely in the Republic of Florence border town of Poggibonsi at two in the morning. Then shortly thereafter, five of the pope's soldiers followed him into the city.

When they tried to arrest Michelangelo he threatened to have them killed if they laid a hand on him. The soldiers left Poggibonsi empty handed and Michelangelo went home to Florence.

A month later Michelangelo received a letter from a friend in Rome that said the rumor floating around Rome was that he fled because he was afraid to paint the ceiling. He wrote back saying, no, the reason he left was because the pope refused to pay him for the work on the tomb.

I find it hard to believe Michelangelo risked his life with a dangerous midnight ride over a contract dispute. My bet is he fled Rome because he really was afraid to paint the ceiling.

But why was he so afraid?

David Clark's quest to solve the Sistine Chapel mystery started after his wife was killed shortly after they began a piece jigsaw puzzle of the ceiling. After five years of extensive research, he realized the ceiling is a brilliant diversion that hides a secret message by overwhelming the eye. Like a jigsaw puzzle it lures us to pull its hundreds of pieces together to make sense of the whole. However, its meaning cannot be found by putting the pieces together, but through finding the one piece Michelangelo left missing: the piece he lacks in his own life story.

Michelangelo's Puzzle will be told in 90 weekly pieces that when put together will reveal the meaning of the Sistine Chapel Ceiling on November 1, 2012, the 5ooth anniversary of the ceiling's dedication. Follow the story at http://sistinepuzzle.blogspot.com/.

View the original article here

Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel

Michelangelo Buronarroti was born in Italy on the 6 March 1475, sculptor, painter, architect and poet. His mother, Francesca died shortly after birth and was a nurse who raised him, she was the daughter and wife of men who worked with the chisel; Michelangelo would later say that, along with the milk of the nurse, also assimilated the love the chisels and hammers of the sculptors.

The young man, in his first sculpture created the head of a faun; this work really impressed Lorenzo the Magnificent. Lorenzo made him familiar with the Medici court and gave him shelter, food and 50 florins per month. For two years, Michelangelo lived in this splendid place and was in constant contact with the great humanists of the time who regularly visited the Medici court.

In 1496, when he was 25 years old, Michelangelo achieved fame with his first Pieta; his first masterpiece in which Christ is contrasted with a very young Mary, even younger than him; the idea was to show her always as a virgin. She is barely old enough to carry a baby and not enough to support in her lap a dead man.

During this period, he created some of his greatest works such as the "Gigante" to the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, however at this stage the artist wanted to retire to pursue his other passion: poetry, but as a sudden storm, broke into his life Pope Julius II.

That was the beginning of a very tempestuous friendship, Julius II wanted to build his tomb, and Buronarroti designs were consistent with his ideal of greatness. Michelangelo immediately began an incessant work, but one day in 1501 and without any clear reasons, the Pope changed his mind and Michelangelo left to Florence at the age of 26, where he majestically produced the "David", this is a fully renaissance work of art and its beauty is free of any moral concern.

A few months later, the Pope and the artist made the passes and that was when Michelangelo was appointed as responsible for the decoration of the Sistine Chapel; it was on All Saints' Day in 1512 when Michelangelo deployed to an astonished world the amazing work: nine episodes in which appeared biblical prophets, prophetess and naked giants, thus proving his inexhaustible creative power; the figures, appeared to be sculptured, however they were only painted.

Between 1536 and 1541 Michelangelo completed the "Last Judgment". The frescoes of the Sistine Chapel, especially those painted by Michelangelo, became and continue to be a paradigm of art and are the result of greater ingenuity that has never been used in arts before; certainly Michelangelo wanted to show his great talent and the need to express power; from frescoes to his sculptures, all the characters are giants that still carry in their flesh the marks of Michelangelo's chisel.

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