When we speak about Renaissance artists there are honestly many who come to mind, but two in particular, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. Considering these men lived over 500 years ago we know quite a bit about them. Recently there has been intriguing new information coming out about Michelangelo.
Michelangelo was born in Caprese, Italy in 1475. His father worked as a magistrate in this small community. Michelangelo’s mother died when he was only the tender age of six years. He was therefore cared for a lot by another family. No doubt because there was a mother present. While his time spent with this family, he learned the skill of stone-cutting which obviously served him well with his sculpting in his adult years.
Michelangelo wasn’t too keen on his academic education and preferred to listen and observe artists working in churches. He made sketches of what he saw and honed his sketching abilities greatly. It became apparent to his father he had no interest in following in his career footsteps. When Michelangelo was 13 his father agreed to let Michelangelo apprentice with artist Giovani Domenico Ghirlandaio. It was under his tutelage Michelangelo learned how to paint murals with the fresco method.
Science has been very interested in Michelangelo and at one point even considered exhuming his body for study. Luckily that was forgiven as a bad idea. Let the man rest in peace. However, scientists have studied three shoes that were taken from Michelangelo’s home after he died. I guess they were able to deduct a lot of information from the study of those shoes. It is believed Michelangelo wasn’t more than 5’2” tall, if that. By modern standards this is short for the average man in Europe. However, during the Renaissance this height was more normal.
It didn’t take Ghirlandaio long to learn Michelangelo wasn’t an average stone cutter and he sent him to the palace of Lorenzo de Medici. There, he was keeping company with the most elite in artists, philosophers, and men of academia intellect. Here he learned much including classical sculpture. This opulent environment fed his intellectual broad interests and skills as an artist. He became interested in human biology and conducted cadaver studies as did Leonardo da Vinci. This enriched his understanding of musculature and forms of the human body.
Michelangelo had a short temper and was somewhat a social recluse. He was a very busy man not taking time a lot to even eat to nourish his body. This was information taken from Michelangelo’s personal notes housed in the Vatican. He was so wrapped up in his interests of art forgetting to eat was not the only thing, he also bathed little. Hygiene was not at the top of his list of things to do.
Sorry for the lengthy commentary I just thought it may be interesting to pass along some of the news coming out of Italy about Michelangelo. If you have any questions or would like to add something, please do in the comments below.