Chapter 4 Combat Part 1: Power -1

He was born in Caprese, in the place of Casentino, on March 6, 1475.The desolate country, the "elegant air", Michelangelo liked to say that his genius was due to the "elegant air" of his hometown.Rocks, tung trees, and the Apennines in the distance.Not far away is the place where St. Francis of Assisi saw the apparition of Christ on the top of Mount Alfonia. His father was a magistrate in Caprese and Chiusi.His name was Lodovico di Leonardo Buonarroti Simone—the real family name was Simone.Here is a violent, irritable, "God-fearing" person.His mother, Francesca di Neri di Miniato del Serra, died when Michelangelo was six years old.Father remarried Lucrezia Ubaldini in 1485, who died in 1497.They were five brothers: Leonardo, Michelangelo, Buonarotto, Giovan Simone, and Sigismundo.Leonardo was born in 1473, Buonarotto in 1477, Giovan Simone in 1479, Sigismondo in 1481.Leonardo became a priest.So Michelangelo became the eldest son.

When he was young, he was fostered by the wife of a stonemason.Later, he joked that his wish to be a sculptor was due to his young breasts.They sent him to school: he only studied sketching. "Because of this, he was looked down upon by his father and uncle and sometimes beat him violently. They all hated the profession of artist, as if it was a shame to have an artist in their family." According to Condivi's records.Therefore, he knew the cruelty of life and the loneliness of spirit from an early age. But his stubbornness defeated his father's stubbornness.At the age of thirteen, he entered the studio of Domenico Ghirlandaio, one of the largest and most robust contemporary painters in Florence. AA Ghirlandajo (Domenico Ghirlandajo, 1449-1494), an important painter of Emerald in the early Renaissance, is good at painting large-scale murals with rich storylines and a large number of portraits.His initial grades were so excellent that it is said that even his teachers were jealous.Indeed, it is hard to believe that an artist of that size ever felt jealous of his pupil.I do not believe this is why Michelangelo left Ghirlandaio.He retained in his old age a respect for his first teacher.A year later they broke up.

He had come to hate painting.He longed for a more heroic art.He transferred to sculpture school.The school was run by Lorenzo Te Medici and it was located in the Gardens of San Marco.The school was run by Donatello's pupil Bertoldo.The prince appreciated him very much: let him live in the palace, allowed him to sit with his sons; the childhood Michelangelo was at the center of the Italian Renaissance, surrounded by ancient books, bathed in the study of Plato. atmosphere.Their thoughts infected him, and he indulged in a life of nostalgia, and he also had the belief of nostalgia in his heart: he became a Greek sculptor.Under the tutelage of Poliziano, who "loved him very much", he sculpted The Battle of the Centaur and the Lapithians.This is like the existing emerald jade. The Smiling Faun Mask, also contemporary, aroused Lorenzo de' Medici's friendship with Michelangelo. "The Madonna by the Ladder" was also a relief sculpture made at that time. AA Poliziano (Poliziano, 1454-1494), Italian poet, humanist, one of the pioneers of classical literature research in the Renaissance.

This proud cameo, this work of utter force and beauty reigning, reflects the samurai soul and rugged hand of his maturity. He and Lorenzo di Creti, Bugiardini, Granacci, Torrigiano del Torrigiani and others went to the Carmini Temple to copy Masaccio's frescoes.Masaccio (Masaccio, 1401-1428), a jade painter.Introducing humanism into art, getting rid of the shackles of theocratic art in the Middle Ages, and technically opened up a new journey for Italian painting.He could not bear the ridicule of his companions.One day he clashes with the vain Torrigiani.Torrigiani shattered his face with a blow, of which he was later proud: "I clenched my fist," he told Bevenuto Cellini, "I hit him so hard. On the nose, I felt his bones shatter, and in this way I gave him a memorial for life." 1491. AA Cellini (BenvenutoCellini, 1500-1571), emerald goldsmith and sculptor.

However, paganism did not suppress Michelangelo's Christian beliefs.Two hostile worlds vie for Michelangelo's soul. In 1490, the priest Savonarola began to preach based on the Dominican mysterious classic "Revelation".He was thirty-seven, Michelangelo fifteen.He saw this short and weak preacher, full of ardent fire, burning with the spirit of God, attacking the Pope violently from the pulpit, and proclaiming the authority of God to all Italy.Fei Leng Cui was heartbroken and everyone was running around in the street, crying and shouting like madmen.The wealthiest citizens such as Rucellai, Salviati, Albizzi, and Strozzi all demanded to join the sect.The learned men and philosophers also admit that he is right.Scholars at that time, such as Pique della Mirandole and Poliziano, expressed their submission to Savonarola's teachings.Soon after, they all died (1494).Poliziano promised to be buried after his death in the Dominican San Marco - that is, Savonarola's monastery.Pique della Mirandole died wearing the clothes of a Dominican priest.Michelangelo's older brother Leonardo became a Dominican monk.It happened in 1491.

Michelangelo was not immune to the contagion of panic.Savonarola called himself a prophet, and he said that Charles VIII, King of France, would be the representative of the gods. At this time, Michelangelo couldn't help being afraid. One of his friends, the poet and musician Cardiere, saw before him one night the dark shadow of Lorenzo de' Medici, half-naked in rags; Said that he would be cast out of his land and never return.Lorenzo de' Medici died on April 8, 1492; he was succeeded by his son Peter.Michelangelo left the mansion and returned to his father, having nothing to do for a few hours.Later, Peter asked him to go to work again and commissioned him to purchase fine stones for relief and intaglio.So he carved a huge white stone statue "The Walker", which was first placed in the Strozzi Palace. It was purchased by King Francis I of France in 1529 and hidden in Fontainebleau, but it disappeared in the seventeenth century.The wooden sculpture of the cross placed in the Holy Spirit Seminary was also made at this time. For this work, Michelangelo used the corpse to study anatomy. He studied it so hard that he fell ill (1494).Caltierre told Michelangelo about the vision, and Michelangelo persuaded him to tell the prince; but Caltierre was afraid of Peter and never dared.One morning, he came to Michelangelo again, and told him with great horror that the dead had appeared again: he even wore special clothes, and Caltierre was sleeping on the bed, watching silently, and the ghost of the dead came Criticize him and punish him for not listening to him.Michelangelo complained greatly to him, and forced him to walk at once to the Villa Medici.On the way, Caltierre met Peter: he told him.Peter laughed and called Ma Bian to open him.The prince's secretary, Biena, said to him: "You are a madman. Which one do you think Lorenzo loves? Love his son or love you?" Cardiere was insulted and ridiculed, and returned to Emerald. , told Michelangelo of his unlucky situation, and convinced Michelangelo that Fei Lengcui was bound to encounter a catastrophe. Two days later, Michelangelo fled.According to Condivi's records: Michelangelo fled in October 1494.A month later, Pietro de' Medici also fled because of the rebellion of the masses; a civilian government was established in Fierne, sponsored by Savonarola, who prophesied that Ferencia would make the whole world a republic.But the republic will recognize one king, Jesus Christ.

This was the first time that Michelangelo became crazy because of superstition. In his life, this kind of thing happened countless times. Although he himself felt ashamed, he couldn't restrain himself. He fled all the way to Venice. As soon as he escaped from Emerald, his commotion died down. —Back to Bologna, after the winter, he forgot all about prophets and prophecies.There he lived as a guest in the noble house of Giovanni Francesco Aldoferrandi.In several disputes with the Bologna police authorities, he has received a lot of help.At this time, he carved a few statues of religious gods, but they had no religious meaning at all, just the expression of proud strength.The beauty of the world excited him again.He read Petrarch, Boccaccio, and Dante. AA Petrarch (Francesco Petrarch, 1304-1374), Italian poet, one of the main representatives of Renaissance humanism.

In the spring of 1495, he passed through Emerald again, at a time when the religious ceremonies of the carnival were being held and the parties were violently feuding.But at the moment he became so indifferent to the enthusiasm around him, and in order to show that he no longer believed in the absolutism of the Savonarola school, he sculpted the famous "Sleeping Cupid", which was considered an ancient style at that time. s work.Only a few months in Florence; he went to Rome.Until his death Savonarola was the most pagan of artists.In the year when he sculpted "The Drunken Dionysus", "The Dying Adonis" and the giant statue, Savonarola was burning books, ornaments and works of art that he considered "vain and evil".Michelangelo arrived in Rome in June 1496. "The Drunken Dionysus", "The Dying Adonis" and "The Dying Adonis" are all works in 1497.His brother Leonardo was denounced for his belief in prophecy.All dangers were concentrated on Savonarola: Michelangelo did not return to Emerald to rescue him.Savonarola was burned: Michelangelo was silent.It was May 23, 1498.No trace of these events can be found in his letters.

Michelangelo didn't say a word; but he carved the Lamentation of Christ: the young as immortal, the dead Christ lying on the lap of the Virgin, as if asleep.Their lines have a Greek seriousness.But there was already an indescribable melancholy mingled with it; these beautiful bodies had been immersed in an atmosphere of desolation.Sorrow has taken possession of Michelangelo's heart and soul.According to the conversation between Michelangelo and Condivi, it can be seen that the Madonna he carved is so young, so it is completely different from the Madonnas of Donatello and Botticelli. It is because of another kind of knightly mysticism as the background. of.