In the footsteps of Michelangelo

Michelangelo was born in Caprese on 6 March 1475. He moved to Florence with his family, and was entrusted to the care of a nurse of Settignano. She was from a family of stonemasons and thanks to this, according to the official biographer Ascanio Condivi, Michelangelo may have developed his first artistic vocation. His apprenticeship as a sculptor began in 1487 when he was introduced in the workshop of Domenico and Davide del Ghirlandaio. Noticed by Lorenzo the Magnificent for his skills, he was invited to the intellectual circle of the San Marco's garden: here young artists, led by Bertoldo di Giovanni, were encouraged to practice and confront with the classical art. In this fortunate nineteenth-century sculpture by Zocchi, Michelangelo, still an adolescent, is sculpting the head of a faun, on imitation of an ancient piece. The mask of the faun carried out by Zocchi takes up from the ones in sandstone stored in Casa Buonarroti, once believed to be Michelangelo’s and now datable to the XVI century.

This painting of the Casa Buonarroti Gallery, by Anastasio Fontebuoni, narrates the episode of Michelangelo’s arrival in Bologna, in 1506: he was there to offer his apologies to Julius II for leaving Rome the year before. In 1505, in fact, the Pope commissioned Michelangelo the realization of his mausoleum in the Vatican Basilica. When the draft was approved, Michelangelo left for Carrara to find the marbles needed for the commission. But, once back in Rome, the Pope had changed his mind, and Michelangelo, deeply disappointed, returned to Florence.

The new Pope Leo X, birth name Giovanni de' Medici, summoned Michelangelo to Florence to commission him the realization of the façade of the Saint Lawrence Basilica. Buonarroti developed several projects but also this enterprise was never completed because of its extreme expensiveness. The pope then asked Michelangelo to focus on designing the New Sacristy of Saint Lawrence, earmarked for the monumental burials of Lorenzo Duke of Urbino and Giuliano Duke of Nemours, and also those of Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Julian. Once again, the successor, the Medici Pope Clement VII, addressed his attention to the complex of Saint Lawrence, and asked the great Michelangelo to design a library for the purpose of preserving valuable books.

After the sack of Rome in 1527, the Medici were banished from Florence and a Republic was established in the city. Michelangelo, who was a republican, put aside the projects for Saint Lawrence and went to Florence to supervise the fortifications of the city, besieged by the imperial army. This painting of the Buonarroti Gallery, by Matteo Rosselli, portrays Michelangelo in the role of governor of the fortifications on the hill of San Miniato al Monte, a crucial point of the city defense.

Michelangelo was entrusted the post of architect of the Saint Peter's Basilica by Pope Paul III Farnese and was reconfirmed by the next pope, Pio IV. Due to this commitment, Michelangelo refused the invitation of Cosimo I de' Medici and did not return to Florence. However, to satisfy - at least partly -  the sovereign, he made some sketches for the Florentine Nation church in Rome. In this painting, made by Domenico Passignano for Casa Buonarroti, Michelangelo, now elderly, shows the model of Saint Peter to Pope Pio IV.

On the 18th February 1564 Michelangelo died, almost ninety years-old, in his roman house of Macel de' Corvi. This monochrome painting by Francesco Furini, placed above one of the Gallery doors at Casa Buonarroti, portrays the artist on his deathbed. He is pointing at three crawling female figures, the three theological virtues, who are attending to him. It is a well-known fact that Michelangelo died in the presence of his most reliable friends, including Daniele da Volterra and Tommaso de' Cavalieri. Daniele was in charge of taking the cast of the deceased’s face, later used for commemorative portraits of the great artist.