At The Same Time- The Renaissance

During the time that Michelangelo lived, he was living in a period of time known as the Renaissance. Renaissance means "rebirth". The Renaissance was a movement that was from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century. The Renaissance began in Florence and spread to the rest of Europe. The Renaissance had the main points of  renewing in the learning on the classicals, the new aspects of linear perspective in art, and the growth of education.  The Renaissance is considered the bridge between the Middle Ages and the more Modern era. The Renaissance was a recovery from the fourteenth century as there were devastations from the Black Death, the political disorder, and the economic distress. It was believed humans had high potential and that they could create a single human that was capable of many achievements from numerous areas in life. The Renaissance was not for all the Italians, but more for the more wealthy upper classes and the elite. Still, the Renaissance had an impact on the common people.The accomplishments were mostly evident in the cities. Intellectuals became interested in the Greco-Roman culture of the ancient Mediterranean world. This gave way for the individualism and secularism, two very distinct characteristics that dominated the Italian Renaissance. For the next two centuries, Italy was the cultural leader of Europe. The movement parallel to the Renaissance was humanism. The European economy slowly grew as manufacturing and trade increased. In the fifteenth century, five states controlled the Italian peninsula: Milan, Venice, Florence, the Papal States, and Naples.


Trade recovered greatly from the fourteenth century. The Italians and the Venetians still had a wealthy commercially strong empire. In the early fifteenth century the woolen industry from Florence had begun to recover. During the same time, Italian cities had begun to expand in its luxury industries such as silk, glassware, and precious metals and stones. There were new machines and techniques that allowed people to obtain metals. Due to the Medici family, Florence was able to be dominant in the banking area. The House of Medici was one of the most amazing banks in Europe. For a short period of time, the Medici family were also the bankers for the papacy. Over time, the Medici bank collapsed due to bad loans and leadership. In 1494, the French kicked the Medici from Florence and took away all of their property. The Renaissance still had its social structure from the Middle Ages. It was divided into three states: the First Estate, the Second Estate, and the Third Estate. The First Estate was made up of the clergy, the Second Estate made up of the nobility, and the Third Estate made up of the peasants and townspeople. Slavery had existed in the Early Middle Ages, but around the end of the fifteenth century slavery had begun to decline dramatically. Family life had been shaped by marriages. Marriages were used to make family status higher and better.  Wives knew that their main purpose was to have children. Childbirth was painful and around 10 percent of women died diving birth.


The Renaissance humanism was a movement based on the classical literary works of Greece and Rome. The humanits would study grammar, rhetoric, poetry, ethics, and history. In Florence the humanist movement went a completely new direction in the fifteenth century as the movement became closely related to the Florentine civic and pride. This gave way to civic humanism. Hermeticism was also a result of the Florence environment of the late fifteenth century. The people that supported Hermeticism believed that humans had been made into divine beings and had the creative power. The Renaissance humanists believed that humans could change depending on how well their education was. Books were written and schools were opened. The ultimate goal of education was not to make a small group of supremely intelligent people, but to make all citizens smart enough to be capable of participating in theit civic life. During the Renaissance, there was a invention that changed European life and thinking. This new invention was the technology of printing. The new printing spread through Europe very quickly in the second half of the fifteenth century. The printing of books encouraged people to obtain more knowledge. Without the printing technology, religious ideas of the Reformation would of not spread as quickly as it did in the sixteenth century. As the Renaissance set in, governments made attempts to restablish power and centralized monarchies. These "new monarchies" were evident in the countries France, England, and Spain. The rulers in the central and eastern Europe were too weak and unstable to go against the new authority.


The Renaissance artists primary goal was to imitate nature. Humans became the center of life. It is portrayed that Giotto began the imitation of nature. Using flamboyant figures, more realistic relationships between figures and landscape, and laws of perspective, a new style of painting began. Three dimensional figures gave way for future painters that would make their paintings after them. The new Renaissance painting style allowed two important techniques to develop. One was the mathematical part of painting by working out the laws of perspective and the light shading by using geometry. There were advancements in sculpture and architecture. Patrons often appeared in the sacred pictures, and in tombs and portraits. The fianl stage of Renaissance art was the High Renaissance. Rome became the new cultural center of the Italian Renaissance. The High Renaissance was expressed through the work of Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Raphael. In the beginning artists had not been high in the social level, but during the Renaissance, artists were considered divine. They rose socially and economically. The Renaissance papacy were the popes from the end of the Great Schism to the start of the Reformation in the sixteenth century. By the middle of the fifteenth century, popes no longer had power over the Catholic Church. The popes relied on nepotism to recieve more money and to ensure that they build a dynasty over the next generations. The Renaissance popes were the great patrons of the culture.

Who Is He?

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simon, most commonly known as Michelangelo, was born on March 6, 1475 in Caprese. Michelangelo was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer. His prime rival that also an Italian was Leonardo da Vinci.

Michelangelo's mother had been too sick and frail to nurse the young boy, so he was put with a wet nurse in the family of a stonecutter. Michelangelo's mother, Francesca Neris, died when Michelangelo was only six years old. The young Michelangelo was now motherless, and this made his life grim and it also had no love in it. Michelangelo was hot tempered and he would say harsh words. Michelangelo often kept to himself because of shyness and his lack of trust in anyone else.

Michelangelo's father soon realized his potential and intelligence. His father sent him to a grammar school where he would study his letters under Francesco Galeota, his teacher. While he was studying Latin, he became friends with another student that was six years older than him, with the name of Francesco Granacci. His new friend was learning how to paint in a studio in the same grammar school, and he encouraged Michelangelo to also learn the art of painting.

Michelangelo's father had now become a Florentine official, and he had connections with the powerful Medici family. He hoped that with the wealth he controlled and his studies, Michelangelo would be able to become a prosperous merchant or businessman in order to keep the Buonarroti family in a good social position. Michelangelo turned thirteen and he shocked his father by telling him that he had agreed to be the apprentice of the painter Domenico Ghirlandaio. Michelangelo learned how to paint frescoes for one year and then he went to study at a sculpture school. For the next few years, Michelangelo started to study the human anatomy.

Michelangelo then went to Rome, where he was able to look at many different ancient sculptures and ruins. Not much time after, he created his first large scale sculpture, Bacchus. Around the same time, he created the marble sculpture Pieta. This sculpture was considered as one of the greatest sculptures ever created. On August 4th, 1501, a republic was now in motion in Florence. The new order had the support of Michelangelo. At this period of time, Michelangelo showed his art politically, unlike his more later art. Twelve days after Florence was claimed as a republic, Michelangelo was comissioned to make the sculpture David.

In April 1508, Michelangelo was summoned back to Rome by Pope Julius II. Michelangelo's new job was to paint the entire ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo, at this point of time considered himself as a sculptor, not a painter. He was now going to have to be able to master the art of frescoes. At first Michelangelo had tried to turn down the offer, but it was useless. He painted the Sisitine Chapel ceiling from  1508 to 1512.

Michelangelo went on to make the tomb of Julius II, design the Laurentian library, and the Medici tombs. In 1534, Michelangelo left Florence forever. A few years later, Pope Paul III Farnese commisioned Michelangelo to paint the Last Judgment in 1535. This painting was to depict the picture of humanity face to face with salvation. The Reformation and the sacking of Rome had all led to the certain way the painting was drawn. He finished the painting in 1541 and it was the largest fresco ever drawn during the Reformation.

By this time, Michalangelo was now in his seventies. The most famous work ever created by Michelangelo as an architect was St. Peter's Basilica. He was made chief architect of the project and he would not accept any form of payment for designing the sacred building.

Michelangelo's only friends in the last stage of his life were loneliness and sorrow. All his friends and faithful servant were all dead. In this time period he drew dark and solemn art pieces.

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simon died on February 18, 1564, giving himself up to God and all of the above heavens. In his will he left three statements and as he lay in his deathbed, in front of his physician, his friends stated that they recalled him saying that he left:

"his soul to God, his body to the earth, and his material possesions to his nearest relations."

                                                              -Michelangelo Buonarroti