Michelangelo Buonarroti
Encyclopaedia
Britannica
III
The “Bacchus” led at once to the commission (1498) for the “Pieta,” now
in St. Peter's Basilica. The name refers not (as often presumed) to this
specific work but to a common traditional type of devotional image, this
work being today the most famous example. Extracted from narrative
scenes of the lamentation after Christ's death, the concentrated group of
two is designed to evoke the observer's repentant prayers for sins that
required Christ's sacrificial death. The patron was a French cardinal,
and the type was earlier more common in northern Europe than Italy. The
complex problem for the designer was to extract two figures from one
marble block, an unusual undertaking in all periods. Michelangelo treated
the group as one dense and compact mass as before so that it has an
imposing impact, yet he underlined the many contrasts present, of male
and female, vertical and horizontal, clothed and naked, dead and alive,
to clarify the two components.
The artist's prominence, established by this work, was reinforced at
once by the commission (1501) of the “David” for the cathedral of
Florence. For this huge statue, an exceptionally large commission in
that city, Michelangelo reused a block left unfinished about 40 years
before. The modeling is especially close to the formulas of classical
antiquity, with a simplified geometry suitable to the huge scale yet
with a mild assertion of organic life in its asymmetry. It has continued
to serve as the prime statement of the Renaissance ideal of perfect
humanity.
On the side Michelangelo produced in the same years (1501–04) several
Madonnas for private houses, the staple of artists' work at the time.
These include one small statue, two circular reliefs that are similar to
paintings in suggesting varied levels of spatial depth, and the artist's
only easel painting. While the statue (“Madonna and Child”) is blocky
and immobile, the painting (“Holy Family”) and one of the reliefs
(“Madonna and Child with the Infant St. John”) are full of motion; they
show arms and legs of figures interweaving in actions that imply
movement through time. The forms carry symbolic references to Christ's
future death, common in images of the Christ Child at the time; they
also betray the artist's fascination with the work of Leonardo.
Michelangelo regularly denied that anyone influenced him, and his
statements have usually been accepted without demur. But Leonardo's
return to Florence in 1500 after nearly20 years was exciting to younger
artists there, and recent scholars have generally agreed that
Michelangelo was among those affected. Leonardo's works were probably
the most powerful and lasting outside influence to modify his work, and
he was able to blend this artist's ability to show momentary processes
with his own to show weight and strength, without losing any of the
latter quality. The resulting images, of massive bodies in forceful
action, are those special creations that constitute the larger part of
his most admired major works.
