Michelangelo Buonarroti
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As soon as the ceiling was finished, Michelangelo reverted to his
preferred task, the tomb of Pope Julius. In about 1513–15 he carved the
“Moses,” which may be regarded as the realization in sculpture of the
approach to great figures used for the prophets on the Sistine ceiling.
The control of cubic density in stone evokes great reserves of strength;
there is richer surface detail and modeling than before, with bulging
projections sharply cut. The surface textures also have more variety
than the earlier sculptures, the artist by now having found how to
enrich detail without sacrificing massiveness. Of about the same date
are two sculptures of bound prisoners or slaves, also part of the tomb
project but never used for it, since in a subsequent revised design they
were of the wrong scale. Michelangelo kept them until old age, when he
gave them to a family that had helped him during an illness; they are
now in the Louvre. Here again he realized in stone types painted in many
variants on the ceiling, such as the pairs of nudes that hold wreaths
above the prophets' thrones. The complexity of their stances, expressive
of strong feeling, was unprecedented in monumental marble sculpture of
the Renaissance. The only earlier works of this nature were from the
Hellenistic period of classical antiquity, well known to Michelangelo
through the discovery of the Laocoon group in 1506. The old man and his
two adolescent sons forming that group certainly stimulated the three
statues by Michelangelo as well as the related figures on the ceiling.
Yet the first of the ceiling figures in 1508 were not so affected;
Michelangelo utilized the Hellenistic twists and complications only when
he was ready for them, and he had been moving in this direction even
before the Laocoon was found, as is evident in the case of the “St.
Matthew” of 1505.
Julius II's death in 1513 cut off most of the funds for his tomb. Pope
Leo X, his successor, a son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, had known
Michelangelo since their boyhoods. He chiefly employed Michelangelo in
Florence on projects linked to the glory of the Medici family rather
than of the papacy. The city was under the rule of Leo's cousin Cardinal
de' Medici, who was to be Pope Clement VII from 1523 to 1534, and
Michelangelo worked with him closely in both reigns. The Cardinal took
an active interest in Michelangelo's works. He made detailed
suggestions, but he also gave the artist much room for decision.
Michelangelo was moving into architectural design with a small
remodeling project at the Medici mansion and a large one at their parish
church, San Lorenzo. He approached such work with enthusiasm, caused no
doubt by the large scale and the involvement with masses of stone to be
manipulated expressively. The larger project never materialized, but
Michelangelo and the Cardinal did better with a more modest related one,
the new chapel attached to the same church for tombs of the Medici
family.
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