MICHELANGELO

BUONARROTI
Michelangelo di Lodovico
Buonarroti Simoni
(March 6, 1475 – February 18, 1564)
•an Italian
Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect,
poet, and engineer
•he is the best-documented artist of the
16th century
•world-famous Florentine sculptor and
the painter of the vaulted ceiling of the
Sistine Chapel (1508-)
•Two of his best-known works,
the Pietà and David, were sculpted
before he turned thirty
 The Vaulted
Ceiling of the
Medici Chapel,
Florence (1521-34)
•constitutes the New
Sacristy in S. Lorenzo, and
was added by Michelangelo
to correspond with the Old
Sacristy built (1421-8) by
Brunelleschi
•interior, 40 ft. square,
approximates in design to its
counterpart; pilasters of
black Istrian stone carry the
main entablature, which is
surmounted by an attic with
pilaster-enframed windows
and niches
Medici Chapel, Florence
(1521-34)
•A deep, dome-crowned recess
contains the altar
•the architectural settings for
the funerary elements of the
ducal tombs, which give the
building its special renown
manifested the first important
Proto-Baroque departures
from ancient Classical
precedent
 •The Medici Chapel,
MEDICI Florence (1521-34)
CHAPEL, constitutes the New Sacristy
in S. Lorenzo, and was
Sagresti added by Michelangelo to
correspond with the Old
a Nuova Sacristy built (1421-8) by
Brunelleschi.
•The interior, 40 ft. square,
approximates in design to
its counterpart; pilasters of
black Istrian stone carry the
main entablature, which is
surmounted by an attic with
pilaster-enframed windows
and niches.
 •A deep, dome-crowned
MEDICI recess contains the altar.
CHAPEL, Yet in the architectural
settings for the funerary
Sagresti elements of the ducal
tombs, which give the
a Nuova building its special renown,
there are very significant
differences of style,
manifesting the first
important Proto-Baroque
departures from ancient
Classical precedent.
 Sagrestia
Nuova 
The white marble mural tombs are
those of Guiliano de’ Medici and,
directly opposite, Lorenzo (II_ de’
Medici, each with a commanding
sculptured figure of the deceased
against a background of pilaster-
enframed niches, over a marble
sarcophagus, bearing recumbent
allegorical figures, representing in
the first case Night and Day, and in
the other, Evening and Dawn
 Sagrestia
The Nuova 
architectural settings are
treated sculpturally, and in quite a
few respects are illogical in
structural implication, both within
themselves and in relation to the
fundamental architectural theme of
the Chapel.
 •The Laurentian Library
was commissioned in 1523
and construction began in
1525.
•However, when
Michelangelo left Florence
in 1534, only the walls of
the reading room were
complete.
•It was then continued by
Tribolo, Basari, and
Ammannati based on plans
and verbal instructions from
Michelangelo.
PLAN
The Vistebule:
•Michelangelo takes all
Brunelleschi’s
components and bends
them to his will.
•The Library is upstairs.
• It is a long low
building with an ornate
wooden ceiling, a
matching floor and
crowded with corrals
finished by his
successors to
Michelangelo’s design.
The Capitol, Rome,

•the reconstruction of
which was planned by
Michelangelo about
1546, was his most
successful civic work
and a fine town-planned
achievement.

•He not only remodeled

on symmetrical lines the
approaches to the piazza,
but also designed the
great palace facades on
the three sides.
•He superintended the
erection only of the
approach stairway, the
monumental double
flight of steps of the
palace opposite and, at
an earlier time (1538), of
the statue of Marcus
Aurelius in the center of
the piazza, the remainder
being executed from his
designs by his
successors.
Palazzo dei Palazzo Nuovo
Conservatori

Palazzo del Senatore

 Palazzo dei Conservatori

•The Palazzio dei Conservatori (1564-8) has a façade 66 ft high.

•built in the mid-16th century and redesigned by
Michelangelo with the first use of the giant
 Palazzo dei Conservatori

•Palazzo Nuovo, built in the 17th century with an

identical exterior design to the Palazzo dei Conservatori,
which it faces across the palazzo.
The Palazzo del Senatore (1592-), completed by Girolamo Rainaldi
(1570-1655) with slight modifications of Michelangelo’s designs, rises
90 ft high and has a rusticated basement behind the imposing staircases,
and giant Corinthian pilasters carried through two storeys, while above
the façade peers a campanile (1579), standing over the ancient
Tabularium, overlooking the Forum Romanum.
The ‘Capitoline Museum’ (1644-55), again carried
out by Girolamo Rainaldi, illustrates
Michelangelo’s method of securing unity by
carrying up a giant Order, a feature of all three
facades.
The planning scheme is complemented by the fine
flights of steps leading right and left to the triple-
arched loggias designed by Vignola.
The
Equestrian
The statue of
Marcus Aurelius
Michelangelo devised a monumental wide ramped
stair (the cordonata), gradually ascending the hill to
reach the high piazza, so that the Campidoglio
resolutely turned its back on the Roman Forum that it
It was built to be wide enough for horse riders to
ascend the hill without dismounting. The railings are
topped by the statues of two Egyptian lions in
black basalt at their base and the marble renditions
Cordonata (Italian noun, from cordone, meaning
"lineal architectonic element which emphasizes a
limit") is a sloping road composed of transversal
stripes ("cordoni"), which are made with stone
Cordonata (Itali
an noun,
from cordone,
meaning "lineal
architectonic
element which
emphasizes a
limit") is a
sloping road
composed of
transversal
stripes
("cordoni"),
which are made
with stone or bri
S. Maria degli Angeli, Rome
was a daring experiment by which
in 1563 Michelangelo converted
the tepidarium of the Baths of
Diocletian into a Christian
Church.
S. Maria degli Angeli, Rome
This hall (200 ft by 80 ft) became
the nave of the church, but in 1749
Vanvitelli transformed the nave
into a huge transept, places the
entrance on the west side, and
formed a deep chancel on the east.
S. Maria degli Angeli, Rome
The actual bases of the ancient
monolithic granite columns are 7 ft
below the new floor constructed by
Michelangelo.
S. Maria degli Angeli, Rome
This great master was also
responsible for many important
features in the planning and final
treatment of S. Peter, Rome, which
is therefore dealt with under his
name.
S. Maria degli Angeli, Rome
The work on Santa Maria degli
Angeli (1563-64) was
commissioned by Pope Pius IV,
and it was one of Michelangelo's
most unusual commissions.
S. Maria degli Angeli, Rome
It involved the transformation of
the remains of the Roman Baths of
Diocletian, a center of social and
physical indulgence, built in 305
A.D., into a Christian church.
S. Maria degli Angeli, Rome
The massive complex's interior
was originally adorned with
marble of various colors, painted
stucco, and pagan statues.
S. Maria degli Angeli, Rome
Michelangelo used the huge space
of the central hall as the light-filled
and expansive transept of the
church. The project was completed
in 1564 by Jacopo LoDuca.
St. Peter’s Basilica
 St. Peter’s Basilica

was "the greatest creation of the Renaissance",and a

great number of architects contributed their skills
to it. But at its completion, there was more of
Michelangelo’s design than of any other architect,
before or after him.
 St. Peter’s Basilica

St. Peter's The plan that was accepted at the laying

of the foundation stone in 1506 was that by
Bramante.
Various changes in plan occurred in the
series of architects that succeeded him, but
Michelangelo, when he took over the
project in 1546, reverted to Bramante’s
Greek-cross plan and redesigned the piers,
the walls and the dome, giving the lower
weight-bearing members massive
proportions and eliminating the encircling
aisles from the chancel and identical
transept arms.
•Pope Julius' scheme
for the grandest
building in
Christendom was the
subject of a
competition for which a
number of entries
remain intact in the
Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
•It was the design
of Donato
Bramante that was
selected, and for which
the foundation stone
was laid in 1506.
•This plan was in the
•The main
difference
between
Bramante's
design and
that of the
Pantheon is
that where the
dome of the
Pantheon is
supported by
a continuous
wall, that of
the new
basilica was to
be supported
only on four
•When Pope
Julius died in
1513, Bramante
was replaced
with Giuliano
da
Sangallo, Fra
Giocondo and R
aphael. 
•Sangallo and
Fra Giocondo
both died in
1515, Bramante
himself having
•The main change
in Raphael's plan is
the nave of five
bays, with a row of
complex apsidal
chapels off the
aisles on either
side.
•Raphael's plan for
the chancel and
transepts made the
squareness of the
exterior walls more
definite by
reducing the size of
the towers, and the
•In 1520 Raphael
also died, aged 37,
and his
successor Baldass
are
Peruzzi maintained
changes that
Raphael had
proposed to the
internal
arrangement of the
three main apses,
but otherwise
reverted to the
Greek Cross plan
and other features
•On January 1, 1547 in
the reign of Pope Paul
III, Michelangelo, the
superintended the
building program at St
Peter's.
•Michelangelo took
over a building site at
which four piers,
enormous beyond any
constructed since the
days of Ancient Rome,
were rising behind the
remaining nave of the
old basilica.
•Michelangelo
recognized the
•Michelangelo has
blurred the
definition of the
geometry by
making the
external masonry
of massive
proportions and
filling in every
corner with a small
vestry or stairwell.

•The effect
created is of a
continuous wall-
surface that is
folded or fractured
at different
•This exterior is
surrounded by a
giant order of
Corinthian
pilasters all set at
slightly different
angles to each
other, in keeping
with the ever-
changing angles
of the wall's
surface.

•Above them the

huge cornice
ripples in a
continuous band,
giving the
•Michelangelo’s dome
was a masterpiece of
design using two masonry
shells, one within the
other and crowned by a
massive lantern
supported, as at Florence,
on ribs.
•For the exterior of the
building he designed a
giant order which defines
every external bay, the
whole lot being held
together by a wide cornice
which runs unbroken like
a rippling ribbon around
the entire building.
Interior
The most
famous Pietà
is Michelange
lo's
Pietà in St.
Peter's
Basilica in
Rome.
END..
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