The Renaissance (Junior Cert History): Model Answers

Michaelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was born near Florence, Italy, in 1475. As a young boy, he showed great artistic talent and apprenticed to a well-known artist named Ghirlandio. While he was an apprentice, Michaelangelo studied and admired the works of Donatello, a great sculptor.

When Michaelangelo finished his apprenticeship, he got a job sculpting statues in the gardens of the Medici family in Florence. Lorenzo the Magnificent, a famous patron, treated him as a member of the family.

When Lorenzo died in 1492, Michaelangelo moved to Rome. There, he sculpted The Pieta, a marble statue of the dead Christ in his mother Mary's arms. The statue became world famous and can still be seen in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

Michaelangelo later returned to Florence and sculpted a five-meter-tall white marble statue of the biblical character David.

In Rome, Pope Julius II hired Michaelangelo to paint scenes from the Old Testament on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. This painting took four years to complete. It is called a fresco because it was painted on fresh plaster. Later, Michaelangelo designed the great dome of St Peter's Basilica. This shows that he was a gifted architect, sculptor, and painter.

Michaelangelo died at the age of eighty-nine and was buried in Rome. The people of Florence were so proud of him that they stole his body, brought it back to Florence, and reburied it there with a great ceremony.