Michelangelo: Merging Catholic Devotion with Masterful Art

 "The true work of art is but a shadow the divine perfection"

Of all the artists in all the world and throughout history none have caught my eye, are as aesthetically pleasing, or filled me with such awe then Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni. It is a life long dream, certainly a bucket list item, for me, to stand beneath and take in the beauty of the Sistine Chapel's ceiling, what I consider the most magnificent piece of art ever created. From the sculptures Pieta and David, the  masterpiece paintings of The Last Judgement and  The Crucifixion of Peter, to the architecture at the very heart of the Vatican itself, St. Peter's Basilica, his devotion to Catholicism is an indelible part of nearly his entire life's work.

The city of Caprese and the Coat of Arms of the Republic of Florence

Michelangelo was on born on March 6, 1475, in the Republic of Florence, one of the many small countries that made up the Italian peninsula, as Italy being one single nation was not realized until the mid 1800s.  Though he was born in the village of Caprese his family moved around within the Republic several times due to his father's shifting positions; from banker in Florence, Judge in Caprese, City Administrator in Chiusi, to quarry owner in Settigano. It was in this last location, where Michelangelo was living with his nanny and her husband after his mother's death, that he would develop his love of marble stone work. His nanny's husband, a stone-cutter at the quarry, would take six year old Michelangelo to work with him and teach him how to wield hammer and chisel to shape stone. But after several years his father was not pleased with his son's passion for manual labor and so at 13 had him shipped off to the city of Florence for schooling. His studies included grammar, math, and heavy doses of Humanism philosophy. 

Art and Architecture that influenced teenage Michelangelo

But he would routinely skip classes to go to Florence's many churches to try and copy the plethora of art displayed; places like Brancacci Chapel with its many painted frescoes of biblical scenes, the Church of Orsanmichele with its famous wall niche sculptures of saints, the architecture of the churches  San Lorenzo and Santo Spirito, and most of all the great bronze doors of the Florence Baptistery which Michelangelo called the "Gates of Paradise." When his father questioned him about his neglect toward his studies Michelangelo told him that his humanist teachers and the philosophy  of Humanism made him feel cold inside and detached from the beauty of the divine world. So after a year of formal studies his father paid for an apprenticeship with the artist Domenico Ghirlandaio, considered a master fresco painter and regularly commissioned by the Church and the powerful Medici family. It was unheard of that someone as young as 14 would receive such an apprenticeship but Ghirlandaio was greatly impressed by Michelangelo's copies, including of one of his own frescoes from the Brancacci Chapel. It was not long till Lorenzo de Medici, who at this point had become the de facto ruler of the Republic of Florence, asked Ghirlandaio for his two students with the greatest potential to attend his new Latin-humanist school, where some of the greatest philosophers and theologians of southern Europe were reconciling many of Plato's Humanist ideas with church teachings (much in the vain of St. Augustine). It is here, at the age of 16, that Michelangelo created his first original works, commissioned by Lorenzo de Medici himself, Madonna On The Stairs and Battle Of The Centaurs:

Michelangelo looked set for a meteoric rise in the art world at a very young age. However, his ascension would stall as Lorenzo died in April of 1492 and the protection afforded to Michelangelo from his patron seemed to go with him. Jealous of his talent and rise, his fellow students and apprentices started to harass and bully him, culminating in his nose being broken by contemporary, Pietro Torrigiano. He left the school and returned to his father's house taking odd jobs here and there.

Many of his works from this time have been lost or destroyed, or were temporary as in the case of a giant snow sculpture he did for a party hosted by Piero de Medici. To the left are some of the more famous ones that did survive. In exchange for letting him study cadavers for anatomical form at the church's hospital he carved a wooden crucifix for the Prior of Santo Spirito. He also created his famous Angel Of Christ Sculpture about which he said, "I saw an angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.". He was also commissioned by a Cardinal for a statue of the Greek god Bacchus, but upon completion the Cardinal refused to pay and so Michelangelo sold it to a Florentine banker friend of his fathers. And lastly he helped carve some of the figurines adorning the alter at the Shrine of Saint Dominic in Bologna. It was enough to keep him financial afloat and in practice. Its believed that it was during these years he developed his minimalist, almost monastic, ascetic lifestyle. He would later tell his pupils that to achieve greatness you must throw your entire life into your work, sacrificing comforts, "However rich I may have been, I have always lived like a poor man." His most famous apprentice said of Michelangelo, "he would eat more out of necessity than of pleasure. And often slept in his cloths and boots." Even before his great patronage with the church he was extremely devote and faithful, claiming all his talent was a gift from God, and in return must create great works to glorify him.

His time in obscurity would end and his career would once again take off in 1497. Cardinal Jean Bilhères de Lagraulas, the French ambassador to the Pope, commissioned him to create a sculpture depicting the mother/son relationship of Mother Mary and Jesus. In truth, the Cardinal and many of his associates were just expecting yet another piece of Mary cradling baby Jesus, as was a favorite subject among Italian and Spanish artists, but what they got was a masterpiece of an uncommon image that turned heads among the clergy. Michelangelo knew of the French and other Northern Europeans interest in non-biblical post crucifixion accounts, and so instead of Mary cradling a Jesus at the start of his life, he depicted the holy mother cradling him at the end. Further, instead of showing the wounds and torment of the passion upon Jesus's face, he wanted to show Jesus's countenance in a state of serenity that comes from being in a mothers arms. It was soon regarded around the whole of Western Europe as the worlds greatest sculpture with contemporaries giving accolades such as "a revelation of all the potentialities and force of the art of sculpture" and "It is certainly a miracle that a formless block of stone could ever have been reduced to a perfection that nature is scarcely able to create in the flesh." In art history it is considered one of the most important pieces of the Renaissance era as it is possibly the first example of an artist marrying to separate styles into one uniform piece, in this case both renaissance ideals of "Classical Beauty" and "Naturalism." Now, at 24, he had become a household name that everyone of import wanted to patron.

In 1473, famed sculptor Agostino di Duccio was commissioned by several trade guilds in the city of Florence for several statues of biblical prophets and heroes to line the roof of the Great Florence Cathedral. Agostino died in 1481 before completion, and whats worse is that hero the city identified itself the most with, King David, was not only unfinished but the piece of marble from which it was being carved had barley been put into human shape. After years of squabbling on what parts of the commission should be finished and at what price, in 1499, the Guild of Wool declared they would at least pay for the completion of David. Naturally their first choice was Michelangelo, who not only took on the project but completely redesigned the original plans to make it his own. It was completed in 1504 and both Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci commented on how marveled they were on the technical skill of the sculpture, while they were on the committee trying to decide where in Florence David should be displayed. As David would be the symbol of Florence it was decided to be placed in the square directly in front of the Palazzo Vecchio, the main governance building. Today a replica stands in the spot while the original is on display in the Gallery of the Academy of Florence.

(Left) Michelangelo's Battle of Cascina (Right) da Vinci's Battle of Anghiari

The admiration he had for David prompted Leonardo da Vinci to invite Michelangelo to share in a commission for two frescoes to be painted in the main council chambers inside the Palazzo Vecchio, depicting two famed battle from Florentine history, the Battle of Cascina which Michelangelo was to paint, and the Battle of Anghiari which da Vinci was to paint. Unfortunately the works were never completed and all that remains are preliminary sketches from both artists as the walls where the works were being down were torn down due to the city's decision to refurbish the entire building interior. Though this was a great disappointment to him it turned out to be quit fortuitous, not only for his career and passion but for the very history of Western art, for Michelangelo was about to embark on the art worlds largest and most lavish creations.

Sistine Chapel panel: Creation of Adam

In 1505 Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to construct him a tomb from top to bottom, and to be adorned with several statues of prominent biblical figures; the central figure guarding the door to the tomb would be of Moses (see left). While construction of the tomb was ongoing Renaissance artists Donato Bramante and Raphael became extremely jealous of Michelangelo's favor with the pope and in secret convinced Julius II that it was bad luck to have a tomb built while he was still alive, hoping that the church and Julius's heirs would not want to spend the time or money to complete the tomb after his death. The Pope ordered a halt to the work until he was convinced God would not be offended at the idea of constructing one's tomb while still alive. Instead he drew up a new contract to have Michelangelo do work on the Sistine Chapel. Again, a competitor for the Pope's patronage, jealous of Michelangelo's favor (jealously by contemporaries seems to be a running theme in his life) convinced the Pope to have Michelangelo paint the 12 apostles on the triangular pendentives, notoriously difficult areas to apply artwork, where walls meet domed ceilings. When confronted with this challenge, Michelangelo asked Julius for carte blanche to not only paint the penentives, but the entire 500 square meter ceiling in a theme of his choosing. After four years, in 1512, his greatest accomplishment was complete, the ceiling contained 50 frescoes, containing a total of 300 biblical figures, depicting various scenes from the Book of Genesis, several prophets, and the genealogy of Christ. It has been praised throughout the centuries as one of the greatest artistic accomplishments ever achieved by a single man. As for the tomb, work would be on again, off again, for the next couple of decades, even after Julius II's death, and not completed until 1545.

Fellow Italian Artist Vasari said:

"The work has proved a veritable beacon to our art, of inestimable benefit to all painters, restoring light to a world that for centuries had been plunged into darkness. Indeed, painters no longer need to seek for new inventions, novel attitudes, clothed figures, fresh ways of expression, different arrangements, or sublime subjects, for this work contains every perfection possible under those headings."

Famed German writer and political philosopher Johann Wolfgang Goethe:

"Without having seen the Sistine Chapel one can form no appreciable idea of what one man is capable of achieving." 

Pope John Paul II:

"It seems that Michelangelo, in his own way, allowed himself to be guided by the evocative words of the Book of Genesis which, as regards the creation of the human being, male and female, reveals: 'The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame'. The Sistine Chapel is precisely – if one may say so – the sanctuary of the theology of the human body. In witnessing to the beauty of man created by God as male and female, it also expresses in a certain way, the hope of a world transfigured, the world inaugurated by the Risen Christ."

  After two false starts to design and construct the facades of two new churches due to the the Vatican's money issue's to pay for material, Michelangelo once again found himself in the employee of the Medici family in 1520. They commissioned him to design and build a grand funerary chapel attached to the Basilica of San Lorenzo to house the remains of prominent members of the family, Giuliano, Duke of Nemours, and Lorenzo II, his nephew. The tombs inside, Michelangelo created 2 composite pieces consisting of 3 statues each. Giuliano's tomb, called Night and Day, has the Duke as the central figure, while his nephew is the central figure of the other, called Dusk and Dawn. Also within, sitting between the two is the piece Medici Madonna.

Upon the tombs' completion he was again commissioned by the Medici's to design the Laurentain Library. His unique, at the time, design of the interior and vestibule is considered by historians to be the forerunner to baroque architecture. But his relationship with the Medici family would take a dark turn. In 1527, the people of Florence, tired of the iron handed rule of the powerful family, threw out the Medici's in order to restore the Republic, the Medici's returned shortly after with an army to lay siege to the city. Michelangelo sided with the republicans and help with designing and building the fortifications to try and withstand the Medici forces. The city fell in 1530, and with the Medici's back in power, Michelangelo fled fearing for his life. He was welcomed back to Rome with open arms by Pope Clement and given a stipend and lodging in exchange for continuing work on Julius II tomb.

While still working on the tomb, the pope commissioned Michelangelo for a massive fresco to adorn the far wall of the Sistine Chapel behind the alter. The Last Judgement, completed in 1541, would be his most controversial work; dividing the pope and some of his cardinals. While the pope and many cardinals saw it as a masterpiece depicting exactly what the church feared for humanity and fighting for there souls to protect, a number of powerful cardinals lead by Cardinal Carafa (later Pope Paul IV) demanded it be removed as they believed it was sacrilegious, for its depiction of Jesus as a young, naked, muscular young man instead of the traditional bearded peacemaker; seemingly leading a violent army of saints crushing sinners and damned under pillars and crosses, St. Jerome (actually of self portrait of Michelangelo himself) with a flayed skin in hand, etc. During the Council of Trent, in 1564, where the church officials were deciding the fate of many of the church's doctrines in the face of the Protestant Reformation, it was decreed that the fresco was in line with church teaching and could stay with one alteration, that Jesus was to be covered by a cloth over his genitals. Michelangelo agreed and had his student Marcelo Venusti make the alteration. 

"The greatest creation of the Renaissance" Banister Fletcher, British Architectural historian

His final great work would be completed after his death. The construction of Saint Peter's Basilica had begun in 1506, but after the foundation was completed little work had been done since the death of the architect originally hired to build it. Many had come and gone since but none seemed to either had plans that did not pleased the Vatican or felt as though they could complete the original vision. So in 1547 the task was given to Michelangelo, who quickly drew up designs for the massive dome and roof lined with sculptures of saints to be made by him and his students. Work would continue at a slow and steady pace for the rest of his life and some feared it would not be completed if Michelangelo died beforehand. But when the supporting ring and lower part of the dome where completed and Michelangelo gave a red chalk sketch of how to complete the rest (his last known piece of art) was given to his student Giacomo della Porta, all fears were abated. Michelangelo would die at the age of 88 in 1564, completion of the the dome and consecration of the Basilica was in 1590. In compliance with his final wishes, his remains were taken back to Florence and there interned at the Basilica of Santa Croce. The lagcey of Michelangelo is beyond description or doubt of its deservance; his contributions to the art world undeniable.

Badass Woman of History #5: Emilia Plater

Lately I have had a surge of pride and curiosity about the Polish part of my heritage. While this is mostly due to recent political events in Europe, it also has a lot to do with having a deepening love and respect for my grandmother, who always prided her Polish heritage. So I have been doing research on Polish history and culture, I have even started to listen to you tube videos on the basics of the Polish Language. And then I thought, my grandmother is one of the most tough-as-nails, devote, confident, and capable people I know, what better way to honor her then to make a Badass Woman entry in her honor. Granted, I had my doubts about finding a specific subject for the post, but to my delighted surprise a name came up without hardly any effort, the Polish Warlord Emilia Plater.

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

From 1569-1795 the largest and most powerful nation in eastern Europe, besides the Russian Empire, was the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, ruled by the Kings of Poland who concurrently inherited the title of Grand-Duke of Lithuania ever since in 1569 when Grand Duke Jogaila of Lithuania married Queen Hedwig of Poland. For 200 years the citizens of the Commonwealth felt great pride for not only being a staunch guardian of Europe, protecting against the predations of the ambitious Russian Empire and the Islamic fanaticism of the Turkish Ottoman Empire; but also of being revolutionary in the relations between the aristocracy and the peasantry, where most of Europe were in a constant state of unease between the two, in the Commonwealth there was a mutual respect and understanding. But as with many empires, its glory days behind it, its influence started to dwindle, its lands started being encroached upon and subsumed by surrounding nations, it was imperative that the people felt safe, that the aristocracy would not use the crises' to assume more power or abuse what they already had. So on May 3, 1791, a Constitution was authored and signed by King Stanislaw II. The 1791 Constitution was the first of its kind in Europe (as the Magna Carta was technically an agreement between the aristocracy and the King, not the people and the government) and second in the world after the US Constitution. Again it was a great source of pride for the people as it truly codified the rights and liberties of the common people, something unheard of in all the world except America. But this remarkable event would be for nothing for in 1792, in the aftermath of the Polish-Russian War, the rest of the Commonwealth was divided and partitioned up, and the Russian army rescinded, denounced and banned any talk of the Constitution.

Plater Coat of Arms

Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, Lithuania, and the majority of the eastern Ukraine where made parts of the Russian and Prussian Empires. Much of Poland was still technically autonomous but with great oversight by the Russian army and the aristocrats of Poland fearing for their positions and lives acquiesced to most demands from Moscow. The government in Krakow and its ill and dying King became the puppets of the Russian Tsar. It is in this atmosphere Countess Emilia Plater is born. Her family ancestors had immigrated as arms and armor merchants from Germany back in the late 1400s and quickly assimilated and adopted Polish language and culture within the first natural born generation, leaving their German roots behind. The families wealth and influence also grew quickly in the Polish court and they became long standing staples of the aristocracy of the Commonwealth; their lands and influence were traditionally on the what had become the Polish side of the border with Lithuania. But after the defeat at the hands of the Russians the family became ideological split, the main branch, Emilia's parents were part of that group of nobles that capitulated and collaborated with their Russian overseers, while most other branches refused to be as cooperative. Either way, family was family and when her parents found their marital problems deeply effecting their 9 year old daughter, they sent her away to live with relatives in the the lands of Latvia, which had become part of Prussia since the Polish-Russian War.

Prince Józef Poniatowski and General Tadeusz Kościuszko

The family took the opportunity to mold the heiress of the main branch to their anti-foreign control, pro Polish nationalism way of thinking. Emilia was steeped in Polish culture and history in her education and taught about others who gave their all for national pride and defense of their homeland, figures like Joan of Arc for the French or Bouboulina for the Greeks. But most importantly she was taught to revere, almost religiously the exploits of two contemporaries of the time, Prince Jozef Poniatowski and General Tadeusz Kosciuszko. The Prince, nephew of the late King Stanislaw II, and last of the royal line, was the ruler of the Duchy of Warsaw and a constant political thorn in the Russian Empires side, forcing the great nation into many compromising situations during his rule. The General was a brilliant military engineer who had won many battles for Poland and even went over to the Americas to help the Continental army in designing many of their fortifications, his most famous being West Point. Both men had lead an insurrection in the waning days of the King to regain Poland's independence, but unfortunately failed to garner enough support from the nobility before the king's death. The General fled to become an advisor and Marshal in Napoleon's court, vowing to return to free Poland with a French army at his back; while Prince Jozef confined himself to Warsaw were he continued to wage a semi-underground diplomatic/propaganda war against Russia and Prussia. These were the men that Emilia admired more than any in the world and wanted to emulate.

As a teen she made it her passion to learn about the many diverse Slavic peoples of Eastern Europe, and their united animosity towards Russians, Prussians, Turks, and Austrians; the traditional enemies of their autonomy. She even went so far as to have written correspondence with several resistance groups, flirting with the idea joining one, throwing her families name and reputation to one of their causes. One such group was a student organization known as the Filaret Association, a Pro-Polish monarchy group in Lithuania who had to rename and go underground after the predecessor group's leadership, the Radiant Association, were exiled to Siberia. But her decision of whether or not to finally make a stand was thrust upon her. In late 1823 her cousins were arrested and sentenced to conscription in the Russian Imperial Army for publicly promoting the 1791 Constitution. So outraged, the rest of family, against the wishes of Emilia's parents, poured their money into a open and public tour by Emilia, traveling across all the former lands of Commonwealth to promote pro Polish national pride. Where ever see went crowds would gather to hear here remind them of their heritage, their folk heroes, their people's past achievements.  In both Warsaw and Krakow crowds a 1000s strong came to listen to her speeches and she even showed up on the memorial battlefield of Raszyn to remind the people that the aftermath of that battle finally drove the Austrians out of their homeland, and if the military might of Hapsburg Empire can be driven off why not the Russian Tsar. Her mother would die that year and her father blamed the death on Emilia's blatant disregard for desecration and had her cut off from the main families funds, though that did not stop her.

In March of 1831 she wrote her father telling him of her intent to join an uprising against Tsarist control; that she wanted him to know that she understands if he never wanted to speak to her again but that this was something she has wanted to be a part of most of her life. She cut her hair and had a uniform designed for her and her soon to come army. Using what little money she had left she recruited, clothed, and armed 280 professional infantrymen, 60 cavalry, and hundreds of peasant soldiers later called scythmen for the standard issue war scythes Emilia procured for them (being mostly farmers, she believed this would be a weapon they would have an easier time learning how to wield). They were by all accounts a formidable war-band. On April 4 she signed an open declaration committing her new force to helping any and all local uprisings to Prussian and Tsarists rule, and had copies of the declaration sent to all the known separatist and insurrection groups. She entered the territory of Lithuania and seized the town of Zarasai catching the local militia and small Prussian garrison completely by surprise. She had hoped to use the town as a staging area to take the small city of Daugavpils, giving her control of a good chunk of the tri-border area separating Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia. But she learned that the cities defenses would be too overwhelming for her small band alone and that other groups like hers were too far away to get their in time before the cities Prussian garrison would strike out to retake the town.

Karol Zaluski

Instead she decided to drive further into Lithuanian and combine forces with another minor Polish noble turned independence warlord, Karol Zaluski, who was basing his efforts out of the city of Paneveszys. The two together wrecked havoc for both Prussian and Russian frontier towns and outposts. While most conflicts were with local militias, her forces did engage and defeat real troops twice. At the Battle of Prastavoniai she routed a larger Russian Imperial army force sent to arrest her and Karol, the Russians were over confident that they could easily take the two warlords and so opted for a quick all in frontal assault with no formation on their flanks. Emilia's Scythemen held the line while her and Karol's cavalries swooped around and pincered the rest of the force. Then, at the Battle of Maišiagala, Emilia hid her forces in the old abandoned 16th castle of the Polish King Sigismund I the Old, known as Bona's Hill, while Karol's forces fained retreat from Prussian forces. He lead them across a field the castle overlooked and when they had just past the castle turned to face the larger Prussian force; at that time Emilia sprung the trap and her forces charged out of the castle coming up on the Prussians rear. Again they prevailed over a larger professional force.

Baron Dezydery Chłapowski

Emilia and Karol's exploits garnered the attention of Baron Dezydery Chlapowski. The Baron was in command of a large force in hiding in the wilderness of Poland. These were regular Polish military that had joined up with Napoleon's forces during the Napoleonic war. But after Napoleon's disastrous Russian campaign the Polish elements of his forces stayed behind in Poland instead of following the full retreat back to France. Since that time the Baron had been gauging the various insurgent forces across the former Commonwealth and calling them to his banner in the hopes of accumulating a large enough force to strike a true war for independence. He quickly assimilated Emilia's forces into his own and dismissed her, telling her to go home. She flat out refused stating she would not take off her uniform until her homeland was free. Karol and several other notable leaders convinced Chlapowski to not only let her stay, but to give her the rank of captain and command of the 1st company of the Polish–Lithuanian 25th Infantry Regiment.

Emilia fighting at the Battle of Siauliai

 Despite the objections of his Captains, including Emilia, The Baron decided their first objective should be the city of Siauliai in the heart of Lithuania. Siauliai was quickly becoming a commercial hub of Lithuania and Chlapowski envisioned taking it as a grand statement that would assure forces from all over the region would flock to their cause. But the captains had doubts about their force taking on the substantial amount of military, logistical, and financial assets the Russians had invested in Silauliai. Instead, Emilia and the others argued that they should head south into Poland to the outskirts of Warsaw; Russian forces were lighter there and the thought was a couple of quick victories would rouse the populace and gain them the support of not only the popular Prince Jozef Poniatowski, but also the reluctant Polish nobility. But the baron's mind would not be changed and so the army marched on Siauliai. The opening skirmishes were so mishandled by Chlapowski it became quickly apparent that he may have had an overall war strategy, but had not battlefield tactical skill. Karol and a few others tried to advise him on how to turn the battle around but the baron panicked and called for a full retreat into Prussian territory. Emilia and a few other's forces were so disgusted they refused to leave the area and instead reverted back to guerilla tactics around the area for the next few months, turning what the Russians were hoping was a one day battle into a slow war of attrition. But her campaign would be struck short as illness took her, and without her leadership the remaining Polish forces either retreated back to Chlapowski's encampment or deserted completely back to their homes. Emilia would die a few days later from her unknown aliment on December 23, 1831.  

Though her exploits were only an 8 month period since she set off to free her homeland she made one hell of an impact, her warband was enough of a problem to garner the attention of both the official armies of Russia and Prussia. She was considered one of the most wanted outlaws by both those governments; but instead of being caught and labeled as just another seditionist, she became an enduring symbol of Polish and Lithuanian pride. Poems and paintings were secretly created in her honor all over the two nations of the former Commonwealth and her image roused resistance groups during both Nazi and Soviet occupation. During WWII the Emilia Plater Independent Women's Battalion was formed, who saw fighting and logistical support throughout the war, even after Poland's defeat. Veterans of the war even established a town in her honor, Platerowka. There is even a Polish Navel vessel named for her, the MS Emilia Plater. She is recognized has the beginning of many Eastern European countries tradition of having female combat units, now how badass it that.