Michelangelo Timeline

Michelangelo 37

1475 Michelangelo born in Caprese Son of a Florentine magistrate Michelangelo Buonarroti was born on 6 March 1475 in Caprese, Tuscany, where his father Lodovico was serving as podestà. The family returned to Florence within months.
1481 His mother dies Francesca di Neri — Michelangelo was six After his mother's death Michelangelo was raised largely by a stonecutter's family in Settignano, an early exposure to marble that he later said shaped him.
1487 – 1489 Apprenticed to Ghirlandaio Fresco training in Florence Michelangelo entered the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio at thirteen, learning fresco technique and draughtsmanship against his father's wishes.
1489 – 1492 The Medici sculpture garden Studies under Bertoldo di Giovanni Invited into Lorenzo de' Medici's household, Michelangelo studied antique sculpture in the garden at San Marco and moved among the Neoplatonist circle of the Medici court.
1490 – 1492 Madonna of the Stairs Earliest surviving work A shallow marble relief carved in his teens, showing the low-relief schiacciato technique he had absorbed from Donatello.
1491 – 1492 Battle of the Centaurs Unfinished marble relief A dense tangle of struggling nude figures, left unfinished. Michelangelo kept it his whole life and reportedly called it the work that convinced him of his own talent.
1492 Lorenzo de' Medici dies The end of his first patronage The death of Lorenzo the Magnificent broke up the household that had sheltered Michelangelo and returned him to his father's house.
1494 – 1495 Arca di San Domenico figures Three small marbles in Bologna He carved an angel bearing a candlestick and two saints to complete the shrine of Saint Dominic, work begun two centuries earlier by Nicola Pisano.
1494 Flees Florence for Bologna The Medici are expelled With Savonarola ascendant and the Medici driven out, Michelangelo left the city, travelling via Venice to Bologna.
1496 – 1497 Bacchus First large Roman commission A life-size marble of the wine god, unsteady on his feet — an unusually unheroic treatment that its patron rejected.
1496 First arrival in Rome Aged twenty-one Michelangelo came to Rome after a forged antique cupid of his was sold as a genuine classical piece — the exposure of the fake brought him to the attention of Roman patrons.
1499 Pietà completed Michelangelo's first masterpiece · Vatican Michelangelo completed the Pietà in 1499 at age 24 — a marble sculpture of Mary cradling the dead Christ. It was an instant sensation and the only work he ever signed, carving his name across Mary's sash.
1501 – 1504 David sculpted Colossal marble statue completed in Florence Michelangelo carved the David from 1501 to 1504 from a single block of marble in Florence. The 5.17-metre figure of the biblical hero became a symbol of Florentine republicanism and human ideal.
1501 Returns to Florence Now a republic Michelangelo came back to a Florence governed as a republic after Savonarola's fall, and immediately took on the block of marble that became the David.
1503 – 1505 Doni Tondo His only surviving finished panel painting A circular Holy Family in brilliant, almost enamelled colour, with enigmatic nude youths behind. Its palette anticipates the Sistine ceiling.
1504 – 1505 Battle of Cascina cartoon Lost — and copied by a generation Commissioned for the Palazzo Vecchio opposite a Leonardo mural. Neither was finished, but Michelangelo's cartoon of soldiers surprised while bathing was studied by younger artists until it fell apart.
1505 Summoned by Pope Julius II The beginning of the Roman years Julius II called Michelangelo to Rome to build his tomb, starting a relationship that dominated the next four decades of his life.
1505 – 1545 The Tomb of Julius II Forty years, six contracts, one bitter compromise Michelangelo called it the tragedy of the tomb. Conceived as a free-standing monument with forty figures, it was cut down repeatedly and finished as a modest wall tomb in San Pietro in Vincoli.
1506 The Laocoön is unearthed Michelangelo among the first to see it Summoned to a Roman vineyard as the ancient sculpture group emerged from the ground. Its writhing, muscular anguish left a permanent mark on his figures.
1508 – 1512 Sistine Chapel ceiling painted Four years on scaffolding — 300 figures Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling in 1508. Working for four years — largely alone — he created nine scenes from Genesis including the Creation of Adam, covering 500 square metres.
1513 – 1515 Moses Centrepiece of the Julius tomb A seated prophet with a coiled, contained fury, and the horns that came from a mistranslation of the Hebrew for radiance.
1513 – 1516 The Dying Slave and Rebellious Slave Carved for the tomb, never installed Two marble captives of very different temper — one sinking into sleep, one straining against his bonds. Both ended up in France.
1516 – 1520 San Lorenzo facade commission Four years, nothing built Leo X set him to design a marble front for the Medici parish church. Michelangelo spent years in the Carrara quarries before the contract was cancelled — the facade is bare brick to this day.
1519 – 1534 The Medici Chapel Sculpture and architecture as one work The New Sacristy at San Lorenzo, with the tombs of two Medici dukes and the reclining allegories of Day, Night, Dawn and Dusk.
1524 – 1534 Laurentian Library Architecture that breaks its own rules The vestibule staircase pours down into the room like a liquid, and the columns are recessed into the walls rather than supporting them — a deliberate inversion that helped define Mannerist architecture.
1527 – 1530 Fortifications for the siege of Florence Artist as military engineer During the last Florentine republic Michelangelo was appointed governor of fortifications, designing earthworks at San Miniato to withstand imperial artillery.
1532 Meets Tommaso de' Cavalieri The subject of his love poetry Michelangelo was in his late fifties. He wrote Cavalieri some of the most direct love poems in Italian, and made him presentation drawings of extraordinary finish.
1534 Settles permanently in Rome He never returns to Florence Michelangelo left Florence for good as Medici rule hardened into a duchy, and spent his last thirty years in Rome.
1534 – 1541 The Last Judgment painted Altarwall of the Sistine Chapel Michelangelo painted The Last Judgment on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel between 1534 and 1541. The monumental fresco of 391 figures caused controversy for its nudity and unidealized depiction of the damned.
1536 Friendship with Vittoria Colonna Poet, reformer, correspondent Their exchange of sonnets and drawings ran for over a decade and drew Michelangelo toward the reform-minded spiritual circles of the Italian church.
1542 – 1550 Pauline Chapel frescoes His last paintings The Conversion of Saul and the Crucifixion of Peter, painted in his late sixties — bleaker and stranger than anything on the Sistine ceiling.
1547 – 1564 Architect of St. Peter's Basilica Designs the iconic dome at age 72 At 72, Michelangelo was appointed chief architect of St. Peter's Basilica in 1547. He redesigned the building and created the famous dome — one of the largest in the world — though he died before its completion.
1547 – 1555 The Florentine Pietà Carved for his own tomb — then attacked Michelangelo put his own face on the hooded Nicodemus. Dissatisfied with the marble, he broke the group apart with a hammer. A pupil reassembled it.
1547 Vittoria Colonna dies A loss he wrote about for years Michelangelo said afterwards that his greatest regret was kissing only her hand, and not her face, as she lay dying.
1555 – 1564 Rondanini Pietà Still being carved days before his death The last sculpture, radically unfinished and pared almost to abstraction. He was working on it in his final week at the age of eighty-eight.
1564 Body taken to Florence Buried in Santa Croce His nephew had the body removed from Rome, reportedly disguised as a bale of merchandise, and Florence gave him a state funeral in San Lorenzo.
1564 Michelangelo dies in Rome 18 February 1564, aged 88 Michelangelo died at his house near Trajan's Forum after a short illness, having outlived nearly every artist of his generation.