Where did Michelangelo Live
Michelangelo was a famous Italian artist, architect and poet and is considered to be one of the greatest artists of all time. He, along with fellow Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci, had a major influence in the development of Western art. Some of his most famous works include the Statue of David and the paintings on the Sistine Chapel ceiling and altar wall. He was also responsible for some of the architecture on famous buildings such as St Peter’s Basilica. If you have ever wondered where Michelangelo lived and worked, keep reading to find out.
Where did Michelangelo live?
Michelangelo was born in 1475 in the small town of Caprese, which is located in the Italian region called Tuscany. Not long after his birth the family moved to the larger city of Florence where he was raised as a child and completed his training. In 1494 he moved to Venice and later Bologna after political unrest in Florence. He returned to Florence later that year when the situation had cooled. There he created a sculpture which he was instructed to make look as if it was an ancient piece that had been buried to increase its price. It was sold to Italian cardinal (a senior official of the Catholic Church) Raffaele Riario who identified it as a fraud, but was very impressed with the work and invited Michelangelo to Rome.
In 1496 Michelangelo arrived in Rome and began working for Cardinal Riario. A year later he began working on his first famous piece the Pietà, which depicts the body of Jesus lying on his mother Mary, for French cardinal Jean de Billheres. He returned to Florence around the turn of the century and in 1504 he completed the Statue of David. A year later he was invited to Rome by the Pope Julius II to build his tomb, which he worked on inconsistently for the next 40 years. While in Rome he was commissioned to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He returned to Florence in 1513 until the mid 1530’s when he left the city for the last time. He returned to Rome and remained there until his death in 1564 at the age of 88. As per his last request he was returned to Florence for burial.
Did you know?
When in Rome Michelangelo lived near the Santa Maria di Loreto church. Unfortunately, his house was demolished in 1874. A modern recreation of this building can be found on Janiculum hill.
The town where he was born was renamed Caprese Michelangelo and is home to the church where he was baptized as well as a museum dedicated to the artist.
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