Agony And The Ecstacy :: essays research papers

The Agony and the Ecstacy depicts Michelangelos struggle to become the embodiment of rebirth humanism. In the course of the novel Michelangelo must overcome the interference of his family, apparitional dogma, political intrigue, papal patronage, military campaigns, and delicate green-eyedy to realize his artistic ambition.Despite his fathers opposition, twelve-year-old Michelangelo becomes an apprentice, first to painter Ghirlandaio and then to Bertoldo, a sculptor, who directs a school financed by Lorenzo de Medici, patron of Florentine art. Michelangelo quickly wins Lorenzos esteem, meets his children (among Them two future popes, Giulio and Giovanni, and Contessina, his first love), suffers the first of several attacks by jealous colleagues (his nose is broken by Trrigiani, whose later appearances always threaten Michelangelo), and with forbidden dissection learns the anatomy and physiology he needs. Eventually Savonarola, a reform priest, comes to power, and his crusading ardour threatens Lorenzo de Medicis family and the Florentine art world.When Savonarola gains political, as well as spiritual control, Michelangelo flees Florence and travels to Bologna, where he meets the sensuous Clarissa Saffi and carves the Bambino that attracts the attention of Leo Baglioni. In capital of Italy for the first time, Michelangelo meets Jacopo Galli, a banker, who commissions a sculpture Giuliano Sangallo, an room decorator and Bramante, another architect and an adversary. In Rome, Michelangelo carves the Pieta, learns about the whims of religious patrons, and becomes interested in St. Peters the geting of the new St. Peters will embroil him in controversy and ultimately consume his last years.Michelangelo return to Florence, where he carves the Giant, a sculpture of David which becomes the symbol of Florence. There he meets da Vinci da Vinci, his star topology rival, and Raphael, the painter the three become the triumvirate of Renaissance Italian art. Jealou s of Leonardo Michelangelo competes with him as the two artists paint frescoes for the rulers of Florence.Word of Michelangelos work reaches pontiff Julius, who forces Michelangelo to work in bronze, rather than his beloved marble, and to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling. It is Julius who resolves to build a new St. Peters.Julius is followed by two Medici popes who only issue to Michelangelos problems Giovanni, by forcing him to work with marble from Pietrasanta, an almost inaccessible region, thereby making Michelangelo an engineer, and Giulio, against whose forces Michelangelo must use his engineering talents to fortify the city of Florence. The Medici popes are followed by Pope Paul III, who commissions Michelangelo to paint the Last Judgment and who, later bitter disputes about the ongoing building of St.