Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonaroti Simoni

Michelangelo is born

Mar 6, 1475

Michelangelo is born in a village close to Florence, Italy. After he was born, the family moved to Florence, Italy where he was raised.

Michelangelo's mother dies

Nov 6, 1481

Michelangelo's mother, Francesca di Neri del Miniato di Siena dies. michelangelo was only six years old. It is not known the exact day of her death, but some say that she died of a fever in the winter.

Michelangelo becomes an apprentice

Mar 1, 1488

Michelangelo shows no interest in studying, so he becomes an apprentice painter to Domenico Ghirlandaio.

Michelangelo changes field

Nov 7, 1489

Lorenzo de' Medici, de facto ruler of Florence asks Ghirlandaio for his two best students. Michelangelo is sent. Thn he lives at the ducal palace for three years in the company of the learned Humanists and sculpts his first works "The Maddona of the Stairs" and "The Battle of the Centaurs"

Lorenzo de' Medici dies

Apr 8, 1492

After Lorenzo de' Medici dies,Michelangelo moves back to his father's home. Later Piero de Medici, Lorenzo's son, commissioned a snow statue, and Michelangelo again entered the court of the Medici.

MIchelangelo flees

May 8, 1494

Michelangelo flees the city, goes to Bologna. There he sculpts three small statues for the tomb of San Domenico St. Petronius, St.Proculus, and an Angel.

Michelangelo returns

Jan 1, 1495

Towards the end of 1494, Florence was calmer Michelangelo returned to Florence. Michelangelo sculpts a CUPID (now lost) and sells it to the art dealer Baldassare del Milanese, who in turn sells it as an antique work to Raffaele Riario, a Roman Cardinal.

Michelangelo moves to Rome

Jun 25, 1496

On 4 July of the same year, he began work on a commission for Cardinal Raffaele Riario, he carved the statue of the Roman wine god Bacchus. The work was rejected by the cardinal so he never received any payment for his work.

Michelangelo makes the Pieta

Nov 9, 1497

The French ambassador to the Holy See, commissioned him to carve a Pietà, a sculpture showing the Virgin Mary grieving over the body of Jesus. This is one of his most famous pieces of art.

Michelangelo makes David

Mar 11, 1499

Michelangelo returned to Florence in 1499, He was asked to make a statue of David. This becomes another one of his most famous works he finished it in 1504.

Pope Julius II invites Michelangelo to Rome

Feb 2, 1505

He was commissioned to build the Pope's tomb. He worked on it on and off, in both Rome and Florence, carved Moses, the Rebellious and Dying Slaves, Rachel, and Leah. He worked on it for 40 years but it was never finished to his satisfaction

Michelangelo Paints the Sistine Chapel Ceiling

Feb 17, 1508

It took Michelangelo 4 years to complete it. This was his largest work of art. The composition stretches over 500 square meters of ceiling,and contains over 300 figures.

Carved tombs for the Medici family

Apr 10, 1516

Michelangelo again serves the Medici Family, and he makes more things for them. Like the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence, but it was never completed.

He is contracted for the Medici chapel

Oct 8, 1520

In 1520 the Medici came back to Michelangelo with another grand proposal, this time for a family funerary chapel in the Basilica of San Lorenzo.He finishes two figures, "Night"and "Dawn" by 1531.The chapel also contains Michelangelo's Medici Madonna.

Michelangelo was the architect for the Laurentian Library

Jun 11, 1521

He designed both the interior of the library itself and its vestibule.He worked on this and for the Medici around the same time.

The Last Judgement

Jan 2, 1534

Pope Clement VII commissioned Michelangelo to make a fresco of The Last Judgement on the wall of the Sistine Chapel. It was completed October 1541. It conntains many images including Saint Bartholomew holding a drooping figure, which is thought to be Michelangelo representing himself.Michelangelo painted many of the figure nude so Daniele da Volterra was comissioned to cencsor the painting after Michelangelo's death.

St. Peter's Basilica

Oct 8, 1546

In 1546, Michelangelo was appointed architect of St. Peter's Basilica, Rome. He never finished it because of his death. It ws almost completed ,but it was finished by someone else.

Vittoria Colonna dies

Aug 8, 1547

Vittoria Colonna, one of Michelangelo's most closest friends, dies.They wrote sonnets for each other and were in regular contact until she died

Michelangelo's Death

Feb 8, 1564

Michelangelo died in Rome at the age of 88. He was taken back to florence, where he wished to be buried. More than a hundred artists attend his funeral.