Michelangelo Buonarroti born at Arezzo in 1475, Died in Rome, 1564.

Michelangelo arrived in Rome in 1496, four years after the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent, the man who had discovered the great talents of Michelangelo when he was still only fifteen years old. Michelangelo decided to leave Florence for Rome, because he felt that Rome offered greater a broader field through which he could express his innumerable talents in many various fields of Art.

On his first visit to Rome, Michelangelo remained until 1501. During this first period he executed the magnificent Pieta carved out of white marble for St. Peters, which is discussed on our Vatican Walking Tour.

In 1505, he was back in Rome, summoned by Pope Julius II to make his tomb, which today rests in San Peters. Michelangelo himself described this project as the " tragedy of the tomb" and of his life. An endless series of rejections, changes of mind, and new designs tormented him throughout his life, leaving him deeply embittered. The tomb is located at St. Peters.

His dream and arguably his salvation was to find a harmonious fusion of the arts in a continuous flow of movements, and this found its fulfillment in the pictorial decoration of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo's greatest moment. Along with comments on the works of Botticelli, listen to fully comprehensive interpretation of the Sistine Chapel on our Vatican Walking Tour, or visit our Sistine Chapel page for more information and photos on this important monument.

Michelangelo's greatest gift to the skyline of Rome is the Cupola of St. Peters. A design that greatly influenced later architects, and the influence of Michelangelo can be seen in numerous domes around the city executed by later Roman architects such as Borromini, Cortona and Rosati. He dedicated the dome of St. Peters to the Madonna and the people of Rome. After taking our Vatican Walking Tour, enjoy some free time to enjoy an intimate experience of Michelangelo's creation and an incredible view of the city of Rome. To reach the dome be prepared for a climb up several hundred steps for views that will last a lifetime.

In the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, you'll find the statue of the Redeemer. Michelangelo accepted the following contract for this work "A Marble figure of Christ as large as life, naked, erect, with his arms around a cross, in an attitude that Michelangelo deems fit". Like many of the works of Michelangelo, things didn't quite work out as the artist planned. Enjoy a delightful anecdote surrounding this piece work on our Original Rome Walking Tour.

The Piazza Campidoglio, the Capitol, is where Michelangelo through the plan and execution of the square and its buildings created a stage for the magnificent pageantry of the Renaissance ceremonies, and with a consummate mastery he did not leave it empty. Representing a bridge between Ancient and Modern Rome, he placed an Equestrian statue of a Roman emperor to greet the one of his day. The giant bronze statue was executed to the design of Michelangelo by Francesco Amadori, one of his favorite pupils. In fact, Michelangelo later in his life took Amadori into his own home to care for when he was dying.

Pietà by Michelangelo
St. Peter in Vatican Rome

In 1498 after Christ, Michelangelo, only 22 years old, writes a contract, guaranteed by Jacopo Galli, with the French Cardinal of San Dionigi, for the realization, within a year, of a "Pietà" (pity) in marble destined to be placed in the Basilica of San Pietro.

On a piece of marble personally chosen in the pits of Carrara, Michelangelo represents the isolated aspects of the Virgin Mary holding in her arms the body of the Christ right after it was taken down from the Crosse, according to an iconography that, during this period, had found a large consensus on the other side of the Alps. 1.74cm high, the "Pietà" of Michelangelo presents strong particularities in the anatomy and also in the finishes of the drapes, with translucent effects of accentuated by the way in which the light seemed to caress the marble superficies. One of the things that most surprises on the sculpture is the aspect extremely young the artist wanted to give to the face of the Virgin Mary; this choice, strongly criticized by the contemporaneous, finds its justification in the abstract character of the composition. In the intentions of the sculptor, the Madonna probably represents the entire humanity and as such, using the words of the "Divine Comedy" of Dante, she is the "Virgin Mother, daughter of your son". On the face of the Christ are absents the signs of the Passion, Michelangelo, in fact, does not desire the objective representation of the death but expresses his own religious vision in the abandoned and, anyway, serene face of the Son, as a testimony of the communion between man and God sanctified with the sacrifice of the Saver. It is said that Michelangelo, not used to firm the own works, after he had casually heard some visitors from Lombardy say that the "Pietà" was the work of Gobbo di Milano, went to the Basilica of San Pietro on the night itself, and engraved on the work the writing: "Angelus Bonarotus Florentinus Faciebat". The sculpture was placed in 1499 after Christ in the Chapel of Santa Petronilla in San Pietro, where it stays until 1517 after Christ when it is moved to the old Sacristy. Since 1749 after Christ the work is placed in its actual location and it has abandoned the Basilica of San Pietro only to be welcomed to the Universal Exhibition of New York from 1962 to 1964. Following the gesture of a silly person, who in 1972 damaged the work with numerous hammer beats, after the restoration it has been decided to protect the sculpture with a crystal wall.

Sistine Chapel
The frescoes by Michelangelo Buonarroti

The Sistine Chapel, wanted by Pope Sisto IV della Rovere, from which it takes its name, was built by Giovannino de'Dolci between 1475 and 1481 after Christ.

The decoration in the style of 1400 of the walls, realized by an extraordinary group of painters made of Perugino, Botticelli, Signorelli and Ghirlandaio, includes the artificial draperies, the "Stories of Moses and Christ" and the portraits of the Pontiffs while Pier Matteo d'Amelia painted for the inauguration on the vault a starlight sky.
The realization of the frescoes in Sistine Chapel, at least for the one that constituted the initial composition, was taken to its end in 1482 after Christ when were also completed the marble works relatives to the grating, to the choir-stalls, and to the pontifical emblem located above the entrance door. The chapel was consecrated to the cult of the Lady of the Assumption on August 15th 1483 after Christ by Pope Sisto IV but already his nephew, Pope Giulio II della Rovere, only 25 years old, decided to modify the decorations later on, charging Michelangelo Buonarroti of this work.
The contract undertaken on May 8th 1508 after Christ was contemplating the realization of the portraits of the twelve apostles in the crests of the vault, surrounded by ornamental decorations, but soon the Pontiff saw himself constrained to surrender to the requests of the artist who was claiming for a greater liberty of composition.
Michelangelo painted new episodes extracted from the book of the Genesis organized inside an artificial architecture in thematic groups of three:

Separation of light and darkness
"God said: - Should the light be!-. And the light was. God saw that the light was a good thing and he separated the light from darkness and called the light day and the darkness night."
The Creation of the stars and the plants
"God created the two big lights, the major light to rule the day and the minor light to rule the night, and the stars."
Separation of the land and water
"God said: - should the waters which are under the sky congregate in a unique point and the dry appear. And so it was. God called the dry "Earth", and the mass of the waters "sea". And God saw that it was a good thing."
Creation of Adam
"And God said: - Let's make the man to our image, to our alikeness, and he should dominate on the fishes of the sea and on the birds of the sky, on the cattle, on all the wildness beats and on the reptiles that snakes on the earth.-"
Creation of Eva
"The Lord God moulded with the rib, which he had taken away from the man, a woman and he took her to the man."
Original sin and expulsion from the Earthly Paradise
"But the snake said to the woman: - You will not die from hunger! Indeed ... you will become like God, knowing what is good or bad. Then the woman took its fruit and ate some of it, and then she gave some of it also to the husband"
"The Lord God expulsed the man and put at the east of the Garden of Eden the cherubs and the flame of the fulgurant sword, to guard the path of the Life tree."
Sacrifice of Noe
Universal Deluge
"Then God said to Noe: - For me it has come the time of the end of every man, because the earth, for their fault, is full of violence; here it is, I will destroy them together with the earth. Make a wooden ark of cypresses; -"
Ebriety of Noe
"Now Noe, cultivator of the earth, started to plant a vinery. Having drunk the wine, it got drunk and was lying uncovered inside his tent."
When the painting process of the Sistine Chapel was completed, Michelangelo represented along the sides of the vaults figures of sibyls and prophets seating on the throne, in the sails, those who presumably have to be retained as the ancestors of Christ, and in the four angular crests, some episodes of the salvation of the people of Israel.
The most important work of Michelangelo was completed in 1512 after Christ, and on November 1st Giulio II inaugurated a second time the Sistine Chapel with a solemn mass.
Towards the end of 1533 after Christ Clemente VII De'Medici charged Michelangelo to modify again the decoration of the Sistine Chapel by painting on the wall of the altar, at the place of some frescoes of Perugino, the Universal Judgment. In the second half of the 16th century, the frescoes of the entrance wall were restored, seriously damaged by the collapse of the door in 1522 after Christ: Hendrik van den Broeck painted again the "Resurrection of Christ", while Matteo da Lecce painted the "Dispute on the body of Moses". The frescoes of the chapel have sustained a complete restoration between 1979 and 1999 after Christ, recovering the splendour of the colours and the integrity of the original painting tissue.

 

Gian Lorenzo Bernini was born in Naples in 1598 and died in Rome 1680.
Bernini is one of the most popular of Rome's great artists, his glorious and monumental fountains bring life and character to many of Rome's Piazza's. A tour of Bernini's Rome will take you on a wonderful voyage across the city of Rome. From his early childhood he was familiar with the activity of his father, a famous Florentine sculptor.

He first came to Rome in 1606 to work on the Cappella Paolina for Pope Paul V Borghese. The precious talents of the child attracted the attention of the Pope who made him a prominent figure in Roman artistic circles. He studied ancient sculpture with the passion of a lover: for three years he remained locked up in the Vatican from dawn till dusk drawing all the unique and diverse sculptures he found".

The Borghese gallery features numerous examples of his fine work including two rather interesting busts of the same subject, Scipione Borghese. A second bust was carved, because the first was tarnished by a veining of the marble on the forehead. Bernini, left his client astonished when he returned only a week later with a completely new bust identical to the previous.

On the Rape of Proserpine sculpture, also located at the Borghese, admire how Bernini was able to express the pressure of Pluto's fingers, which sink into the girls thigh. Bernini's version of David is not as static as those of Donatello and Michelangelo, the anatomy of the figure is twisted as it moves through space and prepares for action. Take one of our Private "Artists of Rome" walking tour to appreciate the works of Bernini and other at the Gallery Borghese.

But, the true gift that Bernini gave Rome were his inspiration fountains that were a guiding light to the rejuvenation of the city of Rome by succeeding Pope's. You'll find in Piazza Barberini, The Fountain of Triton - A Baroque fountain executed in Travertine by Gian Lorenzo Bernini around 1642., the fountain is without doubt one of the most beautiful in the city, especially for the naturalism with which the artist represented the sea monster, half man and half fish, seated on the valves of an open shell. The Triton has a powerful physical build and is shown blowing through a conch.

The most famous fountain of Piazza Navona is the Four Rivers fountain which is featured on our Original Rome Walking Tour. It was designed by Bernini for Pope Innocent X Pamphilj, who owned a palace on Piazza Navona. Inaugurated in 1651, the fountain represents the four rivers that stand for the four continents known at that time. According to tradition Bernini carved the arm of the statue lifted up to protect itself from the imminent collapse of the church that had been enlarged and reconstructed by his great rival Borromini.

Raphael Urbinas was born in Urbino on 6th April , and died in Rome on the same day in 1520.

The importance of Raphael on the world of Art and especially Rome itself, can be summed up by the epitaph inscribed on his tomb that rests in the Pantheon,

"This is that Raphael, by whom in life / Our mother Nature feared defeat; And in whose death did fear to die".

He's untimely death, at the age of only thirty-seven, plunged the papal court and the city of Rome into universal sorrow.

A tour of the Raphael sights in Rome could start with a visit to the Villa Borghese where there are two delightful portraits to admire. One of which is titled a "portrait of a man". This work presumably is a portrait of Pinturicchio a rival of Raphael who delightful frescoes illuminate the St. Ignazius (Sant'Ignazio) church featured on our Original Rome Walking Tour.

At the Palazzo Barberini admire the portrait "La Fornarina" (the bakers daughter). The portrait is of Raphael's great love who was the model for many of his famous portraits, and was only later recognized in the 17th Century as Margherita Luti, the daughter of Sienese baker who lived in the Trastevere zone of the city. The artists mistress wears a bracket on her upper arm, bearing the words "Raphael Urbinas".

The Artists church of San Maria del Popolo features the chapel Chigi, a construction conceived entirely by Raphael, who also prepared the cartoons for the mosaics on the ceiling. Given a circular plan, reflecting the influences of his close friend Bramante, it was built for the Chigi family to serve as a mausoleum.

This work along with paintings by Caravaggio, and other unique features are featured on our Private Walking Tour - "the artists of Rome"

The highlight of a tour of Raphael's Rome would be a visit to the Vatican museum to admire the rooms he decorated in the apartments of Pope Julius II. To his taste Raphael designed an ample painted architecture, with large lunettes on the walls and panels on the ceiling illustrating concepts of Neoplatonic philosophy.

This was an undertaking of great responsibility for the young Raphael, who while still working on it saw the first part of the ceiling of the Sistine chapel unveiled in 1511. Eight years younger than Michelangelo, he was so overwhelmed that he became obsessed with a desire to emulate him. Enjoy an in-depth tour of Raphael's rooms on our Vatican Tour.

Inside the Villa Farnesina are remarkable frescoes by the hand of Raphael, where he tried to create paintings of the Ancient Roman style. He studied ancient tombs and other stone relics to get ideas on how the ancients would create their paintings. Until the eighteenth century when Pompeii and other sites were excavated, it wasn't possible to admire harmony of those magnificent paintings. But, Raphael re-created them several centuries earlier, with only a few stone relics and his imagination to go by.

Raffaello Rooms
The frescoes in the Vatican Palace


In the apartment located at the second floor of the Pontifical Palace chosen by Giulio II della Rovere as his own residence and then also used by the following Popes, Raffaello painted frescoes in four rooms, from then known as the "Stanze di Raffaello" (Raffaello Rooms).

The first room one encounters during the visit is called "Room of Constantine" from the name of the Imperator who recognized Catholicism as the official religion of the Roman state.
The space, destined to official receptions, was painted by the students of Raffaello because of the premature death of the artist from Urbino with four episodes of the life of the imperator: the "Battle of Constantine against Massenzio", the "Baptism of Constantine", the "Donation of Rome" and the "Vision of the Cross".
In this last work is represented the episode according to which the imperator would have had in dream the premonition of his victory against Massenzio, if he had changed on the emblems of the soldiers the imperial eagles with the symbol of the cross.
The second room, called "The Room of Eliodoro", was destined to the private audiences of the Pope; the scope of the painting cycles represented here is to document the protection that God conceded to the Church from the antiquity to the Middle Ages.
Raffaello, with "the mass of Bolsena", evokes again the miracle, which took place in 1263 after Christ and from which are coming the celebrations of the "Corpus Domini", during which the host wept blood at the moment of the rite of the consecration celebrated by a priest from bohemian origin. Are also covered of frescoes "the liberation of San Pietro", which represents the Saint saved from the jail by an angel, "the meeting of Leone Magno with Attila", characterized by the apparition of the Saints Peter and Paul armed of swords and the "expulsion of Eliodoro from the temple", which illustrates the biblical episode according to which Eliodoro, sent by the King of Syria, Seleuco, to take possess of the treasure hidden in the temple of Jerusalem, was expulsed by two cavaliers sent by God.
The third room, the room of the "Signature", takes its name from the higher tribunal of the Holy See, and it contains the first and at the same time most famous frescoes realized by Raffaello in the Vatican apartments.
The artist represents the three most important categories of the human spirit, which are the true, the good and the nice.
The over natural true is represented in the "dispute of the SS Sacrament": on the sides of the SS Trinity there is the triumphant Church, with San Pietro, Adam, San Giovanni Evangelista, David, In the inferior part of the frescoes, on the sides of the altar on which remains isolated the SS Sacrament, are disposed the personification of the militant Church and, on the marble thrones, San Gregorio Magno, San Girolamo, Sant'Abrogio and Sant'Agostino.
The rational true is the theme of the "school of Athens" where Raffaello designs the philosophers of the Antiquity: at the centre Platoon indicates the sky with the hand and Aristotle answers him by indicating the earth, Pythagoras on the left, in first piano, is giving a course and Diogenes is reading on the stairs; at the bottom, at the end, we find in the act of writing on a piece of paper leaning on a marble block, Heraclites, in which a lot of people recognize the lines of Michelangelo who in this same years was wrapped up in the realization of the Sixtin Chapel.
The category of the good is represented in the frescoes "cardinal and theological virtues and the law": in the lunette on the top are disposed the personifications of the cardinal virtues, strength, carefulness and temperance and of the theological virtues faith, hope and charity; on the sides of the window are represented the "delivery of the Pandette to the imperator Giustiniano" of Lorenzo Lotto and the "delivery of the decree to Pope Gregorio IX", in the figure of which probably Raffaello wanted to make the portrait of the principal of the time Pope Giulio II.
In the "Parnaso" the artist represents the category of the nice by painting the God Apollo while he is playing the arm lyre surrounded by the nine muses, protectors of the arts and of the poets, Homer, Virgilio, Dante and Saffo.
The last room, the "Room of the Fire of Borgo", was used during the Pontificate of Giulio II for the meetings of the tribunal of the "Signature Gratiae et Iustitiae".
At the time of Leone X this environment was then used as dining room and the charge to paint the walls, initially given to Raffaello, fell down on his students afterwards. The frescoes illustrate "the crowning of Carlo Magno", "the pledge of Leone III", "the battle of Ostia" and "the fire of Borgo" that exploded in 847 after Christ the area close to San Pietro and miraculously stopped after a solemn benediction given by the Pontiff