Arts & Entertainment, Art
Chapel of the Medici, Michelangelo: description and photo
In 1421-1428, Brunelleschi built a chapel on the side of the church of San Lorenzo (the Medici Chapel) in Florence. It was supposed to be a crypt for the Medici's house. Almost a hundred years later, Pope Leo X proposed that Michelangelo complete the facade. Due to lack of money, the work was stopped.
Florence, the Church of San Lorenzo
The oldest church in Florence is the San Lorenzo church. In 339, this cathedral was consecrated by St. Ambrose, the bishop of Milan. In the Romanesque period, it was rebuilt and re-consecrated in 1059. In 1418, the Medici decided to completely rebuild it and commissioned it to Philip Brunelleschi. The temple inside is decorated with works by Donatello. The prince's chapel became the burial vault for all the Medici dukes of the second line of the family, beginning with Cosimo I. It displays the wealth and power of the Medici.
Crypt with burials. Chapel of the princes
The place for passage into the chapel of the Medici will lead directly to the crypt. It is from here that you can go to the chapel of the princes and the New Sacristy. The crypt is dark and gloomy, which is natural for the tomb, where most of the members of the Medici family are actually buried, including those who were supposed to rest in the chapel of the princes.
For fans of Michelangelo
In 1520, it was necessary to build a chapel with gravestones for Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano, as well as for the other two sons of the Medici family: Giuliano, the duke of Nemours, and Lorenzo, the duke of Urbino. In addition, Cardinal Giulio, a cousin of Pope Leo X, wants to entrust Michelangelo with building a library. It should accommodate books belonging to the whole family, as well as received from various courtiers and other famous book lovers. The Medici Chapel and the New Sacristia in it and the library are two important assignments for the 45-year-old master who will have to deal with architecture for the first time.
The new sacristy is one of the architectural projects that the master brought to the end. There are at least seven sculptures of the Renaissance genius in it.
Beginning of work
Cardinal Giulio of the Medici family, elected by the Pope under the name Clement VII, urged Michelangelo to Rome and gave firm instructions that the Medici Chapel should be immediately completed. He wants to be glorified in the centuries no less than Pope Leo X and his predecessors, who left a memory of themselves as patrons of architecture, sculpture and painting. It was necessary to immortalize the images of the famous Medici who were not in ancient times, but those who established a monarchy in Florence. They were two young, not glorified duke. The new Sacristy in the church of San Lorenzo (the Medici Chapel) should be a single complex with the Old, which was built by Brunelleschi.
Michelangelo in Florence
What was to be done by Michelangelo Buonarroti? The Medici Chapel demanded the annexation of the chapel. It was necessary to build a ceiling arch, build a light lantern and perform a number of no less laborious works. And then you can think of the sculptures with which the sculptor intended to decorate the tombstones of Giuliano and Lorenzo de 'Medici. This will require workers, and hence money from Clement VII.
The designs of the sculptures of the Dukes
What feelings will the Medici Chapel bring? Michelangelo, not deceiving himself, suggested that when the sculptures are ready, they will disappoint those who want to see the image of two descendants of the family. They will not have a portrait resemblance. He wanted to create new people, born not only by their time, but also by their own new artistic tasks. In statues, the movement must be conveyed by the balance of the posture, which seemed frozen in the air. It will be two strong young men, full of majestic tranquility.
The Medici Chapel: description
In the tomb of the Medici man falls into a completely different world, not the one that was on the street. You are surrounded by a sense of longing and the impression that you are on the square. Around there are untreated facades of houses, because the dark pilasters, platbands on the rare windows, the windows themselves, the light walls of this ensemble give an uneasy feeling of the medieval street and square. It is such a space that includes a person in the rapidly flowing time, created by Michelangelo. The tomb of the master is a reflection on the measure of variability, duration and shortness of existence, imprinted in the fusion of architecture and sculpture.
Madonna
In the church of San Lorenzo (the Medici Chapel), New Sacristy looks like a free cube, which is crowned with a vault. The architect placed in the walls of a niche with walled, greatly enlarged tombs. For them, he used sculptural figures in full size. Opposite the altar, he placed the sculptural group "Madonna and Child" and surrounded it with statues of St.. Cosmas and Damian (patrons of the Medici).
Statues in niches
Without a hint of a portrait resemblance in the armor of the ancient Romans, two allegorical figures sit. The courageous, energetic Giuliano, with his head uncovered, rests on the baton of the commander.
Figures on the lids of the sarcophagi
Slipping from the sloping roofs of the tombs, barely holding onto them, lie the sculptural allegories of morning and evening at the feet of Lorenzo and day and night - at Giuliano. The symbols of running time are painfully inconvenient. Their powerful with ideal proportions of the body - materialized languor and grief. "Morning" slowly and reluctantly wakes up, "Day" is awake joylessly and anxiously, "Evening", clinging, falls asleep, "Night" is immersed in a heavy restless sleep. What kind of bird is the Medici Chapel? "Night" stops at the owl, which, if it does, will wake it up.
"Crouching boy"
The chapel of the Medici and the heavy timelessness that embraces the man in it possessed another sculpture, which is now in the Hermitage.
Laurentian Library
Simultaneously with the work in New Sacristy, which he turned into a magnificent chapel, Michelangelo built a library. Passing through a cozy courtyard, through the left nave you can get into it. It is intended only for the initiated.
This concludes the description of the creation of the genius of Michelangelo. In this grandiose work he embodied his innovative ideas. They are so universal that they have become important for all mankind. So the Medici Chapel has changed. Florence received a monument to the Medici, which became a monument to the city itself.
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