Michelangelo's Birthday

Full Glory 30x40. See at http://www.mahoneyart.com

Is there a better analogy to the life of Michelangelo than the salmon's experience?

Destiny calls at birth, and then the difficult work must be completed.

I thought it was appropriate to re-launch my blog March 6, the day

Michaelangelo di Lodovico BuonarottiSimoni was born in the year 1475.

My paintings are so textural that they verge on sculpture,

and so I pay homage to the scultor who painted.

My own Great-grandfather was a stone carver, and I often joke that my parents could have helped my art carreer by giving me the middle name 'Angelo'. Michael Angelo Mahoney may have procured a few more lucritive commissions from influencial institutions? :)

Joking aside, I do enjoy studying the great masters these days. My own relative experience sometimes allows me to see between the lines of historical documentation about artists. So let's have a look at the great sculptor.

For the sake of my poor typing skills I will refer to Michelangelo as MA if you don't mind.

MA's father was a banker and polititian in the small towns around Florence, Italy. Because of that, he would have undoubtedly had many dealings with Cosimo de Medici, the powerful banker of the Vatican.

When MA was six years old, his mother died, and his father sent him to be cared for by the family who managed a marble quarry owned by his father. (Raised by a Stone carver...hmmm.)

His father would have seen that the Medici family placed a high value on art, for its ability to sway public opinion. So at the age of 13, MA was allowed to apprentice as an artist.

After just one year, he moved to Florence as an artist and borded with the Medici family. He grew up as a brother to Lorenzo and Giovanni de Medici, who would later become Pope Leo X, and Pope Clement VIII. (Hmmm...?)

Now let's see what was happening in the rest of the world that may have influenced him.

Columbus sailed in 1492 and reports of a previously unknown world were circulating by 1500. Martin Luther opened the floodgates of the reformation by posting his 95 Thesis on the door of the Church of All Saints, Oct. 31, 1517. (Halloween, hmmm...?) King Henry VIII and Crommwell were also stirring the social world with the new Church of England. In fact there was so much violent turmoil that the Pope was even chased out of Rome and had to reside in France for several years. (Fodder for inspiration? hmmm...)

His competitors were Leonardo, Raphael, Titian, Bellini, etc... in a time when Donatello and others had broken open many old stereotypes.

MA lived from 1475 to 1564. During his 88 years he saw almost as much cultural change as we are witnessing today. And like a salmon, he was born into his lot. He grew and thrived as a young man. Then struggled against the current and steep cascades in order to finish what was given to him. Happy Birthday Michelangelo!!

I must return to the humoruos one more time... I have wondered what my own response would have been to a great situation. Then I realized that my father was also a banker. I was 9 when they landed on the moon, and many of the great artists like Picasso were still alive when I was young. Fortunately, I'm off the hook, because I was born in Montana instead of New York City!

But alas...Should a smaller lot require less effort?