Michelangelo's sculpture teacher Bertoldo di Giovanni
was a resident of Lorenzo de' Medici's household, which was an
important center of Italian Renaissance art and culture. Lorenzo
was the unofficial leader of the Florentine Republic, a man who
wielded great influence due to his enormous wealth and his dedication
to the city. Lorenzo de' Medici's patronage of many artists and
thinkers made Florence the epicenter of Italian culture outside
of Rome. Lorenzo de' Medici was himself a poet and an architect
as well as a politician and businessman, and he represented to
the Florentine people the balance of different interests and personalities
that they so revered.
Therefore, it was a great honor for Michelangelo when
Lorenzo the Magnificent, most likely acting on di Giovanni's advice,
invited the fifteen-year old artist to stay in his palace in 1490,
both to learn and to serve. Lorenzo de' Medici was always interested
in young and talented artists, particularly since making their
acquaintance often proved to be useful for Florence and for de'
Medici's own image as a preeminent patron of the arts. Michelangelo
accepted the offer, and de' Medici gave the boy a stipend and the
father a clerk's position in his household. Michelangelo was always
proud of the formative years he spent in the Medici household,
since it removed him at an early age from the traditional apprenticeship
in an artist's studio and put directly in the service of a famous
patron.
Lorenzo de' Medici was impressed by Michelangelo, and
raised him with his own family. Two Medicis later became Popes–Lorenzo's
son Giovanni, who became Leo X; and Lorenzo's nephew Giulio, later
Clement VII–and both would employ the artist they grew up with.
The influence of the humanist and Neoplatonic thinkers in the
Medici palace on Michelangelo was also profound. Among others,
he met the painter Sandro Botticelli, the poet Angelo Poliziano,
and the literary historian Cristoforo Landino, and these men provided
Michelangelo with an informal continuation of his scant education
informally.
Michelangelo also came in contact with the philosopher
Marsilio Ficino, the foremost thinker of the Neoplatonist school
of thought which would greatly influence the High Renaissance.
Neoplatonism, an interpretation of the ideas of the Greek philosopher Plato,
held that there was one universal Truth, which could be expressed
on Earth through a number of different forms. This philosophy was
used as the basis for symbolic synthesis, wherein artists mixed
Classical and Christian forms and content in their works. Neoplatonism
was later censured as heretical during the Counter-Reformation,
which frowned on secular or Classical works. Michelangelo was also,
however, exposed to the religious fervor of Girolamo Savonarola,
a Dominican friar who was eventually burned for his militant opposition
to the tenets of Neoplatonism. This may explain why Michelangelo's
opinions on Neoplatonism were conflicted, and why he wavered on
the issue for much of his life. Throughout his life, the devout
Michelangelo felt very conflicted about religion.
Two very different relief carvings survive from this period
of Michelangelo's life: the delicate Madonna of the Stairs and
the dynamic Battle of Centaurs. Lorenzo de'Medici
died in April 1492, at which point Michelangelo left the palace
briefly to study anatomy at a nearby hospital, where he learned
to dissect human corpses. Lorenzo's successor, Piero de'Medici,
invited Michelangelo back to the palace and he returned, beginning
work on larger marble pieces.
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