Michelangelo

So...today we studied Michelangelo. Really a three part lecture because we had to start with the paintings and move through architecture and finally to sculpture. So today we studied Michelangelo, the painter. The painter who was taken in by Lorenzo "The Magnificent" Medici and who studied under Ghirlandaio. There were a lot of things that I learned about him that I did not know. For instance, I didn't know that Michelangelo was allowed by the St. Augustine monks to preform autopsies on the people that died in their care. At the time it was considered a great sin by the Dominicans to preform autopsies because bodies were viewed as works made by God, and they weren't to be explored. But the Augustinians disagreed and allowed painters and sculptors to study anatomy of the dead bodies. Now, because these bodies were those of the poor laborers of the time, (rich people died in their estates, not in churches with monks), they had much bolder muscle structure from those people who didn't preform manual labor for a living. This explains why so many of Michelangelo's figures are so buff and muscular- even the women and babies. He was very interested in muscle structure and movement.
Apparently, he was also a pain in the ass about people seeing his work before he was finished. So when he was painting the Sistine Chapel, he had to invent scaffolding that covered up all of his finished work so that the people walking underneath couldn't see anything (since the chapel was in use the whole time he was painting).
Anyway, just pretty crazy to study Michelangelo in his home town, near the places he grew up and hung out.