Emma Gunn
Mrs. Salzman
Honors World History, Block E
19 March 2018 The Renaissance will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the greatest time periods the world has known. From it, many of the most brilliant minds emerged, including that of Michelangelo, a Florentine sculptor and painter. During the peak of the Renaissance, Michelangelo pioneered the way people used art and sculpture to express contemporary ideas and emotions, many of which were relatively unspoken at the time. In 1475 in Florence, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was born unto a housemaid and a magistrate, the second son of five children. When the young boy was only six years old, his mother passed away, leaving his father to care for the family on a low paying job alone. Due to a lucky family connection, Lodovico Buonarroti sent Michelangelo off to live with
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He was never one to advocate for his lifestyle, but he was under so much limelight that it never mattered. He was known for a lifelong pattern of “tender relationships” with men, an interest supposedly sparked by his Renaissance rival, Leonardo da Vinci. Many of his sculptures and paintings contained nudes in all different contexts, as mentioned previously, and many also were made in Catholic intents. In his older age, Michelangelo was known for his relationship with Tommaso dei Cavalieri, a young man about seventeen to twenty as opposed to Michelangelo’s fifty seven. Historians dispute over whether this relationship was romantic or paternal, but there is strong evidence that suggests both are likely. Despite all of the idiosyncrasies the artist was known for, many of which went against the common belief of the church, Michelangelo remained a devout catholic throughout his entire life. It is even suggested through his writing that his faith only deepened near his