Michelangelo Facts For Kids
Michelangelo was a very famous painter and is well-known for his work on the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica.
Here we take a look at some cool and interesting facts about this amazing man.
Michelangelo’s Early Life
Even though we just call him Michelangelo his full name was Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni. Now that’s quite a mouthful of a name!
Michelangelo was raised in Florence in Italy. Sadly Michelangelo’s mother died when he was only six years old. That’s really sad.
There were five boys in his family and he was the second eldest.
There was Lionardo who was born in 1473, Michelangelo born 1475, Buonarroto born in 1477, Giovansimone born in 1479 and Gismondo born in 1481.
That’s quite a big family!
What was Michelangelo Famous for?
His most famous works are the sculpture of David and Pieta, the design of the dome in St. Peter’s Basilica and also the painted frescos on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
He did all of these before he was even 30 years old! He sure was good at what he did.
Interesting Facts About Michelangelo
Michelangelo spent four years working on the dome of the Sistine Chapel. That is a seriously long time for one painting!
He stood on a scaffold and painted over his head.
Many people believe that he actually painted lying down, but that’s not true. As we said he stood and literally painted over his head…he must have had strong arms!
Michelangelo was hit in the nose as a teenager by Pietro Torrigiano, a fellow art student at an art academy in Florence. This left him with a permanently crooked nose! That’s not too cool.
When he got older he lived like a hermit. This means that he spent most of his time by himself and very rarely saw anyone else. He was actually quite rich, but he lived in a complete mess.
Michelangelo never got married and had no children. However some people think that he did date Tommaso dei Cavalieri and the poet Vittoria Colonna. Guess we’ll never really know, will we?
Michelangelo wrote plenty of letters throughout his career. About 490 have survived and have none other than his original signatures on them!
Those would be very awesome to see. Michelangelo was the first Western artist whose biography was published while he was still alive.
A biography is a story that is written about someone’s life by another person.
From 1527-1529 Michelangelo took a break from art and joined the army to defend the Republic of Florence. He worked as an engineer to protect the city.
Did you know that Michelangelo was also a poet? Well he was and apparently there are over 300 poems that he wrote. He was a man of many talents it seems!
Michelangelo was often not very proud of his work. He was known for disliking it and being very critical of his creations. He also apparently had quite a temper!
Towards the end of his life Michelangelo destroyed many of his sketches. For some strange reason he didn’t want people to know how hard he worked.
Michelangelo died in Rome in 1564. His remains were secretly returned to Florence and he was buried at the Basilica of Santa Croce, according to his wishes.
So there are our interesting facts about this genius of an artist. Do you have any other cool facts to share with us? We’d love to hear from you.
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