I’m still learning, Michelangelo Buonarroti 87 years old
His Majesty Michelangelo Buonarroti needs no introduction: sculptor, painter, architect, poet, scientist, it is impossible to describe this man in just one word.
He was 24 when he created the Pietà, and when someone doubted that such a young man could have made it, he carved his signature into the marble. Repentant, he will no longer sign his work.
He considered himself first and foremost a sculptor, and when Pope Julius II summoned him to Rome in 1505 to paint the Sistine Chapel, he refused.
“You can’t shoot an arrow if the crossbow is bent, and since this isn’t my job, I’ll do a terrible job. I’m a sculptor, not a painter.”
The Pope sends five ambassadors to Florence to convince Michelangelo, but the artist wants nothing to do with them.
On 10 May 1506, Piero Rosselli, a friend of Michelangelo, wrote him a letter saying that the Pope absolutely wanted Michelangelo to paint the frescoes on the ceiling, but that Bramante, architect and artist at the papal court, was trying to dissuade him because he wanted the job for his friend Raphael. It is only at this point that Michelangelo accepts the challenge.
Solitary, rebellious and quick-tempered, the artist manages to impose his ideas even on the Pope, who is forced to give in to his demands.
Tireless, he worked on his pieces day and night: in a letter dated 17 November 1509 addressed to his father, he recounts his efforts to complete the chapel ceiling.
“I’m as tense as a bowstring, I’ve already got a goitre, my stomach is in my throat, my loins have sunk into my belly, I can’t see where I’m putting my feet and the paintbrush is dripping onto my face.
I’m really struggling, I’m finding it extremely hard, I don’t have any friends and I don’t want any, I don’t even have time to eat.
The David, the Madonna of Bruges, the Tondo Doni, the Sistine Chapel, the Piazza del Campidoglio… Michelangelo never stopped, obsessively and maniacally creating every one of his works, whether sculptures, frescoes or architectural designs.
He was 72 years old when he began work on the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica: a double shell reaching an internal height of 117 metres.
How he manages to produce extraordinary works in every field is a mystery even to his contemporaries, who consider him divine: at the age of 87, he says, ‘I’m still learning,’ and perhaps with this phrase he reveals his secret to us.