Lying on his back, he pondered what to paint on the enormous chapel ceiling. Michelangelo couldn't concentrate with all the noise Pope Julius II was making. lie kept saying, "You missed a spot!" Even though Michelangelo had to paint with a lot of commotion, this huge ceiling was a great success for Michelangelo.

     Michelangelo was a very interesting man. He was born March 6, 1474 during the late Renaissance in Florence, Italy. When he was young, his mother was too ill to take care of him. So, his father gave him to a family of stone cutters. When he grew up he joked that was the reason he loved to cut away at stone so much. Michelangelo had a very nice life.

     Michelangelo's career was fantastic, He had a gift to paint, sculpt, to be an architect, an engineer, and a poet of all those things he chose to paint and sculpt. He painted several of the paintings in the Sistine Chapel; the most famous of these was the ceiling. The two most famous pieces of his career were the Pieta and the huge ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo had a lot of pride in tin's Masterpiece. As you can see his career was fascinating.

     Michelangelo had plenty of influences. when he was young he would sketch things on his way to art class. His art teacher, Ghirlandaio taught Michelangelo just about everything he knows about art. Michelangelo liked the art of Ghiberti,

     Donatello, Gioffo, and Masaccio. Pope Julius II forced Michelangelo to paint, instead of letting him sculpt. Michelangelo spent much of his life studying nature and science in order to make his works of art as lifelike as possible. Michelangelo had different types of influences.

     Michelangelo had his own special style. He usually painted people. Most of the people were nude. He also painted scenes from the Bible. Michelangelo sculpted life like portraits. He often used Fresco painting. Fresco means to paint on wet plaster. Do you like Michelangelo's style?

One of the panels of the Sistine Chapel ceiling is called "The Separation of Sky and Water." This Fresco was by painting on wet plaster. In this painting there's God separating sky and water. There are four people pictured in this panel. Two are on the left holding cloth the color of the ocean and two are on the right holding cloth the color of the sky.

God is holding out his hands, one to the water and one to the sky. God is holding out his hands, one to the water and one to the sky.   Michelangelo used soft and dark shades of color. He used beautiflil shades of green and blue. The spacing is very shallow. There's not any depth to it. This painting is asymmetrical. Both sides of the painting are meaningful and interesting. This painting is a very exciting piece of art work. It's exciting because the figures seem to jump out at you and they each have their own personality. He painted this painting because he wanted people to be able to visualize specific words from the Bible. This is an excellent example of imitationalism. This story of the Bible truly comes to life.

     This painting was famous because it was a small part of a very famous painting. It is unique because in whatever direction you look at it, it looks like you're looking at it the right way. This painting is very vivid. The figures look 3-dimensional because of the way Michelangelo painted. His technique made this painting seem very realistic. This is a top of the line painting nobody will want to miss! Michelangelo was a very unique artist and was talented in many ways.

Researched and written by Amy A.
Mrs. Sunda's 3rd Grade Gifted Class

Sources:
Michelangelo - Art for Children by Ernest Roboff
Michelangelo by Mike Venizia