Editing Michelangelo (section)

===Figure compositions===
{{more citations needed section|date=December 2024}}
Michelangelo's relief of the ''Battle of the Centaurs'', created while he was still a youth associated with the Medici Academy,<ref>J. de Tolnay, ''The Youth of Michelangelo'', p. 18.</ref> is an unusually complex relief in that it shows a great number of figures involved in a vigorous struggle. Such a complex disarray of figures was rare in Florentine art, where it would usually only be found in images showing either the [[Massacre of the Innocents]] or the Torments of Hell. The relief treatment, in which some of the figures are boldly projecting, may indicate Michelangelo's familiarity with Roman [[sarcophagus]] reliefs from the collection of Lorenzo Medici, and similar marble panels created by Nicola and [[Giovanni Pisano]], and with the figurative compositions on [[Ghiberti]]'s [[Florence Baptistery#Lorenzo Ghiberti|Baptistry Doors]].

The composition of the ''Battle of Cascina'' is known in its entirety only from copies,<ref>Goldscheider, p. 8.</ref> as the original cartoon, according to Vasari, was so admired that it deteriorated and was eventually in pieces.<ref name=Vasari/> It reflects the earlier relief in the energy and diversity of the figures,<ref>J. de Tolnay, ''The Youth of Michelangelo'', p. 135.</ref> with many different postures, and many being viewed from the back, as they turn towards the approaching enemy and prepare for battle.

In ''The Last Judgment'' it is said that Michelangelo drew [[Artistic inspiration|inspiration]] from a fresco by [[Melozzo da Forlì]] in Rome's [[Santi Apostoli, Rome|Santi Apostoli]]. Melozzo had depicted figures from different angles, as if they were floating in the Heaven and seen from below. Melozzo's majestic figure of Christ, with windblown cloak, demonstrates a degree of foreshortening of the figure that had also been employed by [[Andrea Mantegna]], but was not usual in the frescos of Florentine painters. In ''The Last Judgment'' Michelangelo had the opportunity to depict, on an unprecedented scale, figures in the action of either rising heavenward or falling and being dragged down.

In the two frescos of the Pauline Chapel, ''The Crucifixion of St. Peter'' and ''The Conversion of Saul'', Michelangelo has used the various groups of figures to convey a complex narrative. In the ''Crucifixion of Peter'' soldiers busy themselves about their assigned duty of digging a post hole and raising the cross while various people look on and discuss the events. A group of horrified women cluster in the foreground, while another group of Christians is led by a tall man to witness the events. In the right foreground, Michelangelo walks out of the painting with an expression of disillusionment.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Michelangelo in the Pauline Chapel, the artist's least known work |url=https://www.italian-renaissance-art.com/Michelangelo-in-The-Pauline-Chapel.html |access-date=2024-08-16 |website=Italian Renaissance Art.com}}</ref>

<gallery widths="200" heights="200" perrow="4">
File:Michelangelo, centauromachia, 1492 ca. 01 crop.JPG|''[[Battle of the Centaurs (Michelangelo)|Battle of the Centaurs]]'' (1492)
File:La batalla de Cascina - Sangallo.jpg|Copy of the lost ''[[Battle of Cascina]]'' by [[Bastiano da Sangallo]]
File:Michelangelo, giudizio universale, dettagli 33.jpg|''[[The Last Judgment (Michelangelo)|The Last Judgment]]'', detail of the Redeemed (see whole image above)
File:Michelangelo, paolina, martirio di san pietro 01.jpg|''[[The Crucifixion of St. Peter (Michelangelo)|The Crucifixion of St. Peter]]''
</gallery>