Editing Michelangelo (section)

===Apprenticeships, 1488–1492===
[[File:Buonarotti-scala.jpg|thumb|upright|The ''[[Madonna of the Stairs]]'' (1490–1492), Michelangelo's earliest known work in marble]]
As a young boy, Michelangelo was sent to the city of Florence to study [[grammar]] under the [[Renaissance Humanism|Humanist]] Francesco da Urbino.<ref name="Tolnay11"/><ref name="Condivi9">A. Condivi, ''The Life of Michelangelo'', p. 9</ref>{{efn|1=Sources disagree as to how old Michelangelo was when he departed for school. De Tolnay writes that it was at ten years old while Sedgwick notes in her translation of Condivi that Michelangelo was seven.}} Michelangelo showed no interest in his schooling, preferring to copy paintings from churches and seek the company of other painters.<ref name="Condivi9"/> Florence was at that time Italy's greatest centre of the arts and learning.<ref name=Coughlan14>Coughlan, Robert; (1978), ''The World of Michelangelo'', Time-Life; pp. 14–15</ref> Art was sponsored by the {{lang|it|Signoria|italic=no}} (the town council), the merchant guilds, and wealthy patrons such as the [[Medici]] and their banking associates.<ref name=Coughlan35>Coughlan, pp. 35–40</ref> The [[Renaissance]], a renewal of [[Classical antiquity|Classical]] scholarship and the arts, had its first flowering in Florence.<ref name=Coughlan14/> In the early 15th century, the architect [[Filippo Brunelleschi]], having studied the remains of Classical buildings in Rome, had created two churches, [[San Lorenzo, Florence|San Lorenzo's]] and [[Santo Spirito, Florence|Santo Spirito]], which embodied the Classical precepts.<ref>Giovanni Fanelli, (1980) ''Brunelleschi'', Becocci Firenze, pp. 3–10</ref> The sculptor [[Lorenzo Ghiberti]] had laboured for 50 years to create the north and east bronze doors of the [[Florence Baptistery|Baptistry]], which Michelangelo was to describe as "The Gates of Paradise".<ref>H. Gardner, p. 408</ref> The exterior niches of the Church of [[Orsanmichele]] contained a gallery of works by the most acclaimed sculptors of Florence: [[Donatello]], Ghiberti, [[Andrea del Verrocchio]], and [[Nanni di Banco]].<ref name=Coughlan35/> The interiors of the older churches were covered with frescos (mostly in Late Medieval, but also in the Early Renaissance style), begun by [[Giotto]] and continued by [[Masaccio]] in the [[Brancacci Chapel]], both of whose works Michelangelo studied and copied in drawings.<ref name=Coughlan28>Coughlan, pp. 28–32</ref>

During Michelangelo's childhood, a team of painters had been called from Florence to the Vatican to decorate the walls of the [[Sistine Chapel]]. Among them was [[Domenico Ghirlandaio]], a master in fresco painting, perspective, figure drawing and portraiture who had the largest workshop in Florence.<ref name=Coughlan35/> In 1488, at the age of 13, Michelangelo was apprenticed to Ghirlandaio.<ref name="Liebert59">R. Liebert, ''Michelangelo: A Psychoanalytic Study of his Life and Images'', p. 59</ref> The next year, his father persuaded Ghirlandaio to pay Michelangelo as an artist, which was rare for someone that young.<ref>C. Clément, ''Michelangelo'', p. 7</ref> When in 1489, [[Lorenzo de' Medici]], ''[[de facto]]'' ruler of Florence, asked Ghirlandaio for his two best pupils, Ghirlandaio sent Michelangelo and [[Francesco Granacci]].<ref>C. Clément, ''Michelangelo'', p. 9</ref>

From 1490 to 1492, Michelangelo attended the [[Platonic Academy (Florence)|Platonic Academy]], a Humanist academy founded by the Medicis. There, his work and outlook were influenced by many of the most prominent philosophers and writers of the day, including [[Marsilio Ficino]], [[Pico della Mirandola]] and [[Poliziano]].<ref name="Tolnay1819">J. de Tolnay, ''The Youth of Michelangelo'', pp. 18–19</ref> At this time, Michelangelo sculpted the reliefs ''[[Madonna of the Stairs]]'' and ''[[Battle of the Centaurs (Michelangelo)|Battle of the Centaurs]]'',<ref name=Coughlan28/> the latter based on a theme suggested by Poliziano and commissioned by Lorenzo de' Medici.<ref name="Condivi15">A. Condivi, ''The Life of Michelangelo'', p. 15</ref> Michelangelo worked for a time with the sculptor [[Bertoldo di Giovanni]]. When he was 17, another pupil, [[Pietro Torrigiano]], struck him on the nose, causing the disfigurement that is conspicuous in the portraits of Michelangelo.<ref>Coughlan, p. 42</ref>