dimanche 23 mars 2014

The Rightful Archetypal Renaissance Man

By Darren Hartley


The Genesis scenes mounted on the Sistine chapel ceiling and the Last Judgment painting on the Sistine chapel altar wall are two of the most influential fresco works in Western art history. These works are among the Michelangelo paintings and are found in Rome, where one can find the Sistine chapel. Despite Michelangelo's personal low opinion of painting, these works are well known all over the globe.

An Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet and engineer, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simon is also famous for two sculptures, aside from his Michelangelo paintings, These sculptures, completed before he turned thirty, are the Pieta and the David.

Michelangelo also revolutionized classical architecture. He accomplished this by using plaster as the main ingredient when he designed the dome for St. Peter's Basilica. Like the Sistine chapel, this basilica can also be found in Rome.

Michelangelo is considered to be the best documented 16th century artist. The basis of this fact is the volume of his surviving correspondences, reminiscences and sketches. These sketches are considered to be the earliest Michelangelo paintings.

Michelangelo has been considered for the title of archetypal Renaissance man based on his versatility in the disciplines of the highest order. His fellow Italian and rival, Leonardo da Vinci is his sole competitor for the title. Despite making only a low number of forays beyond the arts, Michelangelo was still able to acquire this discipline versatility. The Renaissance man represents a person whose seeming endless curiosity is matched only by his inventive skills.

Da Vinci paintings include the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. These two Da Vinci paintings occupy unique positions in the art world as the most famous, most reproduced and most parodied portrait and religious, respectively, paintings of all time. Their fame is approached only by the Creation of Adam, by Michelangelo, Da Vinci's rival and co-Italian painter.

Considered as an Italian polymath, Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was best known for his Da Vinci paintings. A polymath was a person who has been a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer in the span of his lifetime.

Other than his iconic Vitruvian Man drawing, only 15 Da Vinci paintings were able to survive the passing of the centuries. This phenomenon, though largely due to Leonardo's persistent and more often than not disastrous experimentation with new techniques, is also attributable to his chronic procrastination of his own accomplishments.

Despite their low number, these surviving Da Vinci paintings are contributions to later artist generations. These contributions are aided by Leonardo's notebooks that house drawings, scientific diagrams and personal thoughts on the art of painting. Again, this set of contributions is only rivalled by the set from his chief contemporary rival, Michelangelo.

An education in the studio of Verrocchio, a renowned Florentine painter, produced the earlier Da Vinci paintings.




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