...During the Italian Renaissance, one of the most world renowned artists make his mark. With numerous achievements made as a painter, architect, poet, and sculptor, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, more commonly known as Michelangelo, earned the label of artistic genius by people of his time and those for centuries to come. Scholars among others, intrigued by his legacy, have examined his works and sorted through documents and biographies left behind in order to piece together Michelangelo’s life story and track his achievements. Despite the vast number of artifacts, though, not every depiction of Michelangelo’s life lines up exactly. Michelangelo’s early life set him up for a successful future in the arts. He...
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...Michelangelo’s birth and childhood Michelangelo was born, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simon, commomly known as Michelangelo. His date of birth was recorded as March 6, 1475. Michelangelo was born in a small village of Caprese, in Tuscany Italy, near Arezzo, Republic of Florence, to Ludovico di Leonardo di Buonarroti Simoni and Francesca Neri. Michelangelo was born the second of five brothers, to his mother, who died when he was only six years old (“Britannica,” 2012). Michelangelo’s childhood was considered to be low key, grim in nature, lacking in affection, and very silent. He appeared a bit touchy and quick to respond with agitated or fierce words when he was approached by others. Michelangelo was considered to be shy and most of the time he kept to himself, leaving little to no room to trust his fellow friends. After the death of his mother, Michelangelo was sent to live with a stonecutter and his family in a town called, Settignano, where he learned the craft of a hammer and chisel. Michelangelo went to his father, and told him he wanted to be an artist, and that made his father furious at the thought and he flew into a rage (“Britannica,” 2012). Bonner (2009) noted that his father recognized his intelligence and sent him to study grammar in Florence. While studying the principles of Latin, Michelangelo befriended a student, Francesco Granacci who encouraged him to follow his own desire for an artistic vocation. At the age of thirteen, Michelangelo infuriated...
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...Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Michelangelo Buonarroti : Compare and Contrast David This paper will focus on Bernini’s and Michelangelo’s work of art called David. The works of both artists are incredible, beautiful, and breathtaking. The works have interpretations of mythologies and Old Testament stories that originated millenniums ago. Both artists had the ability to produce such rich and poignant emotional content; their works are still able to invoke a deeply affecting response in viewers today. Michelangelo was born on March 6, 1475, at Caprese, in Tuscany (Michelangelo). He was the second of five brothers. Michelangelo lost his mother at the early age of 6. After his mothers passing Michelangelo had a neglected childhood. Throughout his childhood he managed to remain quiet and keep to himself. However, the boy was very intelligent and his father recognized this and sent him off to school (Michelangelo). Michelangelo is known as one of the greatest artists of all time. Gian Lorenzo Bernini was born on November 7, 1598 in Naples and thrived as a Baroque sculptor from the approximate age of eight until his death in 1680. The Baroque style Bernini encompassed was an artistic movement inspired by the Catholic Church after the Counter-Reformation. Baroque sculptures provide a range of viewpoints. Bernini’s Borghese works were similar to performances rather than a sculpture frozen in time (Bernini’s Borghese Sculptures: Another View). His influences included Renaissance masters...
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...throughout history. Two men who lived nearly a hundred years apart both sculptured the famous biblical figure of David through the lens of his own times but they were both influenced by many of the same things. Michelangelo showed David as a symbol of courage in the face of the enemy while Donatello depicted David as a symbol what can be accomplished by even the smallest entity. His character and story have been interpreted and re-interpreted by many artists in different mediums. Donatello was was born in Florence in 1386. He was an early Renaissance artist who lived at the end of the Dark Ages. He is known as the artist whose work officially began the Italian Renaissance (“David”). Donatello was first introduced to Roman sculpture when he visited Rome with his master, Brunelleschi (“Donatello”). It was there that he carefully studied classical Roman sculptures. The studies he preformed in Rome greatly influenced him the rest of his life. He is known for making the first sculptures with classical influence after the Dark Ages. The influence of his Roman studies is shown in the natural flow of the statue, something which is not seen in any art of the Dark Ages. Michelangelo was born to a middle class banking family on March 6, 1475 in Caprese, Italy. When he was still a young man, his mother become deathly ill and was sent to live with stone cutters where he later stated, “"With my wet-nurse's milk, I sucked in the hammer and chisels I use for my statues." (“Michelangelo”)...
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...figure to the Hebrews.* Several artists such as Donatello, Verrocchio, Michelangelo and Bernini, produced sculptures of the grand David between the Renaissance and the Early Barroque. Nonetheless, the two Davids that are known to stand out the most were made by Donatello...
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...“Two artists and two Renaissance wonders: Michelangelo's David and Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. Centuries after they were created, these are surely the two most renowned artistic objects in the world. They seem almost mirror images of one another – or rather, positive and negative: the woman who sits smiling, the man who stands grimacing.” “Leonard da Vinci was born Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci on the 15th of April 1452 in Vinci, Florence (present day Italy) Being a scientist, sculpture, writer, and painter amongst many other things. He has been described as one of the greatest painters of all time. Although a renowned painter, Leonardo was also described as an inventor. His works the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper are the most famous and reproduced portraits and religious paintings of all time. Their fame approached only by the Creation of Adam by Michelangelo. Although somewhat mysterious, Leonardo has been described as the most diversely talented person ever to have lived. He died on the 2nd of May 1519 at the age of aged 67.” ("Leonardo Da Vinci Vs Michelangelo, Who Is The Greatest Master?", 2009). “Michelangelo was born Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni on the 6th of March 1475 in Caprese ( Italy) His family had for several generations been small-scale bankers in Florence, but his father failed to maintain the bank's financial status, and held occasional government positions. At the time of Michelangelo's birth, his father was the judicial administrator of the...
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...The Renaissance was a time of rebirth and changes in the lives of many people and many people’s views on how humanity functioned. After the calamitous 14th Century in which many people were murdered through wars, or die naturally by plague, the survivors started to look at the world in a whole new way. The philosophies of many people had changed after such near death experiences and the Renaissance blossomed from the Renaissance. The Medici family were catalyst to the Renaissance as the were patrons of the arts. Art was a crucial part of the renaissance as this changed the method in which people viewed life greatly and so created many new methods in portraying the mind of the artist. Two such great sculptors of the Renaissance were Donato di Niccolo di Betto Bardi and Michelangelo did Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni. Michelanglo and David are most famous for creating the sculptures of David from the High and Low Renaissance respectively. The sculptures’ of Donatello and Michelangelo are both drastically different, evidenced by the influences of their respective Patrons, the time period that the sculptures depicted and the symbolism behind each sculpture. The influences of the two sculptures are important to find out how the final result of each Sculpture was. Donatello’s David was commissioned by the Medici family, at the time it was thought out of the ordinary for a member or a group of government to commission a piece of art. The fact that the Medici commissioned this artwork...
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...century led to the greatest European cultural movement and great innovations within the fields of science, art and literature. The Renaissance art finds its roots mostly in Classical Greek and Roman art. Early renaissance art was created in parallel with late Medieval art and it was also greatly influenced by Gothic arts, an older art style that was developed in the 12th century and during late middle ages. Although religious topics and events remained very popular which reflected the influence of medieval art, but more emphasis was placed on the meaning and the realistic qualities of the artwork by renaissance artists. As the political and social domination of church started to diminish and the humanist movement grew in popularity, the renaissance art took a different direction and distinctive characteristics started to develop in different areas. The artists started to separate themselves from their Middle Ages heritage by going against the religious traditionalism. To keep up with the humanist movement the renaissance artists started to portray more life-like and more realistic human forms, and they broke from medieval traditions in painting, sculpture and architecture. The decline of Church absolutism also altered people’s religious views and produced a different view of life. The renaissance patrons demanded art that showed joy in human beauty and life's pleasures. The renaissance artists had to produce arts to meet the tastes of their patrons. A combination of social and...
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...1. Summary of the Renaissance person’s life Raffaello Sanzio also well known as Raphael is Italian painter during the Renaissance period and he was born in Urbino, Italy on April 6, 1483 (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia). He was the one of the major three leading artists who is Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci during that period. Raphael's father, Giovanni Santi, painter at the court of Federigo Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, first taught him the elements of art and introduced the boy to humanistic philosophy at the court (Raphael). Raphael also helped his father with the court art (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia). A brilliant self-portrait drawing from his teenage years shows his precocious talent. Raphael lost his mother at age of eight and his father remarried, but Raphael lost his father when he was eleven. Raphael, who now has become the orphan, lived with his uncle Bartolomeo, a priest and later he joined the workshop of Perugino (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia). Around 1500’s influence of Perugino on Raphael's early work is very clear: "probably no other pupil of genius has ever absorbed so much of his master's teaching as Raphael did", according to Wölfflin (Livingstone). At this period it was almost impossible to distinguish whether it’s work by Perugino or Raphael. In 1504 Raphael arrived in Florence, it was full of recent innovations of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci Raphael’s Peruginesque style was out dated. Raphael was attracted to Leonardo’s work and...
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...sculptures of David created by both Italian artists, Michelangelo of the High Renaissance and Donatello of the Early Renaissance are similar yet different in several ways. As with most art created during these time periods, the sculptures tell the Bible story from the Old Testament about David and Goliath. In this story, David, an Israelite, battled Goliath, a Philistine, and killed him with a simple slingshot and then David’s own sword allowing for David to claim a victory for the Israelites. The similarities start with the pose. Both the artists show David in a similar pose. Both statues depict David as a warrior. Both figures are standing and are predominately nude. Both sculptures are positioned in a contrapposto pose. Both statues show some form of a soldier’s tools such as the helmet, boots, and sword in Donatello’s piece, and the stones from the sling shot in Michelangelo’s piece. Both likenesses of David depict the concept of humanism in that they both display within their likenesses a sense of “self-contained, even heroic individualism (Sayre, 2012) that perfectly captures the humanist spirit. It is from this point on the sculptures begin to have stark contrasts. Let’s focus first on the physical differences. The bronze David created by Donatello is that of a younger msn or teen age boy. It is definitely more feminine looking or waifish than that of Michelangelo’s work. His statue of David is much more developed and realistic to the human body than that of Donatello’s...
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...Rebecca Kestenbaum 4/1/11 Italian Renaissance research paper Professor Schlitt The cleaning of the Sistine Chapel ceiling was one of the most significant art restorations of the 20th century. The restoration changed the way modern viewers perceive 16th Century artist, Michelangelo, and refutes theories developed over the centuries. Before the restoration, the color and lighting of the Sistine chapel was misleadingly interpreted. Two years after the start of the restoration, Patricia Corbett published “After Centuries of Grime”, an article that revealed new developments about Michelangelo’s masterpiece that were before unknown. Corbett describes Michelangelo as a “brilliant and daring colorist whose bold brushwork is surprisingly impressionistic.” The Sistine ceiling had, for many years, been viewed under a “murky veneer” with false shadows and colors that the artist himself had not intended. As Gianluigi Colalucci, the chief conservator of paintings at the Vatican, and his small team meticulously worked to remove layers of dirt and encrustations, they discovered new developments on his style, technique and use of color. The response of critiques such as Pope John Paul II, a contemporary of Michelangelo of the 16th Century, who viewed the work as the artist intended was allegedly “fantastic, fantastic, absolutely marvelous”. The Pope’s reaction to the newly painted work was likely a response to the vibrant colors and energy radiating from the ceiling. After centuries...
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...The idea of art has been guided by human psychological necessities and an understanding of life been escorted by religious beliefs. Throughout human history, it is easily visible the effect that human desire to define their existence have had in the development of art, social hierarchies and moral principles. High Renaissance (1490 - 1527) and Italian Baroque (late 16th century - early 18th century) are period styles greatly influence by occurrences at the time. Michelangelo’s Moses is an immense representative of the High Renaissance styles, as well as, Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne for The Italian Baroque Style. We are going to explore both artworks, comparing and contrasting the meaning behind their existence, their respective cultural and historical events as an influence on their individual time period. Initially, in 1505 Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo Buonarroti to build his tomb. Michelangelo consenting, dedicated 6 months choosing marble at Carrara, for his initial massive design which in theory was to have 40 statues. The project was postponed due to a lack of funds, and a new commission by the Pope, rumored to be the...
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...painter, an architect, a poet, and a sculptor. He was nicknamed the “Father and Master of All the Arts”. He is regarded as the most famous artist of the Italian Renaissance. Some of his famous works include the statues “David” and “Pieta”, as well as the Sistine Chapel. His works are still highly praised today and will last into the future. Michelangelo was born in Caprese, Italy on March 6, 1475. His father, Leonardo di Buonarrota Simoni, was serving as a magistrate in the small village. His mother, Francesca Neri, grew ill at this time and this decided Michelangelo be placed and live with a family of stonecutters. As he grew older, schooling became less interesting than the paintings and drawings on the nearby churches. Michelangelo’s father realized early on that the young artist was going to have no interest in the family’s financial business. So, at the young age of 13, his father apprenticed him to the fashionable Florentine painter’s workshop. After only one year at the workshop, Michelangelo was offered an extraordinary opportunity. On the recommendation of Domenico Ghirlandaio, a well known painter at the time, Michelangelo moved into the palace of Florentine, home of Lorenzo the Magnificent, to study classical sculpture in the Medici Gardens. Hi lived with the Medici family from 1489-1492. During these few years, Michelangelo studied under the respected sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni. He was also introduced to prominent poets and scholars. Michelangelo was so renowned...
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...Who is David? Many might know him as a kid, a shepherd, a king, an adulterer, and more. He is a character in the bible who defeated Goliath, a Philistine giant, using a slingshot and stones. He is considered to be an ancestor of Jesus, which makes him a popular figure in the Christian world. He became an inspiration to many works of art. A bronze, life-size statue of David was sculpted by Donatello. He is an Italian sculptor and was the most influential individual artist of the fifteenth century in Italy. Donatello’s David’s earliest known reference was in 1469, when it was described as being in the center of the courtyard of the Medici Palace. However, no records of the statue show why or for whom it was created. Five centuries later, Donatello’s David is...
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...Jennifer Keefe Professor Mark Moak Art History 1 December 2011 The Life and Times of the Four David Artists Through out the years there were many great artists who created many great works of art, but only four Italian artists really stick out for creating the same piece all with different points of views. These artists were Donatello, Verrocchio, Michelangelo, and Bernini, all of who created a David sculpture. Each one very unique and different. These four artists all stand out in there own individual ways. David who was supposed to be the second king of Israel, killed Goliath with just a sling and a single stone. The story of David and Goliath goes something like this, according to the bible in 1 Samuel 17. “The Philistine army gathered for war against the Israelites. The two armies faced each other on opposite sides of a valley. A Philistine giant named Goliath, would come out in armor and challenge the Israelites to war. The King of Israel who at that time was Saul, and his whole army were scared of Goliath. David who was the youngest son of Jesse, was sent to battle for one simple task, to bring his father back news of his brothers. While there, David heard Goliath shouting and saw the fear that had began to show in the men of Israel. David volunteered himself to fight Goliath, it took sometime for Saul to agree, but finally he gave in. Dressed in his simple tunic, carrying only his staff, slingshot and a pouch full of stones, David approached Goliath...
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