Saturday, 22 March 2014

Who Is The 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.

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simon was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet and engineer. He is not only known for his Michelangelo paintings but also for two sculptures made before he turned thirty. These are the Pieta and the David.

As an architect, he revolutionized classical architecture by using plaster as the main element in his design of the dome of St Peter's Basilica also in Rome.

Michelangelo is the best documented artist of the 16th century when the sheer volume of surviving correspondences, reminiscences, and Michelangelo paintings in the form of sketches are taken into account.

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.

The Mona Lisa and the Last Supper are two Da Vinci paintings that occupy the unique positions of being the most famous, most reproduced and most parodied portrait and religious paintings of all time. Only the Creation of Adam, painted by his co-Italian and rival, Michelangelo has been able to approached the fame of these two Da Vinci paintings.

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.

Among the iconic Da Vinci paintings is his drawing of the Vitruvian Man. Due to Leonardo's constant, and frequently disastrous experimentation with new techniques, together with his chronic procrastination, only fifteen Da Vinci paintings experienced survival.

However, these few Da Vinci paintings comprise a contribution to later generations of artists, together with his notebooks, containing drawings, scientific diagrams and thoughts on the nature of painting. Again, this contribution is only rivalled by the corresponding contribution of his chief rival contemporary, Michelangelo.

The earlier Da Vinci paintings were products of an education in the studio of the renowned Florentine painter, Verrocchio.




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