Thursday, March 20, 2014

The Archetypal Renaissance Man Contenders

By Darren Hartley


Among the Michelangelo paintings are two of the most influential works in fresco in Western art history. These are the scenes from Genesis on the Sistine chapel ceiling and the Last Judgment on the Sistine Chapel altar wall in Rome. These works are renowned inspite of Michelangelo's low opinion of painting.

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.

In his design of the dome for the Roman St. Peter's Basilica, Michelangelo used plaster as his main ingredient. In doing this, he started a classical architectural revolution.

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.

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian polymath, having been a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer, one time or the other. However, it is primarily for his Da Vinci paintings that he was renowned for.

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.

As far as contributions to later generations of artist, Da Vinci and Michelangelo find themselves rivalling one another once again. As far as Da Vinci is concerned, his contribution consists of the surviving Da Vinci paintings, together with his notebooks of drawings, scientific diagrams and personal insights on the nature of painting.

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




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