Michelangelo From High Renaissance And Mannerism example essay topic

In this paper, I aim at examining an important icon from the tradition of Western Art, namely "Crucifixion" by way of tracing how this particular image is used through three different artists, Raphael, Michelangelo and Rubens. These there eminent artists were the followers of different tradition in Western Art, Raphael from High Renaissance, Michelangelo from High Renaissance and Mannerism, Rubens from Baroque, so it will be possible to follow the icon of Crucifixion over the course of centuries and different movements. In the first part, I will deal with the icon, "Crucifixion" and its importance in western art, and in the second part I will examine this sampling iconographical scene with giving reference to three painters. The Passion of Christ: Crucifixion The Passion as it is traditionally known (from the Latin for sufferings) is the story of the last events of Christ's earthly life.

Among ancient Mediterranean peoples, crucifixion was considered the most shameful means of torture and execution reserved only for the worst criminals. By accepting it, Christ shows the greatest degree of self-sacrifice. As Christianity came to dominate the West, the once shameful image of the crucifixion became the central and distinguishing symbol for the new religion. While other religions celebrated the invulnerability and power of their gods, the Church focused on the human vulnerability and suffering of Jesus, the sheer fragility of skin and bones under the lash and nail of power. Alone among world religions, Christianity defiantly displayed the wasted and twisted dead body of God in its most sacred places.

Inevitably the Church made use of art to bring scenes from the Passion to the many who could not read. When the taste for imaginative representations from the Bible became an appetite, the Church found it had at its command one of the most powerful means of reaching the deepest emotions of its members. As an icon, the Crucifixion scene was not meant to represent neither the historical Jesus nor his supreme sacrifice. It was intended to depict the crucifixion of his idea, the perversion and disfiguration of the teachings for which he came into this world and for which he died on the cross. In general, artists have inserted many symbolic elements to this iconographical scene. After Christ was brought to Calvary, he was stripped of his clothes and crucified between crosses on which two thieves were also put to death.

A sign was attached to his cross that read"Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews". In art, the sign reads "I.N.R. I" representing the initial letters of the four Latin words Jesus Nazarenus Rex Judaeo rum. Raphael Raphael (1483-1520) was born in Urbino in 1483 and, together with Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo was one of the greatest artists of the late Renaissance. He started work as a young man in the school of Perugino.

All Raphael's surviving works from 1502 to 1504 show Perugino's influence, the most notable are Crucifixion (1502-1503), Marriage of the Virgin (1504), Madonna and Child (c. 1503), Madonna Connestabile (c. 1503-1504). After these years, he studied works of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo in Florence, by which he was greatly influenced. Yet he proved, that his ability to adapt from others what was necessary to his own vision and to reject what was incompatible with it was faultless. Raphael died unexpectedly in Rome on his 37th birthday, April 6, 1520.

Crucifixion, dated c. 1502-1503 is one of the finest and oldest known examples of a theme, which was very popular at that time (figure 1). In his drawing, there is a clear organization of the composition and the avoidance of excessive detail, also provided useful means through which to express the new spirit of the High Renaissance. The idealizing beauty of women, with their calmly contemplative expressions and strikingly small mouths, lingers on for some time create a kind of slow and tentative atmosphere. The above-mentioned work may be seen as high point of what we understand as High Renaissance painting in its most evolved form. The transition to a new approach to art was complete.

A painting was no longer to be the mere portrayal of an event, but was to translate and interpret its subject-matter in its composition. The movement of the body was now understood as an analogy for the animation of the spirit or the emotions; the external structure of a scene proclaimed its inner content. Everything in the picture was aimed at harmonious balance; each individual figure became an inseparable part of the whole. In this lies Raphael's significant contribution to the painting of the High Renaissance.

Michelangelo Michelangelo (1475-1564) is certainly the most representative artist of the XVI century: a sculptor, painter, architect, and poet. He lived to a great age, and enjoyed great fame in his lifetime. At the rear of the chapel Michelangelo painted The Last Judgment (1534), considered by many to be his masterwork. The Last judgement was intended as the climax of the chapel's account, represented in coherent stages, on the ceiling and walls, of the Christian history of the world.

In 1504 he sculpted David in a classical style, giving him a perfectly proportioned body and musculature. His final product conveys his own skill for demonstration of mass within stone and a sense of Moses' anguish. Whether in painting, sculpture or architecture, Michelangelo's influence has been immense. Although he restricted himself to the nude in painting, his expressive use of the idealized human form had a tremendous impact on contemporaries and future generations.

Furthermore, there was not a major Italian sculptor of the 16th century whose style was not formed under the influence of Michelangelo, or in direct reaction against him. He was very much influenced by his vision, and he is responsible in large measure for the development of Mannerism. He was one of the founders of the High Renaissance and, in his later years, one of the principal exponents of Mannerism. Mannerism emerged more clearly as a link between the High Renaissance and the emotionally charged and dynamic baroque art that followed. The term mannerism that describes the style of the paintings derived from the Italian manera, meaning simply "style". It is sometimes defined as the "stylish style" for its emphasis on self-conscious artifice over realistic depiction.

It pursues excellence in painting demanded refinement, richness of invention, and virtuoso technique, criteria that emphasized the artist's intellect. The work of "Christ Crucified, Mary and St. John" is one of the most highly regarded among several "Crucifixions" drawn by Michelangelo (figure 2). The drawing is dated to approximately 1552-1554, when Michelangelo was 80. It is entitled the "Pentimento" (Change of mind) relating not to the subject, but to the artist's obvious change of heart felt while rendering Christ's left arm. Michelangelo's "Christ Crucified. ". is consisting of bizarre, sometimes acid color, illogical compression of space, exaggerated anatomy of figures, serpentine poses.

These features frequently create a feeling of anxiety. In other words, the work appears strange and unsettling, despite its superficial naturalism. More important than his carefully recreated observation of nature was the artist's mental conception and its elaboration. It might be said that this drawing is characterized by a complex perspectival system, extension of forms, posed of figures, and intense, often strident color. That is to say, it is created within the tradition of mannerism style.

Rubens Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) is considered one of the most important Flemish painters of the 17th century. Rubens was educated to be a humanist but like all great artists choose his profession for himself. Copying the masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance especially and the recently unearthed sculptures of classical antiquity, Rubens sketched and painted and encompassed all that was best in Italian and Classical art. He combined the lessons of Antique Sculpture with the vaunting ambition of the High Renaissance giants in a novel way.

He used the plastic lessons of sculpture as a composition model but insisted that flesh should look like flesh in a painting thus developing his breakthrough approach to the naked body. Rubens was to develop a phenomenal ability to analyze the different styles of painting and sculpture and then synthesis them into whatever his clients wanted. Peace, harmony, abundance, and love these are the great themes of Rubens and his age, which this exhibit illustrates so well. His style became an international definition of the animated, expansively sensuous aspects of baroque painting. Baroque Art emerged in Europe around 1600, as an reaction against the intricate and formulaic Mannerist style which dominated the Late Renaissance. It is less complex, more realistic and more emotionally affecting than Mannerism.

During the Baroque period (c. 1600-1750), architecture, painting, and sculpture were integrated into decorative ensembles. Architecture and sculpture became pictorial, and painting became illusionistic. Baroque art was essentially concerned with the dramatic and the illusory, with vivid colors, hidden light sources, luxurious materials, and elaborate, contrasting surface textures, used to heighten immediacy and sensual delight. Rubens's work, "The Crucified Christ" is one of a kind high quality production of Rubens drawings. It combines the bold brushwork, luminous color.

In this drawing, Rubens created a vibrant art, its pulsating energies emanating from tensions between the intellectual and emotional, the classical and the romantic. As a conclusion, the theme, Passion of Christ, especially Crucifixion was widely used by the Renaissance and post-Renaissance artists. While Raphael's work expresses the new spirit of the High Renaissance, including a lucid organization of the composition and the avoidance of excessive detail, Michelangelo studies this theme within the tradition of mannerism that includes eccentric, sometimes harsh or corrosive in tone color, illogical densification of space, exaggerated anatomy of figures. At the same time, 17th century painter, Rubens takes in hand this theme within the tradition of Baroque movement. The

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