Renaissance Ideals Through His Works Of Art example essay topic

There was a time period from 1400 C.E. to 1600 C.E., referred to as the Renaissance. The Renaissance was an age of discovery shown through, architecture, poetry, art, sculpture, and theater based on a Greco-Roman culture. Among the many Renaissance thinkers there was a man named Michelangelo Buonarroti. Michelangelo was an architect, sculptor, painter, poet, and an engineer. He preferred sculpting because he felt he was shaping mankind, which reflected the Renaissance era. The Renaissance encouraged everyone to express their human potential and become a master of their universe.

In contrast to, the dark middle age ideas of a supernatural orientation, to life, the Renaissance encouraged a more natural world and human life orientation. Michelangelo reflected the Renaissance ideals through his works of art; such as, the Sistine Chapel, many sculptures including David and the Pieta, and architecture including Capitoline Hill in Rome. In these forms of art, Michelangelo lived up to being the universal man, which meant developing yourself into an individual genious. Michelangelo reflected the Renaissance in the central panels on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. A particular piece of art showed how Adam and God became members of the same race of super beings, reflecting a mixture of Greek mythology and Christianity. The concept of combining pagan and Christianity is clearly shown in the central panel the Creation of Adam.

God!'s finger reaching out to Adam is transferring his godly powers to Adam. which depicts the Universal Man. Whereas Medieval art would consider placing man and God as equals to be wickedness, whereas the Renaissance ideal consider art depicting that men as gods was not evil. The Sistine Chapel showed that Michelangelo reflected the Renaissance, because he portrayed his paintings using shadows, boldness, depicting three dimensional objects. Causing the characters on the ceiling to come alive. In contrast to the Medieval age, art consisted of dull, flat without shadow or dimension.

The Renaissance created an era where artists could express themselves through lively art. Art during the pre-renaissance era, the Medieval age, was greatly influenced by the Catholic Church forbidding nudity and / or equality between God and man. Michelangelo challenged the church by depicting his work in the nude, yet idolizing God. During the Renaissance era, the artists would break away from previous styles of art; such as, not showing differences between a man and a woman and drawing persons in the nude.

Medieval paintings subtle detail consisted of unisex people, not knowing if it was a man or woman. During in Medieval times, religious art was void of expressing man in a human way. Only figures; such as, Christ and Christian icons would be drawn without form, gender, or nudity... Renaissance artists also glorified human form by creating copies of the human form in sculptures; such as, David and the Pieta. Michelangelo had many other kinds of creations he formed, but he mainly created sculptures. Sculptures are blocks of marble or chunks of clay took on three dimensional shapes.

The Renaissance era shifted from one dimensional forms (pictures) to three dimensional; such as, David and The Pieta. Michelangelo!'s work of art depicted in his sculpture of David was another important piece of work which displayed the three dimensional, super being God, yet angelic appearance. The Universal man image was advanced further through his sculptures shown around Italy. David showed that Michelangelo was living up to be the Universal Man. When he had started the block of marble, it had already been chiseled away at, and was very narrow. A creation to be formed.

When Michelangelo had finished this statue, he had lived up to the statues potential. The chiseled away block of marble was transformed into a masterpiece with the three dimensional nude human, almost alive form. Michelangelo!'s Pieta reflected the Renaissance by glorifying the human form along with human experiences of death and grieving. Whereas, in previous art forms, none existed to the depth that Michelangelo was able to create. Again, you see the influence of the Catholic church in depicting the Christianity in his sculptures; with the mother of God holding the dead Christ in her arms. This Mary is alive and has form in comparison to the Medieval pictures of Mary...

Pope Paul commissioned Michelangelo to create an architectural master piece; for instance, the Sistine Chapel and Capitoline Hill. Over and over again the Catholic church had a strong influence in the financing the Renaissance movement in Rome. Michelangelo again designed and compared the building to the form of the human body achieving balance with symmetry. The whole structure, Capitoline Hill, took on an emotion that a Renaissance artist could portray. In conclusion, Michelangelo reflected the Renaissance through sculpture, art, and architecture. He developed three dimensional paintings, which showed human expressions and experiences.

His statues appeared to be able to walk off their platforms at any time to rule the earth. Many of his works art depicted Greek mythology comparing man to the pagan gods in Greek mythology. Michelangelo furthered the Universal Man ideal in his bold architecture accomplishments; such as, the Capitoline Hill project. The Universal Man was a person that lived up to his or her potential in their time. Michelangelo accomplished this goal by changing Medieval one dimensional, unisex heavily robed figure art into three dimensional, bold art that depicted man as real and as an god in his own right... Michelangelo accomplished portraying the Renaissance era as a Greco-Roman culture of art along with the blessings of the Catholic church.

The bleak formless Medieval art forms were gladly replaced by Michelangelo!'s works of art.