Michelangelo

1. Michelangelo • Source: Coughlan, Robert. The World of Michelangelo. New York: Time-Life, 1996. Print. • Subject: Michelangelo’s life and achievements • Keywords: Renaissance, Medici, Sponsor, Arts • During the renaissance period, artists such as Michelangelo needed to be sponsored by some wealthy family. In Michelangelo’s case, they were the Medici's. • Though trained by Ghilarndaio’s workshop and Bertoldo’s sculpture gardens, Michelangelo acknowledged no master. He was too independent a spirit for that. • Sculpture was Michelangelo’s chosen art, and the greatest of sculptors in the world. • Michelangelo being one of the most prominent artists, was sponsored by the wealthiest family in Italy • Florence was converted into the world’s greatest art center.

2. Michelangelo • Source: Davidson, Marshal B. A History of Art. New York: Random House, 1984. Print. • Subject: Michelangelo and his beginnings, talents • Keywords: Sculptor, Artist, Poet, Architect • His first work of art was a sculpture called Pietà which was created when he was barely 20 years old. • Ten years after he began sculpting he began enjoying paintings. • Creator of the Sistine chapel which took him 6 years to finish. • Michelangelo was the most influential and talented painter of his time. • He was chosen to paint the ceiling of the chapel by a pope which in his time meant he possessed a great ability and talent.

3. Michelangelo • Source: Michelangelo. Rep. Web. 15 Apr. 2010.<http://www.michelangelo.com/buon/bio-index2.html>. • Subject: Michelangelo’s studies • Keywords: Studies, Anatomy, Guides, Florence • Michelangelo began to study human anatomy. In exchange for permission to study corpses, But his contact with the dead bodies caused problems with his health, obliging him to interrupt his activities periodically. • Studying Corpses was Absolutely forbidden by the church. • Michelangelo produced at least two relief sculptures by the time he was 16 years old, the Battle of the Centaurs and the Madonna of the Stairs, which show that he had achieved a personal style at a precocious age. • Michelangelo took art very seriously and even challenged the church by studying corpses in order to learn human anatomy. • Michelangelo perfected his technique making him one of the best sculptors of all time.

4. Michelangelo • Source: Duffy, Michael H. "Michelangelo and the Sublime in Romantic Art Criticism." Rev. of Art. Jstornoews. ITHAKA, 1995. Web. 15 Apr. 2010. <http://www.jstor.org/pss/2709836>. • Subject: Critic • Keywords: Light, Art, Critic • Recent scholars have seriously questioned the assumption that Michelangelo’s most ardent romantic admirers were willing or even able to bring about a realignment in taste in traditional academic selection theory. • Michelangelo blossomed at the end of the eighteenth century closely coincided with the arrival of romanticism, with its emphasis upon personal experience, strong emotion, and transcendental thought. • Just a few years after Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) achieved tonal unity, Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) tried a different approach. His colors are brilliant and contrasted, whereas da Vinci’s are subdued and unified. Michelangelo’s contours are crisp and set off against a contrasting background, whereas da Vinci’s blend and avoid silhouette. • Michelangelo mixes his colors with both black and white to maximize the contrast range for all the colors he uses. This means the lighter parts of each color (even the black of Joseph’s tunic) are almost white and unrealistically de-saturated. • Michelangelo is highly criticized for using unrealistic shades of color to create the effect of light in some of his artworks such as in his famous painting Doni Holly Family. He is compared to his contemporary Leonardo da Vinci who used more subdued tones of colors.

5. Michelangelo • Source: "Michelangelo." Wikipedia. Wikimedia. Web. 15 Apr. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelangelo>. • Subject: Architecture, Painting, Rivalry • Keywords: Frescoes, Architect, Paintings, Leonardo da Vinci • Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer. Despite making few forays beyond the arts, his versatility in the disciplines he took up was of such a high order that he is often considered a contender for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man, along with his rival and fellow Italian Leonardo da Vinci. • Despite his low opinion of painting, Michelangelo also created two of the most influential works in fresco in the history of Western art: the scenes from Genesis on the ceiling and The Last Judgment on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. • As an architect, Michelangelo pioneered the Mannerist style at the Laurentian Library. At 74 he succeeded Antonio da Sangallo the Younger as the architect of Saint Peter's Basilica. Michelangelo transformed the plan, the western end being finished to Michelangelo's design, the dome being completed after his death with some modification. • Michelangelo made many achievements in all the areas he worked on and excelled on the arts. • By achieving so many accomplishments, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci become rivals on determining who was the most influential artist of the Renaissance.

6. Michelangelo • Source: "Michelangelo, Renaissance Art." Web. 15 Apr. 2010. <http://www.artchive.com/artchive/M/michelangelo.html>. • Subject: Achievements in Architecture • Keywords: Architecture, Laurentian Library, Medici Chapel, Lorenzo the Magnificent, St. Peter’s Basilica, Campidolgio • Around 1530 Michelangelo designed the Laurentian Library in Florence, attached to the church of San Lorenzo. He produced new styles such as pilasters tapering thinner at the bottom, and a staircase with contrasting rectangular and curving forms. • Michelangelo designed the Medici Chapel. The Medici Chapel has monuments in it dedicated to certain members of the Medici family. Michelangelo never finished the project, so his pupils later completed it. Lorenzo the Magnificent was buried at the entrance wall of the Medici Chapel. • Michelangelo worked on many projects that had been started by other men, most notably in his work at St Peter's Basilica, Rome. The Campidoglio, designed by Michelangelo during the same period, rationalized the structures and spaces of Rome's Capitoline Hill. Its shape, more a rhombus than a square, was intended to work against the effects of perspective. • Michelangelo excelled on the field of architecture as well and saw himself involved in many projects who now form a cultural part of Italy. • As well as creating projects himself, Michelangelo perfected and finished other artist’s creations.