Why was michealangelo ....?

Question

so great and important to the reianiassance period?

Answer 1

Well one reason Michealangelo was important was that he able fused the Greek classical humanist style with Christian themes, in particular on the Sistene chapel. The revival of the Greek classical and humanism is what defined the high renaissance. BTW, Leonardo da Vinci wasn't Michealangelo's rival. They had different philosophies when it came to their view of nature but Leonardo was born in 1452 and died in 1519. Michealangelo was born in 1475 and died 1564.
Although he was a painter, architect and somewhat of an engineer, Michealangelo considered himself more of a sculptor than a painter, despite the fact that he did the sistene chapel with much resistance. And honestly, I think he was right. Althought the Sistene Chapel is beautiful, his sculpture is superb and extremely poetic. Although in both his painting and sculpture it's apparent that he struggled with the female figure, since they look like male chests with breasts attached. Perhaps he never studied the female form and anatomy like Da Vinci did. who knows.
Da Vinci was a painter, engineer, architect, inventor, philosopher and scientist. Michaelangelo's contemporaries were Raphael and the architect/engineer Donato Bramante who designed St. Peter's Basilica. These two were more of Michaelangelo's rivals.

Answer 2

The Renaissance was a period of not only social, cultural & artistic rebirth but also the dawn of the age of Science. Michealangelo played into all of these areas. He was a scientific thinker and inventor. Did you know he sketched the 1st helicoptor? His understanding and in depth study of the body as form led him to create the most beautiful & anatomically correct sculptures of his time. He also created the Sistine chapel which in itslef was a huge endevour. He painted the majority of it on his back in scaffolding. Books A Million has a book that contains sketches of all of his architectural designs too. He had his finger in many pies. He enriched the AAt world & Scientific world simultaneously.

Answer 3

the reianiassance period, was a time when people wanted realilistic paintings. they wanted to see themselves in a painting. They is how they had sponsors to pay them
so in the Sistine Chapel there are pictures of may great and famous people
Michealangelo was consider one of the greats ( his rivel was DaVinci )
his style is so exact and detailed that you can see the veins on the people, the coloring is perfect. this is also one of the reasons his is consider the greatest

Answer 4

Have a look at pictures of the Sistine Chapel and work that out for yourself.

Its pretty darn obvious!

Answer 5

Sometimes one's own judgment is better than a texbook, even for homework assignments like yours.

Answer 6

His painting and sculptures were unparalleled marvels, which reflected true genius.

Answer 7

Can I just say firstly that Michelangelo wasn't over concerned with the realism of his paintings. (Sorry Wicked) Niether did he sketch helicopters or work on his back to paint the Sisitine Chapel. (Sorry Artist)

Here's a little about his works and his motivation and what was so special about them.

Remember he was first and foremost a sculpter, architect and lastly a painter.

As an artist he was unmatched, the creator of works of sublime beauty that express the full breadth of the human condition. Yet in a world where art flourished only with patronage, Michelangelo was caught between the conflicting powers and whims of the Medici family in Florence, and the Papacy in Rome. Unlike many artists of his time, his genius was recognized, but at what cost to his personal life?



eMichelangelo's philosophy of art was Neoplatonic, and represented a departure from other theories of the time. Michelangelo believed that the artist's function was to bring preexistent forms out of the material at hand: "the greatest artist has no conception which a single block of marble does not potentially contain within its mass, but only a hand which obeys the intelleto can accomplish that" (Clements 16). Art forms, or the concetto, exist independently of the artist, and are implanted in matter by nature. The artist's function was to draw these forms out of the material.

Neoplatonism, as a school of thought, had its origins in the work of Plotinus in the third century. Plotinus argued that there were three hypostases: the One, the Intelligible, and the World Soul. The One was the highest, most perfect realm. The One was completely undifferentiated and, therefore, nothing could be said about it. It was, then, even beyond being; the One transcended all categories which could be applied to it. The other two hypopstases "emanated" from the One. They were not created, but rather, came into being as a result of a corrupt desire to be other than the One. The Intelligible was the Divine mind for Plotinus, and took its form by reflecting back on the One. The realm of the Intelligible was populated by divine ideas, which were the perfect exemplars of sensible objects. The physical world came into being as a result of the emanation of Soul from the Intelligible. Some souls become corrupted and associate with matter. Matter was a complete negation, neither good nor evil in itself, but utterly formless. Soul informs matter, and makes it what it is. Matter, while not evil in itself, is, however, the source of evil. Being bound up with matter corrupts the soul; some souls forget their divine origins and become too concerned with sensible things. . All souls, however, eventually seek to return to the One. Plotinus argued that the soul can become reunited with the One through contemplation. The life of the philosopher, for Plotinus, was the best attempt to free oneself from the bonds of matter and achieve a vision of the One.

Michelangelo was famous for his ability to harmonize the design of a statue with the proportions of the block of marble.

Michelangelo differed in this respect from many Renaissance theorists, who argued that art should reproduce nature. He was often criticized for not faithfully representing his subjects.According to Vasari, his figures "were often nine, ten, and twelve heads long; he departed not a little from the work regulated by measure, order and rule which other men did according to a common use and after Vitruvius .. . to which he would not conform" (Blunt 75). Michelangelo also violated the rules of perspective, often making objects in the background appear larger than they should be.
Michelangelo did not, then, stress the literal imitation of nature. Michelangelo disliked this trend in art, since this was an area where "one cannot make fixed rules, making figures as regular as signposts" (Blunt 75).
For Michelangelo, the function of art was to represent ideal beauty. As such, Michelangelo portrayed figures which are not engaged in any particular activity -- the stance of the David is twisted, and the manner in which he holds his slingshot would make any action impossible. The Virgin is portrayed as a young woman because her beauty is timeless. The David and the Virgin are ideal types, not particular individuals.

Michelangelo's art consistently focused on human subjects. Da Vinci's portraits, such as the Mona Lisa, often included elaborate landscapes. Michelangelo rarely included such details in his paintings or his sculpture. This preoccupation with the human figure can also be attributed to Neoplatonic theories. Michelangelo saw the body as a reflection of the beauty of the soul. David's inner strength, for example, was reflected in a strong and beautiful body. Most of Michelangelo's figures were nude.The body was not only a reflection of the Divine, but it was a reflection of the human's inner self. The intense spirituality of Michelangelo's Moses was portrayed in a body of huge proportions and massive strength. Michelangelo's ability to depict this tremendous radiation of inner strength became known as his terribilita. Moses is portrayed "as the personification of the elemental forces -- the human volcano about to erupt with righteous wrath ... the dead center of a hurricane of emotional fury" (Fleming 190). This is revealed by the "the powerful musculature of the arms, the fiery mood, and the torsions of the body" (Fleming 191).


The awe inspiring quality of Michelangelo's figures was also due to his belief that the soul was continually in conflict with the body. The union of the soul and the body corrupted the soul by diverting its attention to sensual experience, rather than the higher realms.Michelangelo portrayed the struggle of the soul to return to the infinite in stone. The San Matteo, an unfinished work, seems to be struggling to free himself from the surrounding stone. Michelangelo's figures also express"action barely restrained" (Clements 175). This tension was accomplished by the use of the contraposito. Michelangelo encouraged his students to "always make a figure pyramidal ... and serpentine formed" (Clements 175). The use of contraposito dictates that "whatever action a figure is engaged in, its trunk [will] always appear twisted, so that if the right arm is extended forward or makes any other gesture designed by the artist, the left side of the body shall withdraw" (Clements 177). For this reason, "one sees in [Michelangelo's] paintings the most difficult movements...for this reason tending toward a certain savagery and terribility" (Clements 179).


Mihelangelo thought of himself primarily as a sculptor rather than a painter and attempted to turn down the Sistine Chapel commission. Here's how he felt about the work in his own words. "After four tortured years, more than 400 over life-sized figures, I felt as old and as weary as Jeremiah. I was only 37, yet friends did not recognize the old man I had become."

He also wrote this which would indicate his true feelings.
This comes from dangling from the ceiling–
I'm goitered like a Lombard cat
(or wherever else their throats grow fat)–
it's my belly that's beyond concealing,
it hands beneath my chin like peeling.
My beard points skyward, I seem a bat
upon its back, I've breasts and splat!
On my face the paint's congealing.

Loins concertina'd in my gut,
I drop an **** as counterweight
and move without the help of eyes.

Like a skinned martyr I abut
on air, and, wrinkled, show my fat.
Bow-like, I strain toward the skies.

No wonder then I size
things crookedly; I'm on all fours.
Bent blowpipes send their darts off-course.

Defend my labor's cause,
good Giovanni, from all strictures:
I live in hell and paint its pictures.

Michelangelo Buonarroti

Michelangelo thought that sculpure made things real whereas painting was simply an illusion.