Michelangelo (2) [compatibility Mode]

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564)

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Birth name: Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni Born March 6, 1475 near Arezzo, in Caprese, Tuscany Died February 18, 1564 (aged 88)Rome Nationality Italian Field sculpture, painting, architecture, and poetry Training Apprentice to Domenico Ghirlandaio Movement High Renaissance Works David, The Creation of Adam, Pietà

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Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni(March 6, 1475 – February 18, 1564), commonly known as Michelangelo, was an 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. He is the best documented artist of the 16th century. Two of his bestknown works, the Pietà and David, were sculpted before he turned thirty. 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. 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 deathwith some modification.

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Michelangelo’s vision of Art • Michelangelo, who was often arrogant with others and constantly dissatisfied with himself, saw art as originating from inner inspiration and from culture. • In contradiction to the ideas of his rival, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo saw nature as an enemy that had to be overcome. The figures that he created are forceful and dynamic; each in its own space apart from the outside world • He was by nature a solitary and melancholy person; he had a reputation for being bizzarre because he "withdrew himself from the company of men.“ • Fundamental to Michelangelo's art is his love of male beauty, which attracted him both aesthetically and emotionally. In part, this was an expression of the Renaissance idealization of masculinity.

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MICHELANGELO’S THE CREATION OF ADAM

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The Creation of Adam is a fresco painted by Michelangelo circa 1511 that appears on the ceilingof the Sistine Chapel. It illustrates the Biblical storyfrom the Book of Genesis in which God the Fatherbreathes life into Adam, the first man.Chronologically the fourth in the series of panelsdepicting episodes from Genesis on the Sistineceiling, it was among the last to be completed. It isone of the most famous images in the world.

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COMPOSITION •

The main span of the Sistine Ceiling contains nine separate images, which arrange themselves into three sets of three: the Story of Noah, the Story of Adam and Eve, and the Story of Creation--all from the Book of Genesis. • God is depicted as an elderly bearded man wrapped in a swirling cloak while Adam, on the lower left, is completely naked. •God's right arm is outstretched to impart the spark of life from his own finger into that of Adam, whose left arm is extended in a pose mirroring God's, a reminder that man is created in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26).

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• His left arm is wrapped around a female figure, normally interpreted as Eve, who is not yet created and, figuratively, waits inheaven to be given an earthly form. • Adam's finger and God's finger are separated by a slight distance.

•Based on classical Greek and Roman prototypes, Adam is the ideal human male with his rippling muscles and elegant contours. •The pink backdrop behind God is in the shape of a brain. Michelangelo may have used this symbol to show God's plan of creation which had not yet been revealed to the first man. •The woman in the crook of God's arm is often depicted as Sophia by the Gnostics. Christian tradition places Eve under God's arm as the next creature that He intends to bring into existence. The green ribbon that flows from the woman represents the human life that will be borne through the woman. Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com)

•Based on classical Greek and Roman prototypes, Adam is the ideal human male with his rippling muscles and elegant contours. •The pink backdrop behind God is in the shape of a brain. Michelangelo may have used this symbol to show God's plan of creation which had not yet been revealed to the first man. •The woman in the crook of God's arm is often depicted as Sophia by the Gnostics. Christian tradition places Eve under God's arm as the next creature that He intends to bring into existence. The green ribbon that flows from the woman represents the human life that will be borne through the woman. •The two figures behind God's left and right shoulders are an allusion to the Trinitarian God. Both faces are aligned with that of the Father. •The similar poses of God and Adam—the positions of God's right leg and Adam's left leg are, for instance, nearly identical—reflect the fact that, according to Genesis 1:27, God created man in his own image. •At the same time, God, who is airborne and appears against ovoid drapery, is contrasted with earthbound Adam, lying on a stable triangle of barren ground. • Adam's languid posture appears to be one of near mindless repose, whereas the figure of the Creator fairly bristles with energy.

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ANATOMICAL THEORIES •The background figures and shapes portrayed behind the figure of God appeared to be an anatomically accurate picture of the human brain, including the frontal lobe, optic chiasm, brain stem, pituitary gland, and the major sulci of the cerebrum.

•Alternatively, it has been observed that the red cloth around God has the shape of a human uterus (one art historian has called it a "uterine mantle"), and that the scarf hanging out, coloured green, could be a newly cut umbilical cord.

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ADAM’S FINGER AND GOD’S FINGER SEPARATED BY A CERTAIN DISTANCE •The focal point of the episode of the Creation of man is the contact between the fingers of the Creator and those of Adam, through which the breath of life is transmitted. • What is usually interpreted from this particular scene is that Adam is not being physically created, but is in the process of receiving something momentous, yet subtle, from the hand of God. • Adam is physically alive, but here God is about to endow Adam with what makes human beings truly alive: the spirit, the soul, the intellect. All of man’s potential, physical and spiritual, is contained in this one timeless moment.

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SYMBOLISM •Michelangelo habitually made liberal use of symbolism in both painting and sculpture, and perhaps he was also fond of visual puzzles and humour. •There is some speculation that much of the symbolism attributed to Michelangelo's works is due not only to the cultural and religious climate of Florence in the 1480s and early 1500s, but also the philosophy of Neoplatonism . •His writings and poetry of that time reflect his belief in the divine origin of art, and of physical beauty, and that the intellect is itself divine. •The outline of the human brain in the Creation of Adam may then be interpreted as the artist's pictorial declaration of his belief equating the divine gift of intellect with that of the soul.

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MICHELANGELO’S CONTRIBUTION TO ARCHITECTURE

Michelangelo Buonarroti was principally a sculptor and always claimed that architecture was not his profession; but, with a sculptor's vision, he saw buildings as dynamic organisms metaphors of the human body - and he designed some of the most impressive architecture in all history. Among his bestknown buildings are the Medici Chapel and the Laurentian Library in Florence; the Capitoline Hill, St Peter's and the Porta Pia in Rome.

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