Art History Discussion: Michealangelo

Michelangelo

In Bacchus, he is portraying the God of Wine. He covered it in dirt, and then sold it off as being something he found buried in his backyard, just to reveal that he actually made it, to show off his genius.

In Pieta, he produces a highly geometric piece, with a focus on three dimensional spheres and circles. It took a serious understanding of muscles, and had a strong focus in naturalism. It wasn't based in realism. The relative ages of Mary and Jesus are portrayed as being the same age, or possible Mary as younger than Jesus. It is heavily against realism, in order to portray divinity the focus is on geometry is beauty, is divine.
Sometime in the 1970s, someone tore the face of the virgin mary completely, and ripped off the arm of Jesus. Since then it has been restored and is behind bullet-proof glass. It was attacked because people praised Michelangelo, but were thinking of Jesus.

David, was originally placed in the city square of Florence. Now David is in a museum. Acid rain was the reason for why Florence moved David into a museum. It was commissioned by the city of Florence. Italy during the Renaissance was not a country, but a collection of City States, that went to war with eachother, quite frequently. Italy did not become a country until the middle of the 19th century. Italy was originally a small city state, with a small army, surrounded by larger city states with larger armies. Italy commissioned the David statue, as David represented Italy, and Goliath would be who ever dared step to them.  David's hands are gigantic in this sculpture, and art historians are very troubled by this. Some people want to claim that David's hands simply look big in photographs, but that is simply not true, those hands are giant. Because David was in the awkward stage of adolescence, then maybe his hands are oddly proportioned to represent the fact that he was still growing. However, large hands no matter what they represent, are against geometry is beauty, is divine. David's body is not portrayed to be partially tense or partially relaxed, but completely tense, he breaks spatial boundaries, the lack of Goliath, makes it even not contained within story.

The Tomb of giuliano de medici portrays Night as being contorted. Again he stands against the ideas of geometric perfection. He designs Night as being very tense, and very awkward, by drawing a contorted body of a woman who essentially is the body of a man with female breasts. Day is a man who is muscular, lacking confidence. Dawn is also portrayed using a combination of man and woman, and portrays the imperfections of man. The focus is on realism, versus these ideas of geometry is beauty, is divine.

The Bound Slave, Michealangelo is portraying the restless anxiety faced by the living who are bound to the world of living, who wishes to travel to Heaven. 

The Sistene Chapel, has Adam unable to even reach up to God, which mocks the idea of man being able to achieve the level of divinity. The original colors, were changed by the years of grime developed by the chapel being candle lit. The creation of the Sun and the Moon, has a bare bottom. The pope told Michealangelo to paint the Chapel ceiling, and told him that one of his jobs is to paint the creation of the Sun and the Moon, and to do it right. The bare bottom that is portrayed is God's. Michealangelo felt he could not illustrate the Creation of the Sun and the Moon, he feels that he cannot paint the divine, he knows it. His job as an artist was to paint the divine, so he demonstrates that he can't be like God, so he paints God's bottom. The contorted figures around the Creation of the Sun and the Moon, show that men are imperfect. Michealangelo frequently uses male, female, amalgam figures in order to portray the awkward struggles of the people to reach for the divine. Michealangelo believes that the Renaissance is wrong.