Michelangelo E-Book

50MINUTES

• Herausgeber: 50Minutes.com
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Art & Literature
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 35

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

Keen to learn but short on time? Find out everything you need to know about the life and work of Michelangelo in just 50 minutes with this straightforward and engaging guide!

Michelangelo is one of the most influential artists in Western art history, and his works, including his famed sculpture David and the frescoes adorning the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, are among the most recognisable in the world. As the creator of statues and paintings on a vast, imposing scale, who displayed virtually unrivalled technical mastery and interwove religious and secular subjects in a highly original manner, Michelangelo was a source of inspiration to countless later artists, including the Mannerists and numerous 19th-century French artists. In spite of his exceptional talent, he was frequently dissatisfied with his own work, and a number of projects were left unfinished at his death.

In this book, you will learn about:
• The artistic developments that took place in Italy during the Renaissance
• The commissions Michelangelo received from influential patrons, including several popes and the powerful Medici family
• His most celebrated works, including David and The Last Judgment, and their influence on later artists

ABOUT 50MINUTES.COM | Art & Literature
The Art & Literature series from the 50Minutes collection aims to introduce readers to the figures and movements that have shaped our culture over the centuries. Our guides are written by experts in their field and each feature a full biography, an introduction to the relevant social, political and historical context, and a thorough discussion and analysis of the key works of each artist, writer or movement, making them the ideal starting point for busy readers looking for a quick way to broaden their cultural horizons.

Leseprobe

MICHELANGELO

Name: Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, better known as Michelangelo.Born: 6 March 1475 in Caprese (near Florence).Died: 18 February 1564 in Rome.Context: the Italian Renaissance.Notable works:The Pietà in St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome (1498-1499), sculptureDavid (1501-1504), sculptureDoni Tondo (1506-1508), panel paintingThe ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (1508-1512), frescoThe tomb of Pope Julius II (1504-1545)The Last Judgment (1536-1541), fresco

With his mastery of a range of artistic disciplines and insatiable curiosity, the sculptor, architect, painter and poet Michelangelo embodied the ideals of the Renaissance. Unlike his great rival Raphael (Italian painter, 1483-1520), he was a tireless worker and led a solitary, reclusive life, guided by his all-consuming passion for art.

He displayed exceptional artistic talent from a very young age and soon attracted the attention of influential patrons. Throughout his career, he took on a range of prestigious commissions, including the tomb of Pope Julius II and the frescoes adorning the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. However, he was frequently dissatisfied with his own work and left a number of his projects unfinished. He produced works across a number of disciplines, gradually shifting his focus from painting and sculpture in the early years of his career to architecture in the later stages of his life.

His monumental works blend traditional and innovative features: to begin with, his work was shaped by his Tuscan heritage, but as time went on he distanced himself from this style to base his architectural and sculptural work on Greco-Roman principles, although he added his own touches to these classical models. He was far ahead of his time and provided an inexhaustible source of inspiration for subsequent generations of artists.

CONTEXT

THE ART OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE

In art history, the Italian Renaissance is traditionally divided into two periods: the Quattrocento (15th century) and the Cinquecento (16th century). The three main artists of the Quattrocento were the architect Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446), the sculptor Donatello (c. 1386-1466) and the painter Masaccio (1401-1428); other key figures of this period include Lorenzo Ghiberti (1381-1455), Paolo Uccello (1397-1475), Piero della Francesca (1416-1492) and Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506). The most important figures of the Cinquecento were four artists who each worked across a range of disciplines: Bramante (1444-1514), Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Raphael and Michelangelo. The celebrated painter Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) was also active during this period. The artistic capital of the Quattrocento was undoubtedly Florence, while Rome was the key hub of the Cinquecento.

The defining characteristic of the Renaissance was the fact that its artists drew thematic and aesthetic inspiration from ancient Greece and Rome, as they read the works of authors from antiquity and took an interest in the archaeological discoveries that uncovered some of the masterpieces of Greek and Roman statuary, including Laocoön and His Sons (sculpture, excavated in Rome in 1506) and Apollo Belvedere (marble statue, rediscovered in central Italy in the late 15th century). Architects began to apply the theories of Pythagoras (Greek philosopher and mathematician, 6th century BCE) and Vitruvius (Roman architect and engineer, 1st century BCE) to their work, and artists increasingly distanced themselves from the Christian tradition by choosing to depict pagan and secular subjects in their work as well as religious themes, and by taking on commissions from wealthy aristocratic and bourgeois families in addition to those they received from the Church. Scientific and technical advances in fields as diverse as mathematics, astronomy, anatomy and medicine also had a direct impact on the art produced during the Renaissance. Furthermore, the development of mechanical movable type printing by Johannes Gutenberg (1397/1400-1468) in the 1450s facilitated the dissemination of new knowledge throughout Europe.