Sistine

Michelangelo's Sixth Bay

Wikipedia Commons

One of the most humbling experiences in the world is standing under Michelangelo Bounarroti’s Sistine Chapel ceiling. The pure enormity of the work (131 by 43 feet) paired with the skill and finesse of Bounarotti  makes this work awe-inspiring.

Under the patronage of Pope Julius II, Bounarotti completed the frescoes over four years, between 1508 and 1512using the boun fresco method meaning that he worked only on freshly laid plaster and each section of work was completed while the plaster was still in its fresh state.

Central to the ceiling decoration are nine scenes from the Book of Genesis of which the Creation of Adam is the best known, and my personal favorite.

The complex design includes several sets of individual figures, both clothed and nude, which allowed Michelangelo to fully demonstrate his skill in creating a huge variety of poses for the human figure. These figures were so well rendered that they have provided an enormously influential pattern book of models for other artists ever since. The action takes place between the two figures in the forefront, Adam and God. The reclining Adam in the bottom left-hand corner languidly reaches out his left arm to meet the hand of God from whom he was created. A crowd of people surrounds God, Eve is visible peaking out from under his arm and all are enveloped in a purple cloak in the shape of the human brain. This shape serves as a reference to Gods gift to man, thought. For someone who was initially averse to painting, Michelangelo achieved a piece that many could never create. 

Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa

Mona Lisa, Through Bulletproof Glass
Photo by Madeline Cox

Why does the Mona Lisa enthrall hundreds of thousands of visitors each year? Is it her sly smile? Or the genius that is the work of the great Leonardo da Vinci?

Without a doubt the Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, painted in 1503-1505, is the most famous, or infamous pieces of art in the world. The subject’s facial expression alone has brought about a source of debate for centuries, as her face remains largely enigmatic in the portrait.

Madeline Cox

Irrevocably the Mona Lisa revolutionized the painting world, the pose itself breaking with tradition. Unlike many other artists Leonardo extended the view of the sitter down, painting her arms and folded hands. The Mona Lisa exhibits Leonardo’s ability to create not only a deep sense of space but also a harmonious geometric composition. The gradual transitions from light to dark or sfumato, exhibited not only in the flesh tones of the figure but in the surrounding landscape is a technique that was often employed by Leonardo. Originally, the painting was wider with architectural elements such as a balcony and side columns that served to give a sense of space to the piece and the overall atmospheric composition. In short, Leonardo displayed in this work a mastery of technique that was unknown at the time, deeply impressed his contemporaries, and has seldom been equaled since.

A Genius

Roman Pietà

c. 1498-99

Michelangelo

Wikipedia Commons

“No sculptor, not even the most rare artist could ever reach this level of design and grace, nor could he, even with hard work, ever finish, polish, and cut the marble as skillfully as Michelangelo did here for in this statue all of the worth and power of sculpture is revealed.” – Giorgio Vasari

In 1498, Michelangelo, then 22 years old, created what would become one of his most famous works, the Pietà. Praised by Vasari and commissioned by the French Cardinal, Jean de Bilheres Lagraulas, the Pietà stands at 7 feet, 5 inches. The theme – Mary cradling the crucified body of Jesus – was a common subject of the time. The pieta was a German invention showing that through Christ’s life and death there is resurrection. Unlike works previously created by other artists, in Michelangelo’s interpretation of the Pieta, the Virgin is sculpted as young and beautiful rather than an older woman around 50 years of age.

One of the largest problems that Michelangelo faced was in the anatomy of the figures. For the sake of the composition, Michelangelo distorted the form of the Virgin sculpting her lap and thighs larger than life. Her monumental drapery conceals much of her body but if she were to stand up, her figure would tower over that of her full-grown son. Compositionally, the figures take on a pyramidal form with the Virgin’s head at the apex and her drapery at the base. Michelangelo’s skill is apparent in not only the softness and luminosity that he gave his figures but in the drapery of Mary’s garments and “the harmony in the joints and the articulations of the arms, torso and legs, with their finely wrought pulses and veins, that, in truth, it is absolutely astonishing that the hand of an artist could have properly executed something so sublime and admirable in a brief time…”

Venus of Urbino

Titian

Wikipedia Commons

In The Lives of Artists by Vasari, Michelangelo is quoted as praising Titians technique, saying, “no artist could achieve more or paint better.” This excellence is displayed in Titians 1538 oil painting,  Venus of Urbino.

In the foreground a young, nude woman, identified with the goddess Venus, is reclining on a bed. The figure is based upon Titian’s mentor, Giorgione’s own painting, Sleeping Venus. Unlike what many of Titian’s criticizers have said, the figure was not meant as a carnal work but simply a celebration of love within marriage. We know this because not only was the work ordered to celebrate marriage but also in the background of the work itself, servants unpack clothes from the bride’s marriage chest.

Many symbols permeate the picture plane from the figure grasping of a handful of roses-a symbol often attributed to the Virgin Mary to the myrtle bush in the background which was commonly found in wedding bouquets of the period. The dog sleeping at the feet of the woman is a common symbol of fidelity, symbolizing allegiance and faithfulness within relationships. Overall, Vasari, who was a contemporary of Titian, praises the artist, saying he has “has decorated Venice, or rather all of Italy and other parts of the world, with superb paintings, deserves to be loved and respected by all artisans and in many ways to be admired and imitated, like those other artisans who have produced and still are producing works worthy of boundless praise, which will endure as long as the memory of illustrious men.”

Sandro Botticeelli and the Adoration of the Magi

Adoration of the Magi

Sandro Botticelli

Google Art Project

Sandro Botticelli’s Adoration of the Magi was originally created for a private chapel in Santa Maria Novella and later acquired by the Uffizi where it is shown today. The work is perhaps one of Botticelli’s most famous pieces, not quite as popular as The Birth of Venus or La Primavera, but in overall perspective, it far surpasses those. Commissioned by Cossimo de Medici and completed in 1475, Adoration, truly passed many of Botticelli’s other works where his infatuation with line was very clear. In Adoration many members of the Medici family are pictured: Giuliani’s is seen sitting on the right hand side, outfitted in black and red while Lorenzo stands on the left being fawned over by another spectator, and of course, the benefactor Cossimo is pictured, having the privilege of holding Christ’s feet. It is evident that Botticelli had an understanding of contraposto as exhibited in many of the figures stances in addition to monumentality as seen in the set up of all of the figures in the form of a triangle with Mary, Joseph, and Jesus at the peak. The use of one point perspective is seen in the architecture and setting for the piece, i.e. the shed and its walls.  Even the groups of figures move backwards towards the vanishing point.  This perspective though does not carry over into the building of the upper left which seems to be on its own plane. Overall this piece was one of great importance in the progression of Renaissance art as a whole.