Sistine Chapel Essays

Sistine Chapel Essays Sistine Chapel Essay Sistine Chapel Essay The Frescos in the Sistine Chapel Michelangelo was an amazing painter and sculptor, who made an impact on the Renaissance Era. The Renaissance focused immense passion towards the arts, religion, and individual experience and development. The Renaissance Era came after the Middle Ages, which possessed a completely opposite lifestyle and different art techniques and characteristics. The Middle Ages was a dark, depressing time where art had very little importance outside the art in the church. As Italy evolved from the Middle Ages into the Renaissance, specific attention was placed on humanism, realism, a transformation in art, and a different focus on biblical aspects that would forever characterize this time period as seen in Michelangelo’s work, The Sistine Chapel. With Michelangelo living during the Renaissance, humanism and realism had an effect on how he painted, and what profession he chose. Michelangelo’s father, Ludovico Buonarrotiwith, was a Florentine official with strong connections to the Medici family. In his childhood, Michelangelo was constantly around the Medici household, and surrounded himself with humanists like Marsilio Ficino and Angelo Poliziano, which influenced his way of thinking. Humanism is a philosophy or practice that focuses on how great humans can be. Man should gain the most knowledge possible, and become the finest they can be physically and mentally. Humanism is all about studying, learning, thinking, and becoming better as a man. Clearly embracing the idea of humanism, Michelangelo painted every character as strong and flawless. Every human painted on the walls of the Sistine Chapel has chiseled muscles, with clear six-pack chests and abs. Michelangelo illustrates how humans are the best thing God has created, and portrays them as great. The human body is considered the â€Å"noblest living form† by humanist, and humans have full potential physically and mentally. Humanism creates a universal man who is intellectually and physically excellent and who is always honorable and virtuous. On the walls of the Sistine Chapel, the realism of humans is depicted with scenes full of human emotion and expression. Embracing the â€Å"Enlightenment† by exploring his world around him, Michelangelo moved away from a static, lifeless art style to one that highlighted human feelings and movement. Realism at this time led to the later Realism of the 19th century, where the greatness of the ordinary man became the focus of artwork. During the Renaissance, the idea of expression and emotion infiltrated the culture changing the people’s way of thinking and also the art. Michelangelo’s Sistine chapel illustrations relate to Biblical stories, and show more of a natural and authentic human perspective. The new style of art in Michelangelo’s life gave him the opportunity to paint the Sistine Chapel in a very natural and real way with all the focus on man. In the medieval times, art was abstract, dark, and heavy. Art was viewed with a completely different perspective. The medieval time was not focused on artwork, and members of the upper class were not willing to pay for artists to paint. Most artists worked for the church because the church was the only one who would pay. The church wanted art dealing with Christian aspects, so most art was religious. Medieval art typically didn’t use shading as a tool to enhance paintings. The art was normally not too colorful, and was often very dull. Unlike Michelangelo’s work on the Sistine Chapel, Medieval art was not focused on human qualities. During the Renaissance, many upper class citizens had a sudden interest for art, and many of them would hire artists to paint for them. With the new interest in art, new styles were formed, creating more unique styles and new ways of thinking. With the change to the Renaissance art style, Michelangelo’s showed the body in movement, and illustrated the nature of humans. Michelangelo used new techniques like perspective and more detail in humans to make his frescos more emotional to the viewer. He illustrated characters with little to no clothing, which was not a style in medieval art. His paintings on the walls are a great example of the Renaissance art, and show the evolution, and how far art came in such a quick time. The Sistine Chapel is home to one of the most famous pictorial artworks ever made. The walls are breathtaking, and create such an astounding Biblical presence. Pope Julius II called Michelangelo into Rome in hopes to paint the Sistine chapel. He was trying to rebuild after destruction in the city, and also worked on repairing St. Peter’s Basilica. Michelangelo was hesitant to accept the offer because he was more into sculptures, but he was left with no other choice but to accept. The walls in the Chapel hold 9 scenes from Genesis, the first book in the Bible. The frescos show God separating light and darkness, creating Adam and Eve, and more Biblical stories. Each human painted on the wall shows emotion and truly represents the stories properly. Michelangelo used new Renaissance tools and a new Renaissance way of hinking to paint a new style that has attracted people from all over the world. An average of 10,000 people travel to see the Sistine Chapel a day. Michelangelo spent years preparing for this task, and drew out each scene before it was painted. Each part of the Sistine Chapel is natural in reality, and shows more of a realistic side to Bible scenes and people than previous art. Michelangelo was considered to be the best High Renaissance artist, along with Leonardo Da Vinci. With the fame he had, many citizens would travel to see his work. With the immense amount of viewers each day, it allowed for more to see Christianity in a visual way, and helped convert countless people. People would have a strong connection to his art, and grow closer to God with seeing such beauty. Michelangelo’s work created a new way of viewing Christian art, and it allowed some to put more faith in God. Pope Julius II brought Michelangelo in to paint the Sistine Chapel in hopes that it would help restore Rome to its former glory. Michelangelo’s hard work paid off with its gigantic popularity when he first painted it, and that is still as strong today. Michelangelo is considered to be the â€Å"Renaissance Man,† and used his new styles and techniques to illustrate such beautiful scenes onto the walls and ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He used a very real and natural body to portray realism. He showed every character with clear and strong muscles with very little clothing to show how strong and valiant humans are. His style is very unique and different from artists who had come before him. Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel is still today a very beautiful and breath-taking scene that helped separate modern artwork from the medieval art.