Renaissance Art

In my mind, Michelangelo’s David is one of the most significant artistic achievements in the history of humankind. Michelangelo was only 26 when he accepted to make it, and he took a block of marble and carved it with a hammer and smoothed it into an incredible piece of art, working around the flaws in the marble is impressive. And he did it in only two years. Few in history had the talent as a sculpture and as a painter. He made David in a block of marble over 14 feet tall, and he brought, out an impressive statue, which was unlike anything created before. In David’s forehead you can even see a slight wrinkle, maybe showing concentration or anger as he holds his slingshot over his shoulder. His muscles and veins are bulging through his skin, as David appears ready to attack his adversary. Moreover, to get every tendon in hand, a line of muscle in the calves, dimple near the back of the shoulder, the jut of the hip, absolutely right and that he put all of his gifted skills into this huge fantastic sculpture. I think that while he was making it, he asked himself the question, What would David look like when he was facing Goliath? The unique style and meaning of Michelangelo’s statue of David probably come from the way in which he approached his art. He saw his figure as symbol be a feature of in the marble. So, he thought that the Sculpture would look huge with its size and confidence with its stand. The statue confidence can be seen in the way that David stands strong without any apparent fear of the giant Goliath, David sculpture looks like he is not scared. He seems like He’s ready, he’s poised and full of confidence and ready to take the challenge of fighting a bigger and stronger opponent.

I think that Marcel Duchamp’s ready-mades do is to force the questions of art and how it attaches to the idea of art. With his galleries, I think he tried to express “If I say it’s art, it’s art.” His idea was about the artist applying control over the idea and its expression. He makes us think and analyze really hard into his ideas of art, picking “special” everyday items like the snow shovel, the bicycle or the urinal was strange to me at first. In my opinion, his art doesn’t even compare to the Renaissance-era sculptural tradition of Michelangelo, because the only credit I can give Duchamp is that he picked regular items and made it work somehow. While I was watching the Khan video, my first thought was that his art is not to be taken seriously, even quite comical. But it doesn’t mean that they are not as important art objects, and I agree with the narrators, he was a bit cynical, but he had a point to make. These works are not masterpieces in a traditional, romantic sense, where a genius like Michelangelo creates unique art-forms from his inner visions and skills. I understand that he made this as a protest against the culture and values which he thought had caused and supported the carnage of The First World War. What he aimed was to undermine the value system of the art establishment which he viewed was linked to the fallen European socio-political society at the time. I can only see his vision as artistic because he pick the right items in his mind to undermine the value if the art hierarchy, not the ready-mades he probably picked in a store. Overall, I think that the importance is not in the effort of making them, but in the experience, they offer and their challenge to the idea of what art is or can be.

World History 2 Renaissance Art “The Renaissance is studded by the names of the artists and architects, with their creations recorded as great historical events” (Arthur, 2008). The Renaissance was an epoch of great art and literature, and was a period of time when people shifted away from the ideas and traditions of the Middle Ages. Many of the most prominent educators, artists and architects were from this period. Artworks dating from the 1 5th century to the 16th century, during the Renaissance era, express ideas of individualism, imitations of classical antiquity and the understanding of proportions and realism.

Michelangelo David, the self-portrait of Raphael, and Leonardo dad Vine’s Mona Lisa depicts the idea of individualism. Unlike the paintings during the Middle Ages that mostly contained religious themes that glorified God, the works of these artists focused on the potential of man, and each of them had their own unique style that showed their different talents and capabilities. “Art in the Renaissance brought out the individual” (Scotsman, 2008). Michelangelo sculpture, David (1501-1504) shows he idea of an ideal Renaissance male.

The sculpture is shaped into a physically perfect man who stands in a confident manner. This symbolizes that man’s capacity for personal development is unlimited; knowledge and a broad range of abilities are within every man’s reach (How To Be, 2008). A self-portrait of Raphael (1504-1506) also shows how individualism was valued during the Renaissance. Repeal’s self- portrait of himself portrays the idea of “self-glorification” (Scotsman, 2008). Leonardo used many of his own novel techniques and ideas to paint Mona Lisa.

The way the object’s eyes were painted, the way the subject’s mouth curved into a subtle smile, and the landscape behind the subject that appears to be a fictional place gave the painting it’s uniqueness (The Mona Lisa, 2009). Many of the artists during the Renaissance focused on individuality and on painting in their own unique styles to portray the potential of human beings. Imitation of classical antiquity can be seen in renowned artworks such as Leonardo dad Vine’s Vitamins Man (1490), and Repeal’s The School of Athens (1509-1510). Both of artists studied the findings and observations of the Romans and

Greeks, and used them as a reference to create their own works of art. The Vitamins Man was sketched by Leonardo dad Vinci in honor of the Roman architect Vitreous. Dad Vinci used Vitreous’s ideas of perception and proportion to create the sketch (Vitamins Man, 2012). He read the ancient Roman texts and combined it with his actual observations of the human body. Repeal’s The School of Athens is a painting that exhibited many well-educated Greek scholars and educators. Plato and Aristotle are painted right in the center of the painting with Socrates on top of the staircases The School of Athens, 2012).

Many artists during the Renaissance looked back into the works of their ancestors, combined the ideas of the past and present to create their own paintings and artwork. The proportions and realistic features that can be seen in Michelangelo The Creation of Adam (1 51 1), and Leonardo dad Vine’s Vitamins Man (1490), is one of the factors that define Renaissance artwork. Both Michelangelo and Dad Vinci studied the human anatomy to produce more realistic artworks. In The Creation of Adam, God is resting on the outline of the human brain (Hall, 2013). All the figures in the painting had depth and perspective.

Leonardo sketch of the Vitamins Man was carefully proportioned. The length of the outspread arms were equal to the figure’s height and the length of hand is one-tenth of the height. The sketch also shows the symmetry of the human body. The artists during the Renaissance focused greatly on realism, painting all their artworks with great detail of every part of the human body. The Renaissance was a period of time when artworks shifted away from only focusing on religion to representing individualism, classical antiquity, and respective and realism.