The classical phase and precisely the High Renaissance contains the Italian pieces of art done from the 1490’s to a better part of the 16th century. The greatest artists of the phase included Michelangelo, Raphael and many others whose works are famous and have been well-maintained over the years. This paper will focus on analyzing Michelangelo’s best work that is Michelangelo’s Pietà and discussing the classical elements used by Renaissance architects.
Michelangelo was born in 1475 in Florence and died in 1564 in the papal estate in Rome (Wasserman et al, 2003). The artist is known to have loved embracing the Renaissance principles of classical beauty in divine with postures that promoted naturalism. The Michelangelo Pietà was custom-built as a monument for the burial of Cardinal Jean de Bilheres in 1497. Michelangelo made the art from a single lump of marble, Carrara marble to be precise; it is white blue stone whose origin is Italy. The art is placed right after the entrance of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.
The art portrays a lean body of a man cuddled by a woman; the woman is Virgin Mary holding the body of his son Jesus after his crucifixion and removal from the cross right before he was put in the tomb (Hupka et al, 1975). The statue widens gradually from the head of Mary down to the base. The head correspondence to a vertex and the entire shape of the art makes it look like a pyramid, an idea that was common with renaissance artists. The subject of the art came from a scene in the Bible and that has a concrete meaning to Roman Catholics.
The pieta has a good mixture of elements that gives it a beautiful appearance. The texture is smooth but varied in the right place especially on the skin of the Mary and Jesus (Wasserman et al, 2003). The entire art has a triangular shape that the artist uses to give focus to the right place, mostly the face of Mary. Although the mood of the art is somber, the diagonal and the few distinct lines give it energy and make it lively. Since marble is a white stone, the artist counted on the light to bring out the values of the art, the dark shadows, and the illuminations.
Classical Elements
Renaissance architecture originated in the 15th century in Florence and spread out to the rest of Europe not only as a way of raising buildings but also a way of creating meaning (Meeks et al, 1966). The architects based their ideas and theories on classical Roman and had a firm utilization of classical elements including order, proportion, harmony, clarity, complexity, and repose The basic element of designed utilized by almost all the architects was order and proportion.
The artists often started with a unit of measurement whose recurrence created a sense of harmony in the building (Meeks et al, 1966). For instance, the Ospedale Degli Innocenti is based on a cube which was used to determine the height of the columns, the distance between them and the depth of the bays. Alberti an artist well known for is architectural used his deep knowledge of classical elements by ensuring the columns were not a decorative entity but load bearing support without losing the warmth. Symmetry and clarity were enhanced by the use of drawings and models.
The lifestyle of visual artists changed significantly during the High Renaissance. The new styles of architecture were as a result of the rebirth of classical culture and the loss of primitive gothic style. The work of Vitruvius was the main inspiration for the changes in the architecture of the high renaissance. He was devoted to maintaining classical tradition in the design of temples and public homes. His ideologies were used by many architects including Alberti and became a source of reference during the construction of many famous buildings.
Work Cited
Hupka, Robert, and Michelangelo Buonarroti. Michelangelo Pietà; 150 Photos. and Commentary by Robert Hupka. Crown Publishers, 1975.
Meeks, Carroll Louis Vanderslice. Italian architecture, 1750-1914. Yale University Press, 1966.
Wasserman, Jack, Franca Trinchieri Camiz, and Aurelio Amendola. Michelangelo's Florence Pietà. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003.
