Michelangelo, from Renaissance to Mannerism Essay - 1

Michelangelo, from Renaissance to Mannerism - Essay Example (Cheney, 47) Michelangelo’s ceiling in the Sistine Chapel, is an example of Italian High Renaissance. Other examples include Leonardo’s Last Supper, and Raphael’s School of Athens. The Last Judgment, was a paradigm of Mannerism as seen in the elongation of the figures and distortions of proportion. This is in contrast to his Florentine figures of Bacchus, David, and Doni Madonna which are formed in Gothic fashion. (Cheney, 54) Michelangelo was born in 1475 in a wealthy family near Florence. (Matthews and Platt,73) At the age of 13, he developed an extraordinary talent in drawing, and by his 14th birthday he was placed as an apprentice in the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio.(Matthews and Platt, 73) It was in Ghirlandaios workshop that Michelangelo learned the fundamentals of fresco painting. Michelangelo’s ceiling in the Sistine chapel, is an example of Italian High Renaissance. Other examples include Leonardo’s Last Supper, and Raphael’s School of Athens. The style known as Mannerism was predominant Italy, France, Netherlands, Germany and Spain between 1530 and 1600. Michelangelo is the representative of Mannerism, who stated that foreshortening is among the most difficult in the art of painting. The Mannerist had to free himself from the realities of this earth like a visionary and soar into higher spiritual spheres. To be a Mannerist, one had to be an eccentric, withstand ingenious mental experiments, subordinate himself to the dominion of the intellect instead of natural intuition, enjoy toying with incongruous ideas, place the artificial before normality, be receptive to the theoretical side and be enthusiastic and delight in the reckless distortion of his materials. The traditionally-minded artists stayed on the Renaissance artistic scope. (Cheney, 56) The father and creator of the Mannerist movement was Michelangelo. The special groups of artists who copied the maniera di Michelangelo in the sixteenth century were known as