The accomplishments of Michelangelo and why he is truly one of the greatest artists of all time good

attention to detail and argument

Eng. 102

Mark Hodgkins

Spring 1997

pp. 1

Divine Status

Imagine you are in a museum and you notice a sizable crowd around a corner

across the room. In bewilderment, you walk over and begin to make way amidst the

people. As you shuffle closer to the center of attention, you become aware they are
admiring a statue, a very large statue, towering above the thickness of the crowd. Still

unsatisfied and unable to recognize the work of art, you impatiently proceed toward the

front. You finally approach a rope enclosing the base of the sculpture. A colossal figure

of fourteen feet stands before you. It immediately absorbs all of your attention. Your

hands fall from your hips, your jaw drops open, and your head tilts back as your eyes inch

their way to the top. The background seems to turn black and the crowd fades into the

distance while your full attention is devoted to it, or rather to him. You are overtaken by
curiosity and you want to gently glide your fingers over its fleshy surface to make sure it is

really carved of stone. Indeed it is. It is the work of Michelangelo Buonarroti, the greatest

artist who ever lived.

He was a sculptor, painter, poet, architect and engineer. His work defined the

High Renassance Era and superceded any work produced during the sixteenth century.

His awesomely painted figures in the Sistine Chapel and many architectural designs and

sculptures influenced many creators for three hundred years following his death.
Michelangelo began creating at a very early age. By the time he was sixteen he

had already produced two relief sculptures. By age twenty-five he proved not only had he

surpassed all modern artists but also the Greeks and the Romans with his statue of David.

Unlike artists before him, Michelangelo represents The Old Testament hero before the

comfrontation with Goliath, not after. He makes the viewer aware of tension in reserve

by the posture of the subject and the stern facial expression. The ruggedness of the

slightly oversized hands and feet add to the statues sense of power. The attention to detail
in the smoothly carved veins and muscles add even more to the illusion of action to come.

Just one year later he was commissioned by Pope Julius II to undertake a project

so great that the results yeilded an unsurpassed achievement of a single artist of all time.

Only Michelangelo could have possibly achieved such unprecedented work. It is the

paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He overcame many difficulties to complete

the task: the ceiling was seventy feet high; the paintings were large in scale; and he had to

work lying on his back on scaffolding for many years. Although he considered himself not
a painter, he produced some of the finest pictorial images ever devised. It consists of nine

scenes from the Book of Genesis surrounded by images of prophets on marble thrones.

These awesome, mighty images, demonstrates Michelangelo's masterly understanding of

human anatomy and movement, changed the course of painting in the West.

Later in his life Michelangelo devoted his attention more toward architecture and

completed the plan of St. Peter's, the Vatican, originally designed by the arhitect

Donato Bramante. It became Michelangelo's most notable masterpeices as an architect.

With major modifications of the original plan he supervised and created a structure of

monumental proportions. His innovative design for the enormous ribbed dome of St.

Peter's became the symbol of authority and the model, for domes all over the

Western world. The majority of state capitol buildings in the U.S. including the capitol in

Washington, D.C., are prime examples of the tremendous influence he exerted.

Throughout his lifetime, Michelangelo was an intimate of princes, popes, cardinals,

painters, and poets. He was widely awarded the epithet "divine" because of his
extraordinary accomplishments. He expressed his view of the world through his art

and impressed many generations by his treatment of the human figure and architectural

talents. He was truly the greatest artist the world has ever known.