Although both renaissance artists, Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo, express many religious ideologies in their works of art, it is visible in their artwork that their personal ideologies clashed with the religious ideologies the Catholic Church wanted. It is evident that Leonardo has created more secular works relating to human anatomy, archeology, engineering, and cartography, than Michelangelo has. Whereas the traditional and older artists of the past medieval period were focused on the rules of the Catholic Church, the renaissance artists put more time into showing the importance of humanities and scientific achievement. Both artists were pushed by the Catholic Church to only create artworks that related to the Catholic Church or expressed it in a way. Leonardo’s artworks such as the Vitruvian Man, or his notes of the anatomy of the human arm shows that he swayed away from the Catholic Church’s ideologies so that he can express his secular aesthetics and interests. The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne is another one of Michelangelo’s controversial artwork that shows the clash of his ideology and the churches ideology. This artwork in Freud’s interpretation shows the passive ideologies that Leonardo held which was contradictory to the beliefs of the Catholic Church. Michelangelo’s painting of the Sistine Chapel shows the reflection of the religious philosophies. But the same artwork shows the personal philosophies that Michelangelo held. These are only a few of the artwork that show the ways in which Renaissance artist managed to express their secular asceticism in what were supposed to be purely religious artworks.
By Tim Szu, Devin Mitchell, Jason Sim
It is interesting how you pointed out the secular works that Leonardo used to place emphasis on the human autonomy, archeology, engineering, and cartography; different from the views from the Roman Catholic Church. Our group decided to focus on Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo and how they reveal the synthesis of religious asceticism and secular aestheticism through their light-intensified painting. We thought it created more sense of art and also emphasized the contrast between religious and secular aestheticism. Good job on analyzing further on the history of art during the Renaissance Era.
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