Asher.P4.T8.Renaissance

Team Dragon
Clair Fuller
Yee-Lum Mak
Jodi Shou
Alex Tranquada
Laurel Kitada

Asher Per 4, Team 8

Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, two artists famous both in their time and ours, worked during one of the most artistically explosive time periods in history: the Renaissance. Considered the “rebirth” of culture, the Renaissance begat a burgeoning sense of secular aestheticism and scientific and philosophical curiosity that, in some cases, strayed from the will of the church. This subtle tension is evident in the paintings of da Vinci and Michelangelo, who’s most famous works are largely of religious subjects—for example, da Vinci’s Last Supper and Michelangelo’s work on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Working with religious subjects and in some cases on church commission, these men managed to infuse their own sense of Renaissance philosophy, placing a high value on aestheticism and Humanism.

In da Vinci’s early painting The Baptism of Christ, for example, he depicts the Virgin Mary not as submissive, but as confident and calm, depicting her according to Renaissance Humanism. Similarly, The Virgin on the Rocks depicts an overtly religious scene, yet the background demonstrates Leonardo’s keen interest in nature. All of his pieces demonstrate bold and masterful use of lighting and technical painting techniques, as well as a heightened knowledge of human anatomy. Da Vinci’s fascination with the human form is documented in his notebooks, which reveal his scientific as well as artistic genius, reflecting the shift away from the scientific ‘dark ages’ of the past.

The Pope himself commissioned Michelangelo’s most famous work, the ornate ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The elaborate ceiling features some 300 figures depicting Biblical scenes and events, and took years to complete. The scheme of the chapel itself represents much of the doctrine of the Catholic Church, the ceiling included. While the symbolism and imagery used on the ceiling are largely accordant with the Church, Michelangelo infused Renaissance thinking and philosophy in a way that perfectly captures the period’s struggle to reconcile progressive humanist philosophy, emphasizing human interaction with each other and with God directly, with organized religion. Michelangelo, who had studied both the Bible and early philosophers that influenced Renaissance thinking, combines both in his work on the ceiling. The insertion of non-Biblical figures in to the work (Sybil and Ignudi, for example) demonstrates the artist’s work to rationalize both competing philosophies.