Michelangelo as the revolutioner and innovator

“ Faith in oneself is the best and safest course”

Introduction

During the year 1475 one of the greatest sculptors was born. He was a revolutionary, or in other words a sudden, radical, or complete change (Merriam Webster, 2019). But he also created new techniques and style to express emotion through his sculptures and paintings. He also introduced or innovated a new subject that could be sculpted or painted, being the naked human form. This was able to create a time in which people not only talked about church life but, focused more on themselves and the now. Finally, he created designed and created many architectures that represented cities, people, and more. This man was none other than Michelangelo.

Showing Nudity

Michelangelo was a very talented man, he was smart from a very young age as very talented people could see his love for the arts and the potential that was there. He would soon grow up to be an excellent artist, but what separated him from his peers including Leonardo DaVinci was that he was able to change the whole outlook on the human body through art. For example, during the middle age’s art was very bland and had no other meaning than religion, most of the art showed Mary, Jesus, and religion. Because that religion was so prominent the rules of religion applied to art as well, one of them being not allowed to show nudity as that would be a sin called lust. Michelangelo changed this thought of nudity and the human body as a bad idea to a not so bad idea. With every piece of art, people started to see what Michelangelo was seeing through his eyes. Simply said as beauty (Artble, 2019). He swept the art scene with this new idea so much that it started to expand to other artist eyes and soon it was adopted by society. The revolution was not in the introduction of nude painting itself, it was more of what the affects of it had on society. He revolutionized the art industry which greatly affected the way people lived in the Renaissance.

New Style and Technique

Although Michelangelo was able to greatly change the way people lived, this affect would only be there for a short period of time. On the other hand, Michelangelo’s innovations were able to sustain themselves for a very long time. The first innovation that was introduced is his new style and technique to painting and sculpting. His sculptures were composed of Greek and Roman mythology with traditional Christian scenes, for example, The Pieta or The Last Judgement. He also focused very much on the details of each sculpture, eyeing out every vein and muscle tension within the sculptures. This level of detail was very rarely seen within the art community making it new. Michelangelo was the one that popularized this style of sculpting. Another style that Michelangelo would do is shown in the St. Matthew. It is an unfinished piece but tells a lot. The piece only has a carved front side and the back has not been touched. It seemed like he did not worry or care about the depth of the sculpture and what others what see from a different angle (The Best Artist, 2007). This was rarely seen from such a great artist. He was able to show a style in which the imperfect can become perfect.

Attempting the Impossible

The most outstanding thing about Michelangelo was that he was different from everyone else, he did what know one would do and attempted the impossible. This exact thing happened when he started sculpting and painting nude bodies. The human body was one of the hardest objects to draw or sculpt. During that time, there were rarely any perfect sculptures. But Michelangelo seeing that the impossible is always possible executed it perfectly. This is shown in his sculpture, David. Though Michelangelo was still considered young compared to other artist like Leonardo Da Vinci he was regarded as one of the best by everyone; the Pope knew it, his teachers knew it, fellow friends and classmates knew it, and so did himself. This is saying something, specifically that he may have really been the creator/introducer to this new object that was being sculpted. There are somethings to remember though, Michelangelo was the introduction of nude sculptures in his generation, before him, people like Donatello and Pollaiuolo had already started this trend (The Met, 2019). This is key to understanding this innovation because Michelangelo was the one that accelerated this new trend and that was how he was an innovator.

Michelangelo as an Architect

As many know Michelangelo had many talents, one of them being an architect. He designed many buildings including the St. Peter’s Basilica, Porta Pia, Palazzo Farnese, and many more. Michelangelo created these architectures with the mindset of combining Greek and Roman mythology with traditional Christian scenes like his artworks. He was innovative because his architectures were so flattering and out of the time period. Michelangelo did not follow the standard path of architectural design and thus having less restraints. One example is the Laurentian Library (Michelangelo, 2018). It incorporated a mixture of mannerism; mannerism is the specific style of the artist (it appeared in the late Renaissance in the time of Michelangelo). This was uncommonly seen in architecture, making it exciting for those who haven’t experienced mannerism before gasp at the marvels that Michelangelo designed. In truth Michelangelo was able to revive aspects of roman architecture and add his own flare to it. Michelangelo was an innovator because he designed architecture that was rarely seen before.

Conclusion

Michelangelo was a revolutionary, or in other words a sudden, radical, or complete change (Merriam Webster, 2019). But he also created new techniques and style to express emotion through his sculptures and paintings. He also introduced or innovated a new subject that could be sculpted or painted, being the naked human form. This was able to create a time in which people not only talked about church life but, focused more on themselves and the now. Finally, he created designed and created many architectures that represented cities, people, and more. Michelangelo’s life goal was many things, things that cannot be described by words, because of the complications that he had through out his life. But in simpler terms his goal was to fulfill his life with the gift that he had, he painted and carved everyday because that was all he could do; these innovations that he had throughout the journey were just small fragments of the big picture. Michelangelo changed the world because of his different perspective of the world, this allowed him to innovate new things that changed the world. Michelangelo has hugely affected the world now, the easiest influence would be every time you walk into a art room you’ll see a model of David, because of Michelangelo, billions of kids today art chasing their art dream, while learning from one of the greatest masters in history.