Essay Example on Analyze the famous renaissance painter Michelangelo

This paper will analyze the famous renaissance painter michelangelo and his distinguished staircase for the library at san lorenzo and how it is believed to be a piece that discarded the classical humanist way It is well known that the renaissance gave birth to many beloved works of art most of which were inspired by the humanist perspective a perspective that underlined the importance of the hear and now contrary to the previous era the dark ages where it was heavily believed that prime existence came in the afterlife the humanist movement was one that valued logic and intellectual exploration sayre 7 it was a rather concrete state that michelangelo may have felt hinged his creative persona because of this michelangelo went against the then norm and Asserted his independence from the structure of tradition sayre 60 Because this paper is centered around michelangelo and beliefs that were brought on the rebirth it is important to understand how it is that individuals arrived in that period of revival 

The word renaissance is derived from the italian word rinascita that translates to the english word rebirth sayre 7 This begs the question just what were the citizens of Florence Italy attempting to recreate Based upon the understanding of the knowledge available today the florentine people wanted to bring back the culture from the Greco Roman time period The Greco roman era is identified as the most culturally productive time period for roughly a thousand years there ides and cultural values continued then in 500 A when the territory fell to the visigoths and there was a long period of regression Professor's lecture 1 it wasn t until nine hundred years later that the people decided to stop the clock and rewind they wanted to return their city of brick to the beautiful marble it once was Humanism in the renaissance era was a belief centered around human interest individuals within this group were called humanist they valued logic and strove to understand in scientific terms the nature of humanity and its relationship to the natural world Greatly respected individuals such as Alberti believed that rational principles guided all human activity from politics to painting Herke Margaret and john Herke 3 this is evident by their dedication toward reviving and translating rational works many of which were philosophical greek writings Reviving the greek text required them to to learn an entire language in that many did not speak greek because the predominant language was latin sayre 7 Humanism became a rudimentary aspect of many works of art subjects then which is revealed in the gradual shift from religious to secular subject matter in art RENAISSANCE HUMANISM 

1 Michelangelo Buonarroti was one of the most famous italian artist of the renaissance Today he is known for his rendition of the sculpture David originally created by Donatello in 1440 In 1523 michelangelo was sought out by Pope Clement to construct a library to store a collections of books that belonged to the Medici family a powerful banking family that ruled florence from 1418 1494 Pope Clement asked Michelangelo to design and build a staircase as well for the library The Laurentian library was to be a place of quiet refuge and study sayre 60 So it became quit the turning point for architecture when michelangelo decided to create such a distinct staircase for the library His choice later on became seen as a separation of himself from the humanistic idea of ideal As previously stated within this paper the humanist were a group that valued logic and when approaching a staircase from a logical point it is only right that one assume that its form should follow its function cammy brothers Michelangelo Radical Architect a staircase holds a simple purpose to be a conventional way for individuals to travel between levels of floors Michelangelo provided that and much more Because Michelangelo was becoming increasingly interested in exploring realms of the imagination beyond the humanist vision of a rational world governed by structural logic The laurentian staircase became such an excessively complex piece from its oval flights to its trapezoidal form to it heavy tuscan columns the work became as sayre so eloquently put it more sculpture than architecture The laurentian library project as a whole took an estimated amount of 35 years from 1524 1559 to create sayre 60 61 it today receives more recognition than the library itself It was such a profound piece that beautifully exceeded the expectations of what a staircase should look like It was extraordinary because it defied the standardized art then the staircase was abstract in comparison to the others some artist had created Most heeded the counsel of alberti a well respected architect who in On Architecture advised that interior staircases occupy as little room as possible sayre 60 and that is why it is that of a dream sayre 59 61