The High Renaissance and Mannerism: Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel

pietà

a representation of the Virgin Mary mourning over the body of the dead Christ, usually shown held on her lap

Pietà (1498-1500)

Michelangelo

1498-1500

Marble

Commissioned by Cardinal Lagraulas

Rome, The Vatican

David (1501-1504)

Michelangelo

1501-1504

Marble

Patron: City of Florence

• reveals different emotions at different angles

• exaggerated head and hands

• interesting when compared to Donatello’s “David”

The Sistine Chapel, ceiling (1508-1512)

Michelangelo

1508-1512

Fresco

Patron: Pope Julius II

Vatican City

• Creation of Adam, detail

The Sistine Chapel (1414-1484), the Pope’s private chapel, was named after its founder, ______.

Pope Sixtus IV

Pope Julius II’s Tomb (and detail of Moses)

Michelangelo

Rome

Marble

1513-1515

• unfinished (or at least reduced in scale) because they ran out of funds

• Moses looks angry and about to spring up at any moment

Mannerism

a style that thrived from 1520-1600 which employed “artifice,” often involving contrived imagery not directly derived from nature; emerged in reaction to the High Renaissance style; involved in distortions of form, space, and color; Michelangelo paints his Last Judgement in this style

Last Judgement (1536-1541)

Michelangelo

Altar wall of the Sistine Chapel

1536-1541

Fresco

Patron: Pope Paul III

• Christ in the guise of Apollo

• Michelangelo included himself on the skin of Bartholomew 

• Detail of the damned figure

• Continuous with the ceiling frescoes

Neoplatonism

a philosophical movement inaugurated by Plotinus (204-270 AD); his ideas are linked with Florentine art of the 15th century