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You can download the unit pdf here.

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ινστιτούτο εκπαιδευτικής πολιτικής

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Μακροστέργιος Ευάγγελος

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ΦΑΚΕΛΟΣ ΥΛΙΚΟΥ: ΑΓΓΛΙΚΑ ΓΕΝΙΚΟΥ ΛΥΚΕΙΟΥ 2: Ενότητες 1-9 - Ινστιτούτο Εκπαιδευτικής Πολιτικής

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Ο Φάκελος Υλικού για τα Αγγλικά 2 προορίζεται για τη διδασκαλία της Αγγλικής στη Β' και Γ' Γενικού Λυκείου. Νέος Οδηγός Εκπαιδευτικού Β0 - Πρώτες Σελίδες Β0 B1 Group work.pdf B2 Do...

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GLOSSARY

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Describing Art is a difficult task, even for dedicated art lovers.. The document included in this post comprises key questions to consider, as well as useful websites to help you with your descriptions.

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Renaissance Interactive - Annenberg Learner

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Explore the Renaissance and discover the forces that drove this rebirth in Europe, and in Italy in particular.

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Click on the link to watch a video about the Rennaissance and do the accompanying exercises.

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Easily create beautiful interactive video lessons for your students you can integrate right into your LMS. Track students' progress with hassle-free analytics as you flip your classroom!

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This post concerns a pptx I created in the context of a course about the importance of Music and Sound in Education. It contains basic information about different aspects of this important era and useful material to explore further and enjoy.

It can be used as introductory material to ps 34-36

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The Renaissance - the Age of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci (1/2) | DW Documentary

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The Renaissance - the Age of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci (1/2) | DW Documentary

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"Beginning at the end of the 14th Century, the Renaissance created a new type of man, triggering economic, scientific, technical, religious, social and cultural developments that are unique in history. Never before have culture, economics and science developed so rapidly within one century as during the Renaissance".

It can be used as introductory material to ps 34-36

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The Renaissance - The Age of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci (1/2) | DW Documentary

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The Renaissance - the Age of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci (2/2) | DW Documentary

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The Renaissance - the Age of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci (2/2) | DW Documentary

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"The Renaissance is an epoch unique in human history: Never before have art, culture, economics and science developed so rapidly within a single century. We search for the "Renaissance factor", that combination of influences that triggered a pivotal period in history".

It can be used as introductory material to ps 34-36

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The Renaissance - the Age of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci (2/2) | DW Documentary

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The Renaissance was a cultural and scholarly movement which stressed the rediscovery and application of texts and thought from classical antiquity, occurring in Europe c. 1400 - c. 1600. The Renaissance can also refer to the period of European history spanning roughly the same dates. It's increasingly important to stress that the Renaissance had a long history of developments that included the twelfth-century renaissance and more.

There remains debate about what exactly constituted the Renaissance. Essentially, it was a cultural and intellectual movement, intimately tied to society and politics, of the late 14th to early 17th centuries, although it is commonly restricted to just the 15th and 16th centuries. It is considered to have originated in Italy. Traditionally people have claimed it was stimulated, in part, by Petrarch, who had a passion for rediscovering lost manuscripts and a fierce belief in the civilizing power of ancient thought and in part by conditions in Florence.

At its core, the Renaissance was a movement dedicated to the rediscovery and use of classical learning, that is to say, knowledge and attitudes from the Ancient Greek and Roman eras. Renaissance literally means 'rebirth', and Renaissance thinkers believed the period between themselves and the fall of Rome, which they labeled the Middle Ages, had seen a decline in cultural achievement compared with the earlier eras. Participants intended, through the study of classical texts, textual criticism, and classical techniques, to both reintroduce the heights of those ancient days and improve the situation of their contemporaries. Some of these classical texts survived only amongst Islamic scholars and were brought back to Europe at this time.

"Renaissance" can also refer to the period, c. 1400 - c. 1600. " High Renaissance " generally refers to c. 1480 - c. 1520. The era was dynamic, with European explorers "finding" new continents, the transformation of trading methods and patterns, the decline of feudalism (in so far as it ever existed), scientific developments such as the Copernican system of the cosmos and the rise of gunpowder. Many of these changes were triggered, in part, by the Renaissance, such as classical mathematics stimulating new financial trading mechanisms, or new techniques from the east boosting ocean navigation. The printing press was also developed, allowing Renaissance texts to be disseminated widely (in actual fact this print was an enabling factor rather than a result).

Classical culture had never totally vanished from Europe, and it experienced sporadic rebirths. There was the Carolingian Renaissance in the eighth to ninth centuries and a major one in the "Twelfth Century Renaissance", which saw Greek science and philosophy returned to European consciousness and the development of a new way of thinking which mixed science and logic called Scholasticism. What was different in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was that this particular rebirth joined together both the elements of scholarly inquiry and cultural endeavor with social and political motivations to create a much broader movement, albeit one with a long history.

Across the fourteenth century, and perhaps before, the old social and political structures of the medieval period broke down, allowing new concepts to rise. A new elite emerged, with new models of thought and ideas to justify themselves; what they found in classical antiquity was something to use both as a prop and a tool for their aggrandizement. Exiting elites matched them to keep pace, as did the Catholic Church. Italy, from which the Renaissance evolved, was a series of city-states, each competing with the others for civic pride, trade, and wealth. They were largely autonomous, with a high proportion of merchants and artisans thanks to the Mediterranean trade routes.

At the very top of Italian society, the rulers of the key courts in Italy were all "new men", recently confirmed in their positions of power and with newly gained wealth, and they were keen to demonstrate both. There was also wealth and the desire to show it below them. The Black Death had killed millions in Europe and left the survivors with proportionally greater wealth, whether through fewer people inheriting more or simply from the increased wages they could demand. Italian society and the results of the Black Death allowed for much greater social mobility, a constant flow of people keen to demonstrate their wealth. Displaying wealth and using culture to reinforce your social and political was an important aspect of life in that period, and when artistic and scholarly movements turned back to the classical world at the start of the fifteenth century there were plenty of patrons ready to support them in these endeavors to make political points.

The importance of piety, as demonstrated through commissioning works of tribute, was also strong, and Christianity proved a heavy influence for thinkers trying to square Christian thought with that of "pagan" classical writers.

From its origins in Italy, the Renaissance spread across Europe, the ideas changing and evolving to match local conditions, sometimes linking into existing cultural booms, although still keeping the same core. Trade, marriage, diplomats, scholars, the use of giving artists to forge links, even military invasions, all aided the circulation. Historians now tend to break the Renaissance down into smaller, geographic, groups such as the Italian Renaissance, The English Renaissance, the Northern Renaissance (a composite of several countries) etc. There are also works which talk about the Renaissance as a phenomenon with global reach, influencing - and being influenced by - the east, Americas, and Africa.

Some historians argue that the Renaissance ended in the 1520s, some the 1620s. The Renaissance didn't just stop, but its core ideas gradually converted into other forms, and new paradigms arose, particularly during the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century. It would be hard to argue we are still in the Renaissance (as you can do with the Enlightenment), as culture and learning move in a different direction, but you have to draw the lines from here back to then (and, of course, back to before then). You could argue that new and different types of Renaissance followed (should you want to write an essay).

The term 'renaissance' actually dates from the nineteenth century and has been heavily debated ever since, with some historians questioning whether it's even a useful word anymore. Early historians described a clear intellectual break with the medieval era, but in recent decades scholarship has turned to recognize growing continuity from the centuries before, suggesting that the changes Europe experienced were more an evolution than a revolution. The era was also far from a golden age for everyone; at the start, it was very much a minority movement of humanists, elites, and artists, although it disseminated wider with printing. Women, in particular, saw a marked reduction in their educational opportunities during the Renaissance. It's no longer possible to talk of a sudden, all changing golden age (or no longer possible and be considered accurate), but rather a phase that wasn't entirely a move 'forward', or that dangerous historical problem, progress.

There were Renaissance movements in architecture, literature, poetry, drama, music, metals, textiles and furniture, but the Renaissance is perhaps best known for its art. Creative endeavor became viewed as a form of knowledge and achievement, not simply a way of decoration. Art was now to be based on observation of the real world, applying mathematics and optics to achieve more advanced effects like perspective. Paintings, sculpture and other art forms flourished as new talents took up the creation of masterpieces, and enjoying art became seen as the mark of a cultured individual.

Perhaps the earliest expression of the Renaissance was in humanism, an intellectual approach which developed among those being taught a new form of curriculum: the studia humanitatis, which challenged the previously dominant Scholastic thinking. Humanists were concerned with the features of human nature and attempts by man to master nature rather than develop religious piety.

Humanist thinkers implicitly and explicitly challenged the old Christian mindset, allowing and advancing the new intellectual model behind the Renaissance. However, tensions between humanism and the Catholic Church developed over the period, and humanist learning partly caused the Reformation. Humanism was also deeply pragmatic, giving those involved the educational basis for work in the burgeoning European bureaucracies. It is important to note that the term 'humanist' was a later label, just like "renaissance".

The Renaissance used to be regarded as pushing forward a new desire for liberty and republicanism - rediscovered in works about the Roman Republic -even though many of the Italian city-states were taken over by individual rulers. This view has come under close scrutiny by historians and partly rejected, but it did cause some Renaissance thinkers to agitate for greater religious and political freedoms over later years. More widely accepted is the return to thinking about the state as a body with needs and requirements, taking politics away from the application of Christian morals and into a more pragmatic, some might say devious, world, as typified by the work of Machiavelli. There was no marvelous purity in Renaissance politics, just the same twisting about as ever.

Part of the changes brought by the Renaissance, or perhaps one of the causes, was the change in attitude to pre-Christian books. Petrarch, who had a self-proclaimed "lust" to seek out forgotten books among the monasteries and libraries of Europe, contributed to a new outlook: one of (secular) passion and hunger for the knowledge. This attitude spread, increasing the search for lost works and increasing the number of volumes in circulation, in turn influencing more people with classical ideas. One other major result was a renewed trade in manuscripts and the foundation of public libraries to better enable widespread study. Print then enabled an explosion in the reading and spread of texts, by producing them faster and more accurately, and led to the literate populations who formed the basis of the modern world.

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The Renaissance was a cultural and scholarly movement which stressed the rediscovery and application of texts and thought from classical antiquity, occurring in Europe c. 1400 - c. 1600. The Renaissance can also refer to the period of European history spanning roughly the same dates.

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Leonardo da Vinci for Children: Biography for Kids - FreeSchool

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https://ed.ted.com/lessons/da-vinci-s-vitruvian-man-of-math-james-earle

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Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man of math - James Earle

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Leonardo Da Vinci's paintings and drawings

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Leonardo Da Vinci's paintings and drawings

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Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, known as Leonardo da Vinci, was an Italian polymath of the Renaissance whose areas of interest included invention, drawing, painting, sculpture, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, paleontology, and cartography. He has been variously called the father of palaeontology, ichnology, and architecture, and is widely considered one of the greatest painters of all time.
Born out of wedlock to a notary, Piero da Vinci, and a peasant woman, Caterina, in Vinci, in the region of Florence, Italy, Leonardo was educated in the studio of the renowned Italian painter Andrea del Verrocchio. Much of his earlier working life was spent in the service of Ludovico il Moro in Milan, and he later worked in Rome, Bologna and Venice. He spent his last three years in France, where he died in 1519.
Leonardo is renowned primarily as a painter. The Mona Lisa is the most famous of his works and the most popular portrait ever made. The Last Supper is the most reproduced religious painting of all time and his Vitruvian Man drawing is regarded as a cultural icon as well.

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Leonardo da Vinci - Google Arts & Culture

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Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, known as Leonardo da Vinci, was an Italian polymath of the Renaissance whose areas of interest included invention, drawing, painting, sculpture, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, paleontology, and cartography.

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Michelangelo-a slideshow of 12 paintings

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Michelangelo-a slideshow of 12 paintings

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Michelangelo: 12 works - Google Arts & Culture

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A slideshow of artworks auto-selected from multiple collections

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The many meanings of Michelangelo's Statue of David - James Earle 

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The many meanings of Michelangelo's Statue of David - James Earle 

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James Earle walks us through the statue's journey, to show how art gains layers of meaning over time.

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PBS Empires Special: The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance

Lost Battles: Leonardo, Michelangelo, and the Artistic Dual that Defined the Renaissance by Jonathan Jones

Smart History is a website dedicated to the History of Art and has more resources on the Statue of David.

Amor Sciendi is a YouTube channel specializing in Art History.

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The many meanings of Michelangelo's Statue of David - James Earle

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We typically experience classic works of art in a museum, stripped of their original contexts, but that serene setting can belie a tumultuous history. Take Michelangelo's statue of David: devised as a religious symbol, adopted as a political emblem, and later iconized for its aesthetic beauty.

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Born in Florence in 1435 Andrea del Verrocchio trained as a goldsmith. He was multi-talented and, in addition to his metalworking prowess, was very proficient in the skills of painting and sculpture. He established his own workshop which became very popular with the , those great patrons of Italian art. Andrea, his pupils and assistants, managed a large workload of multiple commissions.

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Andrea del Verrocchio, multitalented painter and sculptor

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Born in Florence in 1435 Andrea del Verrocchio trained as a goldsmith. He was multi-talented and, in addition to his metalworking prowess, was very proficient in the skills of painting and sculpture. He established his own workshop which became very popular with the , those great patrons of Italian art.

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Italian Painter, Sculptor, Poet, and Architect

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Summary of Michelangelo

It is universally accepted that Michelangelo is one of the greatest artists in the history of art. His phenomenal virtuosity as a sculptor, and also as a painter and architect, is married to a reputation for being hot-tempered and volatile. He was central to the revival in classical Greek and Roman art, but his contribution to Renaissance art and culture went far beyond the mere imitation of antiquity. Indeed, he conjured figures, both carved and painted, that were infused with such psychological intensity and emotional realism they set a new standard of excellence. Michelangelo's most seminal pieces: the massive painting of the biblical narratives on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, the 17-foot-tall and anatomically flawless David, and the heartbreakingly genuine Pietà, are considered some of the greatest achievements in human history. Tourists flock to Rome and Florence to stand before them.

Accomplishments

Michelangelo's early studies of classical sculpture were coupled with research into human cadavers. Having been granted access to a local hospital, he gained an almost surgical understanding of human anatomy. The resultant musculature of his figures is so naturalistic and precise they have been expected to spring to life at any moment.

Michelangelo's dexterity with carving an entire sculpture from a single block of marble remains unmatched. He once said, "I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free." He was known as the sculptor who could summon the living from stone.

The fact that he considered himself first and foremost a sculptor, didn't stop Michelangelo from producing what is perhaps the most famous fresco in the history of world art. Featuring scenes from the Old Testament, his sublime achievement, which adorns the ceiling of the Vatican's holy Sistine Chapel, attracts millions of visitors to Rome each year. The task of painting the ceiling is at the heart of Michelangelo's legend. It is the tale of a disgruntled artist working for four years, in uncomfortable and cramped conditions atop a scaffold structure, on a commission that he never wanted.

Michelangelo is one of the greatest artists in history and was the first to have had his biography published while still working. The great Renaissance biographer, Giorgio Vasari, confirmed Michelangelo's genius in his legendary book, The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (1550).

The artist's feisty and tempestuous personality is legendary. He often abandoned projects midway through or expressed his defiance through controversial means such as painting his own face on figures, or by putting in the faces of his enemies (in mocking fashion). One infamous attack was aimed at a high-ranking Vatican priest, Biagio de Cesena, who had complained about the level nudity in Michelangelo's Last Judgment fresco. In an act of revenge, the artist painted Minos (judge of the dead in Greek mythology) with Cesena's face, giving him donkeys ears, and with his testicles being bitten by a serpent.

The Life of Michelangelo

"The sculptor's hand can only break the spell to free the figures slumbering in the stone," Michelangelo famously said. Carved from a single block of marble, each figure he sculpted came alive with physical and psychological power, making him the most famous sculptor in history.

Important Art by Michelangelo

Bacchus

Bacchus, Michelangelo's first surviving large statue, depicts the Roman god of wine precariously balancing on a rock in a state of intoxication. He wears a wreath of ivy and holds a goblet in one hand, raised up toward his lips. In the other hand, he holds a lion skin, which is a symbol of death as derived from the myth of Hercules. From behind his left leg peeks a satyr, significant to the cult of Bacchus as often representing a drunken, lusty, woodland deity. The art historian Creighton E. Gilbert writes, "The Bacchus relies on ancient Roman nude figures as a point of departure, but it is much more mobile and more complex in outline. The conscious instability evokes the god of wine and Dionysian [relating to the sensuous and the orgiastic] revels with extraordinary virtuosity. Made for a garden, it is also unique among Michelangelo's works in calling for observation from all sides rather than primarily from the front."

The work caused considerable controversy when it was unveiled. It was originally commissioned by Cardinal Riario and was inspired by a description of a lost bronze sculpture by the ancient sculptor Praxiteles. But when Riario saw the finished piece he found it inappropriate and rejected it. Michelangelo duly sold it to his banker, Jacopo Galli.

Despite its checkered past, the piece is early evidence of Michelangelo's genius. His excellent knowledge of anatomy is seen in the androgynous figure's body which biographer Giorgio Vasari described as having the "the slenderness of a young man and the fleshy roundness of a woman." A high center of gravity lends the figure a sense of captured movement, which Michelangelo would later perfect for David. Although intended to mimic classical Greek sculpture Michelangelo remained true to what it means to be drunk; the unseemly swaying body was unlike any depiction of a god previously. Art historian Claire McCoy said of the sculpture, "Bacchus marked a moment when originality and imitation of the antique came together."

Marble - National Museum of Bargello, Florence

Pietà

This was the first of a number of Pietàs Michelangelo worked on during his lifetime. It depicts the body of Jesus in the lap of his mother after the Crucifixion. This particular scene is one of the seven sorrows of Mary used in Catholic devotional prayers and depicts a key moment in her life foretold by the prophet, Simeon. Cardinal Jean de Bilhères commissioned the work, stating that he wanted to acquire the most beautiful work of marble in Rome, one that no living artist could better. The 24-year-old Michelangelo answered his call, carving the work in two years out of a single block of marble.

Although the work continued a long tradition of devotional images, stretching back to 14 th century Germany, the depiction was unique to Italian Renaissance art of the time. Many artists were translating traditional religious narratives in a more humanist vein, blurring the boundaries between the divine and man by humanizing biblical figures and by taking liberties with expression. Mary was a popular subject, portrayed in myriad ways, and in this piece Michelangelo presented her, not as a mother in her fifties, but as a figure of youthful beauty. As Michelangelo related to his biographer Ascanio Condivi, "Do you not know that chaste women stay fresh much more than those who are not chaste?"

Not only was Pietà the first interpretation of the scene in marble, but Michelangelo also moved away from the depiction of the Virgin's suffering which was usually portrayed in Pietàs of the time, presenting her instead with a profound sense of maternal tenderness. Christ too, shows little sign of his recent crucifixion with only slightly discernible nail marks in his hands and through the small wound in his side. Rather than a dead man, he looks as if he is sleeping in the arms of his mother while she waits for her son to awaken.

A pyramidal structure, signature to the time, was also adopted here: Mary's head at the top and then the gradual widening through her layered garments towards the base. The folds of the draped clothing give credence to Michelangelo's mastery of marble, as they retain a sense of flowing movement, and an incredible standard of polished sheen, that is so difficult to achieve in stone. This is the only sculpture Michelangelo ever signed. In a fiery fit of reaction to rumors circulating that the piece was made by one of his competitors, Cristoforo Solari, he carved his name across Mary's sash right between her breasts. He also split his name in two as Michael Angelus, which can be seen as a reference to the Archangel Michael - an egotistical move and one he would later regret. He swore to never again sign another piece and stayed true to his word.

This Pietà became famous immediately following its completion and was pivotal in contributing to Michelangelo's fame. The sculpture was loaned to the 1964 World's Fair in New York City. It was transported there by sea in a 2.5 ton buoyant and waterproof plexiglass case that contained a radio transmitter (so, should the ship sink, the sculpture could still be located and recovered). Despite an attack in 1972 (by a mentally unstable Hungarian-Austrian geologist, who cried out "I am Jesus Christ, risen from the dead!") which damaged Mary's arm and face, it was restored, placed behind a bulletproof crystal wall, and continues to inspire awe in visitors to this day.

Marble - Vatican City

David

The sculptor Donatello had revived the classical nude by sculpting a bronze version of David (1440-60). It would become a masterpiece of the Early Renaissance. But Michelangelo's towering marble figure overtook it as the most accomplished and iconic version of the story in the history of Western art. Michelangelo's majestic 17-foot-tall statue depicts the prophet David, with the slingshot he will use to slay Goliath, slung over his left shoulder. Michelangelo took the unusual decision to depict David before battle (in contrast, Donatello's triumphant David stands with his foot on top of his enemy's severed head). In fact, David's great foe (Goliath) is not referenced in the work at all.

Michelangelo was commissioned to produce the sculpture for the Opera del Duomo at the Cathedral of Florence. It was to be one of a series of statues to be placed in the niches of the cathedral's tribunes (some 80 meters above ground). He was asked by the consuls of the Board to complete a project, abandoned previously by Agostino di Duccio and Antonio Rossellino, both of whom had rejected the enormous block of marble due to the presence of too many " taroli" (imperfections). The block of marble had stood idle in the Opera's courtyard for some 25 years. In his oft-cited biography, Ascanio Convidi wrote that it was known (from archive documents) that Michelangelo worked on David "in utmost secrecy, hiding his masterpiece in the making up until January 1504". He added that "since he worked in the open courtyard, when it rained he worked soaked" but, that rather than let the rain disturb him, it inspired Michelangelo's working method in which he created a wax model (of David) and submerged it in water. As he worked, he would lower the level of the water, revealing the wax figure bit-by-bit. As Convidi explains, "using different chisels [he then] sculpted what he could see emerging". So engrossed was he in the project, Michelangelo is said to have "slept sporadically, and when he did he slept with his clothes and even in his boots still on, and rarely ate".

The finished work is an exquisite example of Michelangelo's mastery of anatomy. This is most evident in David's musculature; his strength emphasized through the classical contrapposto (asymmetrical) stance, with weight shifting onto his right leg. The top half of the body was made slightly larger than the legs so that viewers glancing up at David from below, or from afar, would experience a more realistic perspective. Such was the figure's authenticity, Vasari proclaimed: "without any doubt this figure has put in the shade every other statue, ancient or modern, Greek or Roman."

While the statue was widely revered, it was also reviled for its sexual explicitness. For instance, during the late nineteenth century, a plaster cast of David was exhibited at London's Victoria and Albert Museum. So as not to offend the tastes of noble women, Queen Victoria ordered that a "detachable" plaster fig leaf be added to the figure to protect David's modesty. On another occasion, a replica of David was offered to the municipality of Jerusalem to mark the 3,000th anniversary of King David's conquest of the city. Religious factions in Jerusalem urged that the gift be declined because the naked figure was considered pornographic. A fully clothed replica of David by Andrea del Verrocchio, a Florentine contemporary of Michelangelo, was accepted in its place.

Marble - Gallery of the Academy of Florence

Doni Tondo (Holy Family)

Holy Family, the only finished panel painting by the artist to survive, was commissioned by Agnolo Doni (which gives it its name) to commemorate his marriage to Maddalena Strozzi, daughter of a powerful Tuscan family. The inclusion of the infant St. John further suggests it was intended for mark the news of Maddalena's pregnancy (the couple's first child, Maria, was born in 1507). Moreover, botanists have identified the plant on the left as a clitoria plant that, like Mary's braid, was a symbol of fertility. The painting portrays Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and an infant John the Baptist. The intimate tenderness of the figures governed by the father's loving gaze emphasizes the love of family and divine love, representing the cores of Christian faith. In contrast, the five nude males in the background symbolize pagans awaiting redemption. The round (tondo) form was customary for private commissions and Michelangelo designed the intricate gold carved wooden frame. The work is believed to be entirely by his hand.

We find many of the artist's influences in this painting, including Signorelli's Madonna. It is also said to have been influenced by Leonardo's The Virgin and Child with St. Anne, a full scale drawing that Michelangelo saw while working on his David in 1501. The nude figures in the background are thought to have been influenced by the ancient statue of Laocoön and His Sons attributed to the Greek sculptors Agesander, Athenodoros, and Polydorus, which was excavated in Rome in 1506 and publicly displayed in the Vatican.

Yet these influences aside, the piece is an example of the artist's individualism, which was even considered avant-garde in its time. The painting represented a significant shift from the serene, static rendition of figures depicted in classical Roman and Greek sculpture. Michelangelo's twisting figures signify great energy and movement, and the vibrant colors add to the majesty of the work, which were later used in his frescos in the Sistine Chapel. The soft modeling of the figures in the background with the focused details in the foreground gives this small painting its great depth.

This painting might be said to anticipate the Mannerist style which, in contrast to the High Renaissance commitment to proportion and idealized beauty, showed a preference for exaggeration and affectation over naturalism.

Oil and tempera - The Uffizi Gallery, Florence

The Creation of Adam

This legendary image, part of the vast masterpiece that adorns the ceiling of the Vatican City's Sistine Chapel, shows Adam as a muscular classical nude, reclining on the left, as he extends his hand toward God who fills the right half of the painting. God rushes toward him, his haste conveyed by his white flaring robe and the energetic movements of his body. God is surrounded by angels and cherubim, all encased within a red cloud, while a feminine figure, thought to be Eve (first woman) or Sophia (symbol of wisdom), peers out with curious interest from underneath God's arm. Behind Adam, the green ledge upon which he lies, and the mountainous background create a strong diagonal, emphasizing the division between mortal man and heavenly God. As a result the viewer's eye is drawn to the hands of God and Adam, outlined in the central space, almost touching. Some have noted that the shape of the red cloud resembles the shape of the human brain, as if the artist meant to imply God's intent to infuse Adam with not merely animate life, but also the important gift of consciousness.

This was an innovative depiction of the creation of Adam. Contrary to traditional artworks, God is not shown as aloof and regal, separate and above mortal man. For Michelangelo, it was important to depict the all-powerful giver of life as one distinctly intimate with man, whom he created in his own image. This reflected the humanist ideals of man's essential place in the world and the connection to the divine. The bodies have a sculptural quality that replicate the mastery of the artist's command of human anatomy.

While acknowledging that Michelangelo painted the ceiling alone, laying on scaffolding on his back, and looking upward, the famous art historian E H Gombrich wrote that this feat of physical endurance was "nothing compared to the intellectual and artistic achievement. The wealth of ever-new [Renaissance] inventions, the unfailing mastery of execution in every detail, and, above all, the grandeur of the vision which Michelangelo revealed to those who came after him, have given mankind a quite new idea of the power of genius."

The idea that Michelangelo was less than happy about the commission was confirmed through correspondences in 1509 to his friend Giovanni da Pistoia. He wrote, "I've already grown a goiter from this torture, [my] stomach's squashed under my chin, [my] face makes a fine floor for droppings, [my] skin hangs loose below me, [and my] spine's all knotted from folding myself over". He concluded, "I am not in the right place - I am not a painter."

Fresco - Vatican City

Moses

Michelangelo's monumental (eight-feet tall) statue depicts Moses seated regally as he shields the tablets on which the Ten Commandments are written. His expression is stern, reflecting his power and his displeasure at seeing the Israelites worshipping the golden calf (a pagan idol) on his return from Mount Sinai. Not only has Michelangelo rendered the great prophet with a complex emotional expression, strong muscular definition, and a flowing beard, his work on the deep folds of the fabric of Moses's clothes carries exquisite detail that completes its authenticity. Indeed, Michelangelo has imbued his Moses with a sense of energy that is remarkable for a stone figure, let alone one which who is seated.

Michelangelo's reputation had reached new heights with his sculpture, David. This led to an invitation from Pope Julius II to come to Rome to work on a planned tomb. The artist initially proposed an (over) ambitious project featuring some 40 figures (the central piece being Moses). Much to the infuriation of the artist, however, Pope Julius II suspended work on the tomb so that he could paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (with the scaled-down tomb only completed in 1545 (32 years after Julius's death) and installed in San Pietro in Vincoli rather than the St. Peter's Basilica as originally planned).

The sculpture has been the subject of much analysis, especially with regard to the horns protruding from Moses's head. In medieval art, Moses was often depicted with horns, and this was generally considered a symbol of the "glorification" of his power. This reading stems in fact from a mistranslation of the Hebrew word, karan which means "shining" or "emitting rays". Karan was translated into the Latin Bible as "horn", with the relevant passage reading thus: "And when Moses came down from the Mount Sinai, he held the two tables of the testimony, and he knew not that his face was horned from the conversation of the Lord."

Legend tells that Michelangelo felt that Moses was his most life-like work and upon its completion he struck its knee, commanding "Now, speak!" The artist's pride in his achievement was fully warranted according to Vasari, who said of Moses that it was "a statue unrivaled by any contemporary or ancient achievement," adding that Moses's "long, lustrous beard, the strands of which are so silky and feathery that it appears as if the metal chisel has turned into a brush. The lovely face, like that of a prophet or a strong prince, seemed to require a veil to cover it, so magnificent and radiant is it, and so beautifully has the artist depicted in marble the purity with which he had bestowed that holy visage."

Marble - San Pietro Vincoli, Rome

The Last Judgment

This fresco covers the entire altar wall of the Sistine Chapel and is one of the last pieces to be made in the seminal building, and the first commissioned by Pope Paul III. Painted when Michelangelo was 62, we see the Second Coming of Christ as he delivers the message of salvation (through the Last Judgment). The monumental work took five years to complete and consists of over 300 individual figures. The scene is one of harried action around the central presence of Christ, his hands raised to reveal the wounds of his Crucifixion, as he looks down upon the souls of humans as they rise to their fates. With this arresting tableau, Paul III was seeking to counter the Protestant Reformation by reaffirming the orthodoxies and doctrines of the Catholic Church, and the visual arts were to play a vital role in his plans.

To Christ's left, the Virgin Mary glances toward the saved. To either side of Christ are John the Baptist and St Peter holding the keys to heaven. On the right, Charon the ferryman is shown bringing the damned to the gates of Hell. Minos (ruler of Crete in Greek mythology), assuming the role Dante gave him in his Inferno, admits them to Hell. Another noteworthy group are the seven angels blowing trumpets illustrating the Book of Revelation's end of the world. Michelangelo's self-portrait appears twice in the painting, meanwhile, first in the flayed skin which the figure of St. Bartholomew is carrying in his left-hand, and second in the figure in the lower left-hand corner, who is looking at the saved souls rising up from their graves.

In typical Michelangelo fashion, the artist courted controversy, chiefly by rendering nude figures with pronounced muscular anatomies. One of the myths surrounding the fresco relates to the priest, and high-ranking Vatican official, Biagio de Cesena, whom Michelangelo portrayed as Minos following his public criticism of the (unfinished) painting. Cesena had complained that the painting contained so much nudity it was "more fitting for a tavern that the Sistine Chapel". Vasari reports that "Michelangelo, angry at the remark, is said to have painted Cesena's face onto Minos, judge of the underworld, with donkey's ears. Cesena complained to the Pope at being so ridiculed, but the Pope is said to have jokingly remarked that his jurisdiction did not extend to Hell." Following a recent cleaning of the fresco, moreover, it has been revealed that Minos's testicles are being attacked by a serpent.

Interestingly, theologian John O'Malley, notes that in 1563 the Council of Trent pronounced that "iconoclasm is wrong" and that "images of sacred subjects [...] should not contain any - sensual appeal or - seductive charm." Following the Council's judgement, it was decreed that "The pictures in the Apostolic Chapel are to be covered..." On January 21, 1564, less than a month before Michelangelo's death, the decree was formally applied to The Last Judgment. So, next year, Michelangelo's friend, Daniele da Volterra, was commissioned to add clothing to the nude figures (earning Volterra the nickname "breeches-maker"). (O'Malley observes that "there is no instance of any other painting in Rome being defaced as a result of [the decree].") The Last Judgment was only restored to its original glory in the 1990s.

Fresco - Vatican City

The Deposition

This piece is not only sculpturally complex, but it carries layers of meaning and has sparked multiple interpretations. In it, we see Christ the moment after the Deposition, or being taken down from the cross of his crucifixion. He is falling into the arms of his mother, the Virgin Mary, and Mary Magdalene, whose presence in a work of such importance was highly unusual. Behind the trio is a hooded figure, which is said to be either Joseph of Arimathea or Nicodemus, both of whom were in attendance at the entombment of Christ (which followed the Deposition). Joseph would give up his tomb for Christ and Nicodemus would speak with Christ about the possibility of obtaining eternal life. Because Christ is seen falling into the arms of his mother, this piece is also often referred to as a Pietà.

The three themes alluded to in this one piece - The Deposition, The Pietà, and The Entombment - are further emphasized by the way Michelangelo carved out his narrative. Not only is it intense in its realism, The Deposition was sculpted so that a viewer could walk around the piece and observe each of the three narratives from different visual perspectives and to possibly reflect upon how the stories might be interrelated.

The sculpture is also a perfect example of Michelangelo's temperament and perfectionism. The process of making it was arduous. Vasari relates that the artist complained about the quality of the marble. Some suggest he had a problem with the way Christ's left leg originally draped over Nicodemus, worrying that some might interpret it in a sexual way, causing him to remove it. It is also feasible that Michelangelo was so particular with the piece because he intended it for his own future tomb.

In 1555, Michelangelo attempted to destroy the piece causing further speculation about its meaning. There is a suggestion that the attempted destruction of the piece was because Nicodemus, by reference to his conversation with Christ about the need to be born again to find everlasting life, is associated with Martin Luther's Reformation. Michelangelo was rumored to be a secret sympathizer, which was dangerous even for someone as influential as he. Perhaps a coincidence, but his Lutheran sympathies are given as one of the reasons why Pope Paul IV cancelled Michelangelo's pension in 1555. Vasari also suggests that the face of Nicodemus is a self-portrait, which may allude to the artist's crisis of faith. Michelangelo gave the unfinished piece to Francesco Bandini, a wealthy merchant, who commissioned Tiberio Calcagni, a friend of Michelangelo's, to finish the work and repair the damage (but stopping short of replacing Christ's left leg).

Marble - Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Florence

Pietà Rondanini

Pietà Rondanini is the last sculpture Michelangelo worked on in the weeks leading up to his death, finalizing a story that weaved through his many Pietàs and now reflective of the artist's reckoning with his own mortality. The depiction of Christ has changed from his earlier St. Peter's Pietà in which Christ appeared asleep, through to his Deposition, where Christ's body was more lifeless, to now, where Christ is shown in the pain and suffering of death. His mother Mary is standing in this piece, an unusual rendition, as she struggles to hold up the body of her son while engulfed with grief.

What's interesting about this work is that Michelangelo abandoned his usual detail at carving the body, even though he worked on it intermittently for some 12 years. It was a departure that, coming so late in his prolific career, signified the enduring genius of an artist whose confidence would allow him to try new things even when his fame would have allowed him to rest upon his laurels. The detached arm, the subtle sketched features of the face, and the way the figures almost blend into one other provide a more abstracted quality than was his norm, and prefigures a minimalist quality that was yet to come in sculpture. The renowned sculptor Henry Moore later said of this piece, "This is the kind of quality you get in the work of old men who are really great. They can simplify, they can leave out... This Pietà is by someone who knows the whole thing so well he can use a chisel like someone else would use a pen."

This sculpture's importance was ignored for centuries, and it almost entirely disappeared from public discourse until it was found in the possession of Marchese Rondanini in 1807. It has since excited many modern artists. The Italian artist Massimo Lippi is quoted as saying that modern and contemporary art began with this Pietà, and the South African painter, Marlene Dumas, based her Homage to Michelangelo (2012) on this work.

Marble - Museo d'arte antica, Sforza Castle, Milan

Biography of Michelangelo

Childhood

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, was born to Leonardo di Buonarrota and Francesca di Neri del Miniato di Siena, a middle-class family of bankers, living in the small village of Caprese (now known in his honor as Michelangelo Caprese), near Arezzo, Tuscany. His mother's unfortunate and prolonged illness, which led to her death while Michelangelo was just six years old, forced his father to place his son in the primary care of his nanny. The nanny was married to a stonecutter and legend tells it that this (forced) domestic situation would form the foundation for the artist's lifelong love affair with marble.

By the time he was 13 years old, it was clear to his father that Michelangelo had no aptitude for the family vocation. The young boy was sent to apprentice in the well-known Florentine studio of Domenico Ghirlandaio. The art historian E.H. Gombrich writes, "In his workshop the young Michelangelo could certainly learn all the technical tricks of the trade, a solid technique in painting frescoes, and thorough grounding in draftsmanship. But, as far as we know, Michelangelo did not enjoy his days in the painter's firm. His ideas about art were different. Instead of acquiring the facile manner of Ghirlandaio, he went out to study the work of the great masters of the past, Giotto, Masaccio, Donatello, and other Greek and Roman sculptors whose work he could see in the Medici collection".

After only a year in the studio, Lorenzo de' Medici, the de facto ruler of Florence, and renowned patron of the arts, asked Ghirlandaio to supply his two best students - Michelangelo and Francesco Granacci - to join the Medici's Humanist academy. It was a thriving time in Renaissance Florence when artists were encouraged to study the humanities, complementing their creative endeavors with knowledge of ancient Greek and Roman art and philosophy. Progressive artists were moving away from Gothic iconography and devotional work and evolving a Renaissance style that would foreground humanist ideals and celebrate man's primary role in shaping the modern world.

Michelangelo studied under the bronze sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni, bringing him exposure to the great classical sculptures in the palace of Lorenzo. But as Gombrich says, "Like Leonardo, [Michelangelo] was not content with learning the laws of anatomy secondhand, as it were, from antique sculpture. He made his own research into human anatomy, dissected bodies and drew from models, till the human figure did not hold any secrets for him." However, unlike Leonardo, for whom human anatomy was just one of the many "riddles of nature", Michelangelo "strove with an incredible singleness of purpose to master this one problem, but to master it fully."

During this period, Michelangelo obtained permission from the friars at the Church of Santo Spirito to study cadavers in the convent's hospital where he would gain a deep understanding of human anatomy. Michelangelo's uncanny ability to render the muscular tone of the body was evidenced in two surviving sculptures from the period: Madonna of the Stairs (1491), and Battle of the Centaurs (1492). The 17-year-old Michelangelo was given refuge at the convent following the death of his patron, Lorenzo di Medici (Lorenzo the Magnificent) in 1492. By way of a "thank-you", Michelangelo carved a highly realistic wooden sculpture which hung over the main altar. (After the French occupation in the late 18 th-century, the cross was recorded as lost but it had in fact been moved to another chapel where it was painted to disguise its origins. Once restored, it was on display at the museum of Casa Buonarroti, where it remained until 2000 before being returned to its original home at Santo Spirito.)

Early Training and Work

In 1494, as the Republic of Florence was under the threat of siege from the French. Michelangelo, fearing for his safety, moved, via a brief stop in Venice, to the relative safety of Bologna. In the city he was befriended by the wealthy Bolognese senator, Giovan Francesco Aldrovandi, who was able to secure the 19-year-old Michelangelo the commission to complete the remaining statuettes for the marble sarcophagus lid for the Arca of St. Dominic. The original lid, by Niccolò dell'Arca, was installed in 1473, with Michelangelo sculpting the few remaining figures, including Saint Proculus, Saint Petronio, and an angel with candelabra, in 1496. Still just 19 years old, Michelangelo overshadowed the work of the older sculptor through his fine detail in the folds of the cloth and drapery, and in the figure of Petronio to whom he brought a tangible sense of movement by representing him in mid-step.

Michelangelo returned briefly to Florence after the threat of the French invasion abated. He worked on two statues, one of St. John the Baptist, the other, a small cupid. The Cupid was sold to Cardinal Riario of San Giorgio, who had been duped into believing that it was an antique sculpture. Although angry on learning of the deception, Cardinal Riario was impressed by Michelangelo's skill and invited him to Rome to work on a new project. For this commission, Michelangelo created a statue of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, which was, on its completion, rejected by the Cardinal who thought it politically imprudent to be associated with a naked pagan figure. Michelangelo, who had already garnered a reputation for being volatile, was left incensed and many years later instructed his biographer, Condivi, to deny the commission came from the Cardinal at all, and to record it rather as a commission from his banker, Jacopo Galli (who had purchased the finished work).

Michelangelo remained in Rome after completing the Bacchus, and in 1497 the French Ambassador, Cardinal Jean Bilhères de Lagraulas commissioned his Pietà for the chapel of the King of France in St Peter 's Basilica. Probably its most famous interpretation, Pietà was in fact a generic title applied to devotional works designed to prompt worshippers to engage in repentant prayer. What was unusual (although not unheard of) about Michelangelo's sculpture was that he realized two figures from a single block of marble. Moreover, his treatment of his subjects, which foregrounded the artist's acuity with emotion and realism, garnered Michelangelo much praise and many new admirers. Indeed, his Pietà was to become one of his most famous early carvings; one which the 16th-century biographer Giorgio Vasari, described as something "nature is scarcely able to create in the flesh."

Although his status as one of the period's most divinely gifted artists was now secure, Michelangelo didn't receive any major commissions for some two years. Financially, however, this shortage of work and/or money wasn't of primary concern to the artist. As he would say to Condivi towards the end of his life, "However rich I may have been, I have always lived like a poor man."

In 1497, the puritanical monk Florentine Girolamo Savonarola became famous for his Bonfire of the Vanities, an event in which he and his supporters publicly burned art and books. Their actions caused an interruption to what had been a thriving period of Renaissance culture. Michelangelo would have to wait until Savonarola's ousting a year later before returning to his beloved Florence.

In 1501, his most majestic achievement in sculpture was born through a commission from the Guild of Wool to complete an unfinished project begun by Agostino di Duccio some 40 years earlier. This project, completed in 1504, was a 17-foot-tall nude statue of the biblical hero David. The work - its importance to the history of sculpture, comparable, perhaps, to Leonardo's Mona Lisa and its place in the history oil painting - was a testament to the artist's unparalleled excellence at carving breathtakingly real human figures out of inanimate marble.

The art historian Creighton E. Gilbert said of the David, "It has continued to serve as the prime statement of the Renaissance ideal of perfect humanity. Although the sculpture was originally intended for the buttress of the cathedral, the magnificence of the finished work convinced Michelangelo's contemporaries to install it in a more prominent place, to be determined by a commission formed of artists and prominent citizens. They decided that the David would be installed in front of the entrance of the Palazzo dei Priori (now called Palazzo Vecchio) as a symbol of the Florentine Republic".

Several painting commissions followed David's completion. Michelangelo's only known surviving painting is, Doni Tondo ( The Holy Family) (1504). Gilbert writes that the painting betrays "the artist's fascination with the work of Leonardo". He adds that Michelangelo "regularly denied that anyone influenced him, and his statements have usually been accepted without demur. But Leonardo's return to Florence in 1500 after nearly 20 years was exciting to younger artists there, and later scholars generally agreed that Michelangelo was among those affected."

During this time of the High Renaissance in Florence, rivalry between Michelangelo and his peers was fierce, with artists competing for prime commissions (and the accolades that came with them).

Leonardo was, at 23 years Michelangelo's senior, the most celebrated figure of all within the Florentine fraternity of Renaissance masters. But an unspoken rivalry between the two men was well known. In 1503, Piero Soderini, the lifetime Gonfalonier of Justice (a senior civil servant position akin to the role of Mayor), commissioned both artists to paint opposing walls of the Salone dei Cinquecento in the Palazzo Vecchio. As Gombrich writes, "It was a dramatic moment in the history of art where these two giants competed for the palm, and all of Florence watched with excitement the progress of their preparations." Sadly, Soderini abandoned the commission and the paintings (Leonardo's The Battle of Anghiari and Michelangelo's The Battle of Cascina) were never finished. Leonardo returned to Milan, while Michelangelo was summoned to Rome by Pope Julius II.

Mature Period

In Rome, Michelangelo made preparations for the Pope's tomb; a giant mausoleum that was to be completed within a five-year timeline. Having travelled to the famous quarries at Carrara, he spent some six months painstakingly searching out the perfect blocks of marble from which to conjure his figures. Much to his chagrin, Julius recalled Michelangelo to Rome where he learned that the building earmarked to house the tomb was to be pulled down and the project as a whole put on ice. Michelangelo was incensed and became convinced that there was a conspiracy to destroy him. Indeed, he believed that the architect of the new St. Peter's Basilica, Bramante, was hatching a plot to have him poisoned. In his anger, Michelangelo returned to Florence and wrote a letter to the Pope expressing disgust at his treatment in Rome.

Michelangelo found himself at the center of a tricky diplomatic standoff between Florence and Rome. As Gombrich writes, "The head of the city of Florence therefore persuaded Michelangelo to return to the services of Julius II and gave him a letter of recommendation in which he said that his art was unequalled throughout Italy, perhaps even throughout the world, and that if he met with kindness 'he would achieve things that which would amaze the whole world'."

Having produced a colossal bronze statue of the pope for the newly conquered city of Bologna (unceremoniously pulled down once papal occupiers had been repelled), Michelangelo was commissioned by Julius to complete a project already started by Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, and others. The commission was to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and legend has it that Bramante had convinced the Pope that Michelangelo was the best man for the job, in the knowledge that Michelangelo was better known for his sculptures and was therefore almost certain to fail in this enormous undertaking.

Michelangelo would work on the Sistine Chapel for nearly four years. It was a job of extraordinary endurance in which (according to popular mythology) the artist painted the ceiling laying on his back atop a wooden scaffold structure (a task made even more difficult given that the tempestuous artist had dismissed all of his assistants, save one who helped him mix paint). What resulted, however, was a monumental work of stunning virtuosity illustrating stories from the Old Testament including the Creation of the World and Noah and the Flood. The finished work, which featured several nude figures (a fairly uncommon feature of the time) would become a towering masterpiece of human creation.

A serious rival to Michelangelo was a 26-year-old "upstart" named Raphael. He had burst upon the scene and was chosen in 1508 to paint a fresco in Pope Julius II's private library, a commission vied for by both Michelangelo and Leonardo. When Leonardo's health began to fail him, Raphael assumed the role of Michelangelo's greatest rival. Because of Raphael's acuity in depicting anatomy, and his finesse for painting nudes, Michelangelo would accuse him of copying his own work. Although acknowledging a degree of debt to Michelangelo, Raphael resented such animosity toward him and responded by painting the artist with his sulking face in the guise of Heraclitus in his famous fresco The School of Athens (1509-11).

Once the Sistine ceiling was completed, Michelangelo returned to work on the earlier project for the tomb of Pope Julius. Between 1513-15 he carved Moses, in which many recognize a new level of detail and control in his work that can be traced back to the figures of the prophets he painted on the Sistine ceiling. He also carved two further figures, thought to be slaves or prisoners. These pieces were also intended for the Julius tomb project, but they remained in the artist's possession until old age when he gifted them to a family who had nursed him through an earlier bout of illness (they are now housed in the Louvre).

Following Pope Julius II's death in 1513, funds for his tomb were cut and Michelangelo was commissioned by the new Pope Leo X to work on the façade of the Basilica San Lorenzo, the largest church in Florence (and therefore dedicated to the legacy of the Medici clan rather than the papacy). Michelangelo spent the next three years working on it before the project was cancelled due to lack of funds. Florence was under the rule of Cardinal Giulio de' Medici (Pope Leo X's cousin) and the two men formed a close working relationship. Indeed, Michelangelo enjoyed great creative liberties under the Cardinal, and this allowed him to move further into the field of architectural design. A project for a parish church in San Lorenzo was never realized, but Michelangelo did work on a design for The Medici Chapel.

Michelangelo worked on the New Sacristy (complementing the Old Sacristy by Brunelleschi that sat on the opposite side of the church) between 1520 and 1534. In its own literature, the Medici Chapels describes how "Michelangelo worked on the sculptures of the sarcophagi, but the only ones actually completed were the statues of the Dukes Lorenzo and Giuliano, the allegories of Dawn and Dusk, Night and Day and the group of Madonna and Child placed above the sarcophagus of the two 'magnifici' and flanked by Saints Cosmas and Damian. The latter were executed by Montorsoli and Baccio di Montelupo, pupils of Michelangelo."

The figure of Night ranks for many as one of Michelangelo's finest works. In his entry, "The Life of Michelangelo", in The Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects (1550), Giorgio Vasari quotes an epigram by Giovanni Strozzi who said of the figure:
"Night, whom you see sleeping in such sweet attitudes
was carved in this stone by an Angel
and although she sleeps, she has life:
wake her, if you don't believe it, and she will speak to you."

The Laurentian Library ( Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana) was built into a cloister of the Basilica of San Lorenzo. The library contains manuscripts and early printed books donated by Cosimo the Elder and Lorenzo the Magnificent. It was built under the patronage of Pope Clement VII, who commissioned Michelangelo to design the architecture in 1524. Although often overlooked in surveys of his work, the stairwell ( ricetto) features Michelangelo's original wall and floor decorations while the columns in the library's main chamber are concealed behind the walls (rather than in front as was typical of classical architectural design) allowing for the rows of desks to be placed in a rhythmic harmony with the windows. The library is considered an early example of the more decorative Mannerist style of High Renaissance art and architecture.

Following the capture and looting of Rome by the armies of Charles V in 1527, Florence, was declared a republic. However, the city came under siege in October 1529 before it finally fell in August 1530. In a new agreement between Pope Clement VII and Charles V, the Medici family was once more returned to power in the city. Having worked for the defense of the Florence (it is thought that Michelangelo had a profound love of the city rather that a belief in any religious/political cause) by designing fortifications, Michelangelo was re-employed by Pope Clement who gave him a new contract to re-commence work on the tomb of Pope Julius II.

In 1534, Michelangelo headed to Rome where he would live out the rest of his days. He sent many letters from Rome to family members (many relating to the marriage of a nephew and the preservation of the family name). His father and brother had recently passed, and Michelangelo reveals himself as someone becoming increasingly concerned about his own mortality.

At the age of 57, Michelangelo would establish the first of three close friendships. Tommaso dei Cavalieri was a 23-year-old Italian nobleman who is thought to have been the artist's young lover and a lifelong friend. However, some historians (Gilbert included) point out that Michelangelo's sexuality cannot be confirmed, and the fact that he had no heir, suggests that in Tommaso (the "light of our century, paragon of all the world" as the artist once described him) Michelangelo might have been seeking an adopted son. The belief that Michelangelo was homosexual is nevertheless reinforced by the knowledge that he penned over 300 poems and 75 sonnets, some so homoerotic in nature, that his grandnephew, upon publishing these as a collection in 1623, changed the gender pronouns to disguise their original context.

In Rome, Michelangelo turned to fresco panting once more, this time in the services of Pope Paul III. In 1534 he found himself again at the site of one of his greatest triumphs, painting a grand and dynamic salvation narrative for the altar wall in the Sistine Chapel. It would take him seven years to complete. The Last Judgment, with its theme of Jesus's "second coming", was part of the grand narrative of Roman Catholic teaching. Michelangelo's fresco represented an attempt on the part of the Pope to oppose the Protestant Reformation (in what was known as the Counter-Reformation or Catholic Reformation) which was sweeping Northern Europe and had challenged the authority of the Catholic church. Michelangelo still took subtle liberties with the traditional telling of the biblical story, such as the representation of a beardless Christ, and by omitting altogether his throne and the attendant wingless angels.

During this period, in which Michelangelo became an official Roman citizen in 1537, he found another close companion in the widow, Vittoria Colonna, the Marquise of Pescara. She too, was a poet. Indeed, the majority of Michelangelo's poetry is devoted to Colonna, and his adoration of her continued until her death in 1547. He also gifted her paintings and drawings, and one of the most beautiful to have survived is the black chalk drawing Pietà for Vittoria Colonna (1546). Colonna was the only woman to play a significant part in Michelangelo's life (his mother, we recall, died when he was just a small boy) and their relationship is generally believed to have been platonic. But in 1540, Michelangelo met Cecchino dei Bracci, the 12-year-old son of a wealthy Florentine banker, at the Court of Pope Paul III. The epitaphs Michelangelo wrote following Cecchino's death four years later strongly suggest a sexual relationship. In one, the artist wrote, "Do yet attest for him how gracious I was in bed. When he embraced, and in what the soul doth live."

Late Period

During the late period of his career, Michelangelo worked more and more on architectural designs. These included plans for the plaza at the civic center at Capitoline Hill, (with Luigi Vanvitelli) the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli (construction from 1562), and the Sforza Chapel in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore (1561-64). But it was for his work on the St Peter's Basilica that he is best remembered.

It was Pope Julius II who proposed demolishing the old Basilica and replacing it with what he called the "grandest building in Christendom." Although the design by Donato Bramante had been selected in 1505, and foundations laid the following year, little progress had been made since. By the time Michelangelo reluctantly took over the project from his nemesis (Bramante) in 1546 he was in his seventies, stating, "I undertake this only for the love of God and in honor of the Apostle."

Michelangelo worked continuously throughout the rest of his life as Head Architect on the Basilica. His most important personal contribution to the project was his work on the design of the dome at the eastern point of the Basilica. He dismissed all the ideas of previous architects working on the project except for those of the original designs of Bramante who, like him, had envisioned a structure to outdo even Brunelleschi's famous dome in Florence. Although the dome was not finished until after his death, the base on which the dome was to be placed was completed, which meant the final version of the dome remains true in essence to Michelangelo's majestic vision. Still the largest church in the world, the dome is both a Roman landmark (rather than just a functional covering for the building's interior) and a testament to Michelangelo's eternal connection to the city.

Michelangelo's last paintings, produced between 1542-50, were a series of frescos for the private Pauline Chapel in the Vatican. One of these paintings, The Crucifixion of St. Peter, features a horseman wearing a turban and restorers and historians believe that this was in fact a self-portrait of the artist. He continued to sculpt but did so privately for personal pleasure. He completed a number of Pietàs including the Disposition (which he attempted to destroy), as well as his last, the Rondanini Pietà, on which he worked until the last weeks before his death.

Gilbert has observed that a "side effect of Michelangelo's fame in his lifetime was that his career was more fully documented than that of any artist of the time or earlier" and that he was in fact the subject of two important biographies: a first for a living artist. In the final chapter of his series on artists' lives (1550), Vasari "explicitly presented Michelangelo's works as the culminating perfection of art, surpassing the efforts of all those before him". Yet Gilbert explains that Michelangelo "was not entirely pleased" with Vasari's piece and "arranged for his assistant Ascanio Condivi to write a brief separate book (1553); probably based on the artist's own spoken comments". It is, nevertheless, Vasari's "lively writing" and the influence of the book (which was translated into many languages) that "have made it the most usual basis of popular ideas on Michelangelo and other Renaissance artists".

Gombrich notes that in his final years Michelangelo "seemed to retire more and more into himself [...] The poems he wrote show that he was troubled by doubts as to whether his art had been sinful, while his letters make it clear that the higher he rose in esteem in the world, the more difficult and bitter he became. He was not only admired, but feared for his temper, and he spared neither high nor low." His highly secretive and guarded nature, and an incident where, while working on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, he threw wooden planks at an approaching Pope who he had mistaken for a spy, seems to suggest he suffered with feelings of paranoia. His great companion Tommaso remained with him until his death at home, in Rome, following a short illness in 1564, aged 88. Per his wishes, his body was returned to his beloved Florence and interred at the Basilica di Santa Croce.

The Legacy of Michelangelo

Michelangelo was the undisputed master of sculpting the human form, which he did with such technical aplomb that his marble seemed to almost transform into living flesh and bone. His dexterity with handling human emotions and psychological insights only enhanced his standing and brought him world-wide fame during his own lifetime. He complemented his Pietas, David, and Moses with what is the most famous ceiling fresco in the world, and has made the Vatican City's Sistine Chapel a site of pilgrimage for those with and without faith. Gombrich said of his cupola for St Peters, "As it rises above the city of Rome, supported, it seems, by a ring of twin columns and soaring up with its clean majestic outline, it serves as a fitting monument to the spirit of this singular artist who his contemporaries called 'divine'."

Historians have tracked Michelangelo's influence through the work of such luminaries as Raphael, Peter Paul Rubens, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and the last great sculptor to follow in his realist tradition, Auguste Rodin. Yet Gilbert makes the point that Michelangelo belongs to a very select and exalted group of artists, which includes William Shakespeare and Ludwig van Beethoven, who were able to capture "the tragic experience of humanity with the greatest depth and universal scope", and as such, their "influence on later art is relatively limited." Gilbert's point is that Michelangelo's works (like those of Shakespeare and Beethoven) carry "an almost cosmic grandeur [that] was inhibiting" for those artists who followed and who might aspire to emulate his achievements.

Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, meanwhile, likened his own song writing processes to those of Michelangelo. He said in a recent interview, "There's a Duff McKagan song called 'Chip Away,' that has profound meaning for me. It's a graphic song. Chip away, chip away, like Michelangelo, breaking up solid marble stone to discover the form of King David inside. He didn't build him from the ground up, he chipped away the stone until he discovered the king. It's like my own song writing, I overwrite something, then I chip away lines and phrases until I get to the real thing."

Influences and Connections

Useful Resources on Michelangelo

The books and articles below constitute a bibliography of the sources used in the writing of this page. These also suggest some accessible resources for further research, especially ones that can be found and purchased via the internet.

Similar Art

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Michelangelo was a Renaissance polymath genius who made the iconic Pieta and David sculptures, and the paintings of the Sistine Chapel.

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Michelangelo's artistic genius depicted in the Sistine Chapel's murals

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 Michelangelo And The Sistine Chapel-Extract from the Introduction

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 Michelangelo And The Sistine Chapel-Extract from the Introduction

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Extract from the Introduction:

Michelangelo never wanted to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling. He was daunted by the difficulty of the task and made it clear from the start that he resented the commission, which had been imposed upon him by the imperious and demanding "warrior pope", Julius II. The artist persisted in the paranoid suspicion that the whole scheme had been cooked up by his enemies and rivals, to give him an opportunity to fail on the grandest scale, and in the most embarrassing way. As they well knew, he was a sculptor, not a painter, and would be bound to make a fool of himself.

Besides, he had better things to do. The decoration of the ceiling of the chapel of the papal conclaves - all twelve thousand square feet of it - clearly struck Julius II as a fittingly grand scheme on which to employ the most prodigiously gifted artist of Renaissance Italy. But Michelangelo did not see it like that. For him it was a distraction from the yet more ambitious project, of a great monument sculpted from marble, to which he had already devoted years of his life, and on which his heart was set.

He reluctantly noted down the details of the contract for work on the ceiling in a memorandum written to himself - the earliest document confirming his acceptance of the commission - phrased with apparently heavy irony. "Today, 10 May 1508, I, Michelangelo sculptor, have received from His Holiness our Lord Pope Julius II five hundred papal chamber ducats ... on account of the painting of the vault of the chapel of Pope Sixtus for which I began work today under the conditions and agreements which appear in a document written by the Most Reverend Monsignor of Pavia and under my own hand."[i] Michelangelo, sculptor, had reluctantly agreed to paint.

The "Monsignor of Pavia" with whom he had made the agreement was Cardinal Alidosi, a favourite of Julius II who was soon to meet with a bloody death. The pope appointed him as legate of Bologna but Alidosi governed the city so ineffectively that he provoked a successful uprising against papal rule. Called upon to explain his failure, he made the mistake of heaping the blame on Duke Francesco della Rovere, the pope's nephew, and shortly afterwards the enraged duke stabbed Cardinal Alidosi to death in broad daylight on a street in Ravenna - a murder which went unpunished and largely unlamented.[ii] Michelangelo was a superstitious man and this may have strengthened his gloomy conviction that the contract he had signed with Alidosi was an ill-omened deal. The murder took place in the summer of 1511, when after three years of back-breaking toil the artist was still wrestling with the decoration of the ceiling.

A year later, with the end at last in sight, he addressed a stoical letter from Rome to his home town of Florence, telling one of his brothers that the work was almost finished. He was plainly exhausted. But what shines through, despite the wearily laconic tone of the letter, is Michelangelo's belated, dawning sense of how much he had achieved, despite his own worst fears: "I shall be home in September... I work harder than anyone who ever lived. I am not well and worn out with this stupendous labour and yet I am patient in order to achieve the desired end."[iii]

Posterity has rarely regretted Michelangelo's grudging acquiescence in taking on the task, although there have been occasional dissenting voices. Barely ten years after the artist had finished his work, the newly elected, notoriously ascetic and - much to Rome's relief - short-lived Pope Hadrian VI is said to have turned a baleful eye up to the ceiling, and to have curtly dismissed it as "a bathroom of nudes".[iv] The most prolific and influential art critic of nineteenth-century England, John Ruskin, was similarly disconcerted by the ceiling's many nude figures. He regarded it as a work of retrograde genius, which replaced the innocent piety of early Renaissance Christian art with the turbulent energies of a dangerous sensualism. Ruskin even went so far, in a lecture given in Oxford in 1871, to describe Michelangelo as "the chief captain of evil" of the Italian Renaissance.

Despite such outbreaks of misplaced prudishness, there has otherwise been broad consensus about the quality and importance of Michelangelo's paintings for the Sistine Chapel. Collectively they represent one of the highest pinnacles of creative achievement - an equivalent, in the visual arts, to the poetry of Dante and Milton, or the music of Bach. The most fervent admirers of the fresco cycle go further, arguing that it is the single greatest work of painting in the entire history of Western civilisation.

That was certainly the opinion of Sir Joshua Reynolds, the founding President of the Royal Academy, who dedicated the last and most emotional of his Discourses on Art to the subject of Michelangelo, the only artist whom he considered to have been "truly divine". Speaking to his students for the final time, on 10 December, 1788, Reynolds regretted that he had spent his life painting portraits and imagined what he might do if he were a student once more: "were I now to begin the world again, I would tread in the steps of that great master: to kiss the hem of his garment, to catch the slightest of his perfections, would be glory enough for an ambitious man."[v]

Michelangelo occasionally seems in danger of disappearing behind the myths that have circulated about him, the many stories about his superhuman abilities, his "divine" nature and talents. What is sometimes forgotten is that most of the elements of Michelangelo's legend were in place while he was still alive. For example, Reynolds's reference to the artist's supposed divinity has its origins in a flattering pun on the two parts of the artist's name, composed by Michelangelo's contemporary, the poet Ludovico Ariosto - "Michael, more than human, Angel divine"[vi]. This was then turned into a commonplace by the artist's friend and biographer, Giorgio Vasari. Vasari used the phrase "the divine Michelangelo" so frequently as to turn it into a kind of Homeric epithet.

Novels have been written about Michelangelo. Films have sought to dramatise his turbulent personality and to tell the story of a life that was, for sure, anything but ordinary.[vii] Such attempts to reanimate the artist have for the most part whittled him down to the wooden caricature of a tortured genius. But however they may have distorted the man, the very existence of such productions says something important about the nature of his achievement, and the nature of his orignality. Michelangelo was one of the first artists to call forth intense speculation about his own identity and motives. It is no accident that people have wanted to write novels about him. His art made them want to do that. It might be argued that the single most radical and revolutionary aspect of his work - and this is particularly true of the paintings he created for the Sistine Chapel ceiling - was the fact that it so strongly insisted on, and inflamed, precisely that kind of curiosity.

It cannot be too strongly emphasised that almost every form and figure, almost every image among the myriad images with which Michelangelo spanned the vault of the chapel, is starkly unconventional. He was well aware of the solutions that had been found by earlier generations of artists, who had illustrated the same Old Testament stories that were prescribed as his subject matter. But he did his utmost to avoid repeating them. The paintings that he produced, ranging from God's Separation of Light and Darkness to The Creation of Adam, from The Deluge and the other stories of Noah to the depictions of the prophets, are exhilaratingly varied and inventive. But they bear little resemblance to any pictures made before their time. Even at the half-way stage of their completion, when the artist's scaffolding was moved across the vault to reveal the work he had done so far, what most immediately struck those who thronged to see the pictures was their utter originality. They were instantly recognised as a "new and wonderful manner of painting"[viii].

There was, in fact, a well-established Renaissance convention of eschewing convention - of creating works of art with the explicit intention of leaving previous works of art in the shade. That tradition was particularly strong in Florence, the town where Michelangelo spent his formative years and began his career as an artist. It was embodied in the works of the quadrumvirate of Florentine masters who had reinvented the languages of painting, architecture and sculpture during the first half of the fifteenth century: Brunelleschi, who had erected the great dome of the city's cathedral; Ghiberti, creator of the bronze-reliefs that decorated the doors to the city's Baptistry, famously dubbed by Michelangelo himself "the doors of paradise"; Masaccio, painter of the frescoes for the Brancacci Chapel in the church of the Carmine, where Michelangelo drew and studied in his youth; and Donatello, the sculptor of the marble St George that stood guard over the city's grainstore at Orsanmichele, and the creator of the figures of prophets and saints, whether of St John the Baptist or Mary Magdalene, carved with such subtle realism they seem instinct with thought and on the point of speech.

Of those figures, it seems likely that Donatello meant the most to Michelangelo. This was not only because Michelangelo, himself, wanted to be a sculptor. A pupil of Donatello's, Bertoldo di Giovanni, almost certainly gave Michelangelo his own first lessons in sculpting; and the young artist's earliest surviving work, The Madonna of the Stairs, is a bas-relief evidently inspired by the bas-reliefs of Donatello. It may well be that Michelangelo felt that there was a direct line of inheritance between them, although in temperament and approach the two artists could not have been more different.

The source of Donatello's power as an artist is the strength of his faculty of imaginative projection. He asks himself what a desert prophet such as St John in the wilderness might actually have looked like, emaciated and wild, and he carves what he sees in his mind's eye. He asks himself what it might look like when a woman, such as the vengeful biblical heroine Judith, cuts a man's head off, and he casts the image in bronze. His works are compelling but they compel no meaningful interest in him because in creating them - in giving them such a strong sense of life that they present the illusion of being not works of art but actual human beings - he has absented himself.

Michelangelo is not like that. His originality is of a different order, his creativity of a different nature. The images presented by his paintings for the Sistine Chapel ceiling are not the product of any great sense of human empathy. If anything, they suggest that Michelangelo had little interest in entering into and genuinely sympathising with the lives of other people - in the field of his art, at least. It is impossible to believe in Michelangelo's Adam, in Michelangelo's Noah, in Michelangelo's people fleeing from the deluge, in anything like the same way that it is possible to believe in Donatello's bald-headed prophet known as Zuccone (literally, "pumpkin face"). Michelangelo's figures are removed from reality in such a way that they appear as phantasms or ideas.

The whole Sistine Chapel ceiling easily assumes the appearance of a phantasmagoria, in which all the images are united by their nature as emanations of Michelangelo's own thought and sensibility - his own contemplation of the truths that might lie embedded in the mysterious and often inscrutable Old Testament stories which he had been called upon to illuminate. The fresco cycle as a whole radiates a powerful and sometimes oppressively strong sense of introspection. Looking at it feels almost nothing like looking at the real world. It feels, instead, like looking inside the mind of the man who created it.

Michelangelo was an accomplished poet as well as a visual artist. That fact contains within it a clue to the particular, unique qualities of his painting. To draw a literary analogy, Michelangelo does not tell a story in the prosaic, direct manner of Boccaccio but in the poetically allusive style of Dante. Dante was the one Italian writer, according to Michelangelo's biographer Ascanio Condivi, whom the artist "has always studied". Every pose, every gesture, in the Sistine Chapel ceiling, is charged with the sense of deliberation, intensity and polyvalence that words and phrases acquire in great poetry. No element of Michelangelo's work is without significance, depth, implication, sometimes to the point where his language becomes so fraught with possibility, so compressed and allusive, that it cannot be pinned down to the expression of any single doctrine or idea.

In this sense his spirit of innovation as a painter might be compared to that of Shakespeare as a writer - who, in Hamlet, invented what Frank Kermode describes as "a new rhetoric", so inward-looking and so rich in complexity, that "sometimes it takes the poet beyond the limits of reason and intelligibility". Nothing means only one thing and everything has been subjected to the immense pressure of the artist's thought. This holds for the larger patterns of meaning that play across the surface of the Sistine Chapel ceiling's surface, connecting one picture with another, and is true too at the minute level of the smallest detail, epitomised by the most famous detail of the ceiling's most famous image of all - that small area of painted plaster where the whirling energies of a multitude are suddenly stilled, crystallised, to the particulate density of two fingers pointing across a few inches of air.

In short, Michelangelo did not just invent a new kind of art, but a new idea of what art could be. He put his own sensibility, his own intellect, his own need and desire to fathom the mysteries of the Christian faith, centre stage. Before considering the ceiling's many layers of meaning - the principal concern of this book - it will be helpful to consider Michelangelo's personality, insofar as it can be understood, and to give some account of his life in the years leading up to the creation of his masterpiece.

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Michelangelo And The Sistine Chapel | Andrew Graham-Dixon

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Extract from the Introduction: Michelangelo never wanted to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling. He was daunted by the difficulty of the task and made it clear from the start that he resented the commission, which had been imposed upon him by the imperious and demanding "warrior pope", Julius II.

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He suffered unspeakably in that chapel. There were about eleven thousand square feet to paint and he was not a painter but had to obey an order given by the Pope.
He sat on the wooden plank of the scaffolding up in the air with his legs dangling and worked looking up. All the time he rubbed his neck, it ached so. For fun he drew a little caricature of himself painting a saint on the ceiling, his head bent back as far as it would go.

Vasari, who had done some fresco painting himself, marvelled at the way Michelangelo held up through the long ordeal:
"He executed the frescoes in great discomfort, having to work with his face looking upwards, which impared his sight so badly that he could not read or look at drawings save with his head turned backwards; and this lasted for several months afterwards. I can talk from personal experience about this, since when I painted five rooms in the great apartments of Duke Cosimo's palace if I had not made a chair where I could rest my head and relax from time to time I would never have finished; and even so this work so ruined my sight and injured my head that I still feel the effects, and I am astonished that Michelangelo bore all that discomfort so well." ( Life of Michelangelo, Vasari)

Working on wobbly boards sixty feet in the air is a tricky business. You have to organize what little space there is to make room for everything: your baskets of sand and lime, your bucket of clean water, your colors and your brushes. Somewhere at hand, maybe hanging over the wooden railing, is your cloth cartoon. When you finish with each instrument, mind where you put it down. Did you leave the darn trowel in the bucket with the lime or is it somewhere under your foot or behind you? If it falls down through the planks, that means interrupting the work for ten minutes or more while you climb down after it. Or is it in one of your pockets?

At least it was his scaffolding. The Pope had ordered his chief architect and Michelangelo's arch-enemy Bramante to set one up for him, and Bramante had gone and drilled holes in the ceiling and driven in hooks. The idea was to hang the scaffolding from those hooks with ropes. "But once the painting is finished what am I going to do about the holes in the plaster where the hooks were?" Michelangelo asked him.
"We'll think about that when it's time."
That arrogant and stupid answer made Michelangelo so angry he went to complain to the Pope. "Do it your way then," said Julius.
So Michelangelo got rid of the hooks and the ropes and built a scaffolding that stood on the ground.
A Little Help
He worked alone. He wanted it that way. At first, since he had never painted in fresco, he had asked some of his friends in Florence who were fresco painters to come to Rome and show him their technique. "Here's my cartoon," he told them. "Now show me how you would paint it on the ceiling." They mixed up the lime and sand, giving him precise instructions and warnings. Michelangelo watched them without saying anything. From the first he had his misgivings.

Next the whole troop climbed up his scaffolding like monkeys with the buckets of sand and lime and water, and the colors and brushes. They joked about who would start but finally gave the trowel to Granacci, who spread the first quarter-inch layer of mortar on the ceiling and began tracing Michelangelo's cartoon. Michelangelo watched with his mouth closed tight and a bit of a scowl.
For a week Michelangelo let them copy his cartoon. Now and then he couldn't restrain himself and took the brush away from one of them and corrected a line or a color. He even painted a few of the figures himself. The first fresco was this picture of the Great Flood.

Here is a diagram showing the supposed interventions of Michelangelo's friends Granacci and Bugiardini. The continuous lines show a day's work, the broken lines, supposed workdays. The letters refer to each of Michelangelo's collaborators and the numbers, the order of their interventions.

His friends worked more like employees than like artists who were their own masters. They gave themselves frequent breaks and goofed around. Michelangelo thought their serious talk was not much better than their jokes.
One day he had taken the brush himself and was at work, in deep concentration."Oops!" one of them said, "breaktime!" And they all scampered down the scaffolding to find their bread and onions. "Aren't you coming?" they called up to Michelangelo. He didn't answer.

When they returned he made his announcement: "Boys, I'm sorry but I don't like what you are doing." He had seen them horse around too long and he couldn't take it anymore. He was sorry he had asked them to come. He should have trusted in himself and not expected to learn anything from others. Whatever they might teach him was vitiated by their own shortcomings. "I'll have to invent my own method." And he sent them back to Florence.

The last great trial came after he had finished about a third of the ceiling. A mold appeared on his frescoes!
"Now...during the winter when the north wind was blowing several spots of mold started to appear on the surface.The reason for this was that the Roman lime, which is white in color and made of travertine, does not dry very quickly, and when mixed with pozzolana, which is a brownish colour, forms a dark mixture which is very watery before it sets; then after the wall has been thoroughly soaked, it often effervesces when it is drying. Thus the salt effervescence appeared in many places." (Vasari)

That was the last straw. He ran to the Pope. "I told you I was no fresco painter," he whined. "And now look what has happened. All my work is ruined." The Pope sent an expert, Sangallo, to see what was wrong and the man explained to Michelangelo how to remove the molds and encouraged him to continue.

Note: The little skit with the happy troupe of fresco painters is not in Giorgio Vasari's Life.

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They told the greatest sculptor to go paint He suffered unspeakably in that chapel. There were about eleven thousand square feet to paint and he was not a painter but had to obey an order given by the Pope. He sat on the wooden plank of the scaffolding up in the air with his legs...

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Botticelli Biography - Goodbye-Art Academy

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Botticelli Biography - Goodbye-Art Academy

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Botticelli Biography - Goodbye-Art Academy

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Dissecting Botticelli’s Adoration of the Magi 

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Dissecting Botticelli’s Adoration of the Magi 

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James Earle describes who and what set Botticelli's Adoration of the Magi apart in the annals of art history.

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Sandro Botticelli was an Italian painter and draughtsman. During his lifetime he was one of the most acclaimed painters in Italy, being summoned to take part in the decoration of the Sistine Chapel in Rome and earning the patronage of the leading families of Florence, including the Medici.
The House of Medici was a political dynasty, banking family, and, later, royal house that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the late 14th century. The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside, gradually rising until they were able to found the Medici Bank. The bank was the largest in Europe during the 15th century, seeing the Medici gain political power in Florence - though officially they remained simply citizens rather than monarchs.
See James Earle's other lesson. After Rome was destroyed, people were wary of attachment to physical beauty. As Christianity gained traction, Romans instead began to focus on the metaphysical beauty of virtue, and art began to follow suit. James Earle discusses how Medieval paintings of Madonna were affected by this shift.
Check out all the TED-Ed Lessons about visual art.

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Dissecting Botticelli's Adoration of the Magi

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The scene of the three wise men offering gifts to a newborn Jesus was widely painted during the Renaissance era, so how did painter Sandro Botticelli create a version that's still well known today? James Earle describes who and what set Botticelli's Adoration of the Magi apart in the annals of art history.

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Biography of Sandro Botticelli

Childhood

Sandro Botticelli was born Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi. His date of birth is not certain, but his father, who worked as a tanner, submitted tax returns that claimed Botticelli was two years old in 1447 and 13 years old in 1458. Therefore, art historians have assumed that he was born around 1445.

Very little is known about the artist's early life, but it is thought that he grew up on the Via Borgo Ognissanti in Florence. Botticelli lived in this relatively poor area of the city all his life. According to legend, one of the artist's four older brothers gave him the nickname "Botticelli", meaning "little barrel", and the moniker stuck; as early as 1470, he was referred to in a document as "Sandro Mariano Botticelli".

Early Training and Work

According to art historian Giorgio Vasari, in his influential book Lives of the Artists, published in 1550, Botticelli entered the workshop of Fra Filippo Lippi (1406-1459) towards the end of the 1450s. Lippi is known for his simple and beautiful paintings, especially of the Madonna and Child. His clarity of line and use of the female figure had a significant influence on Botticelli's style, particularly in the early paintings such as Madonna of the Eucharist (c. 1472). The lineage can be seen in Lippi's frescoes in the cathedral of Prato, just outside Florence.

Although there is no documentary evidence, Lippi's significant stylistic influence suggests that Botticelli may well have been an apprentice in his studio. It was common at the time for apprentices to begin at the age of thirteen or earlier, so it is likely that Botticelli began his artistic education early. Lippi enjoyed the patronage of the powerful Medici family, and Botticelli soon began to benefit from this connection as well. Records show that the family moved around the corner to the Via Nuova in 1464, where they made a connection with the wealthy Vespucci family, including Amerigo Vespucci, the explorer and voyager after whom the Americas were named. A legend began circulating in the 19 th century that Botticelli used Amerigo's beautiful cousin-in-law Simonetta as the model for many of his famous paintings, however, although it makes for an enticing story, the truth is it is unlikely to be the case, as Simonetta was already dead by the time Botticelli began painting them.

The first documented painting by Botticelli is Fortitude from a panel of seven paintings of the virtues, the other six having been painted by the workshop of Antonio del Pollaiuolo, who was originally commissioned for the work. Botticelli was influenced by Pollaiuolo's naturalistic renditions of the human body, and understanding of anatomy, which Pollaiuolo reputedly studied from dissected dead bodies. However, Botticelli always held back from true naturalism, preferring a distorted figure if it better served the overall idea. Botticelli's early Madonnas already display the human warmth and tenderness that would come to distinguish his work throughout his life.

In the late 1460s, Botticelli is also thought to have been active in Andrea del Verrocchio's workshop better known today for his sculpture than his painting, and the influence is evident in the sculptural contours of Botticelli's figures. By 1470, Botticelli had moved back into his family's home on Via Nuova and set up his workshop there. Botticelli's unique style made it easy for his workshop to copy or finish works that he started, so there are many paintings where it is hard to establish the artist's distinct hand amongst those of his apprentices.

Mature Period

In 1472, Botticelli's position allowed him to join the group of Florentine painters called the Compagnia di San Luca. His early work in this period was produced for churches in Florence, including his Adoration of the Magi (c.1476) for Santa Maria Novella, one of the city's most important religious spaces. The painting contains portraits of Cosimo de' Medici, and his sons Piero and Giovanni, along with other members of the Medici family. In addition to these, the painting is thought to include the only known self-portrait by the artist.

As well as the more famous works, his workshop during this period was the most popular supplier of Madonnas to private and public patrons in Florence, and Botticelli soon became so well-known that in 1481 Pope Sixtus IV asked Botticelli to oversee the decoration of the recently completed Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. For this project, Botticelli created a series of frescoes, often overlooked by visitors whose eyes are drawn straight to Michelangelo's famous ceiling. Giorgio Vasari notes that, "having therefore acquired still greater fame and reputation among the great number of competitors who worked with him, both Florentines and men of other cities, he received from the Pope a good sum of money, the whole of which he consumed and squandered in a moment during his residence in Rome, where he lived in haphazard fashion, as was his wont."

Botticelli was at the forefront of a major shift that took place in Western Europe as the Medieval "dark ages" were coming to a close, while Rennaissance Humanism and the rational sciences were just beginning to form an entirely new world view, which would eventually grow into the Enlightenment a few centuries later. Soon after his return to Florence, Botticelli started work on his two most famous works, Primavera (late 1470s-early 1480s) and The Birth of Venus (c. 1486). Vasari saw these works in Pierfrancesco de' Medici's villa and it was assumed for a long time that the works were intended for this site, but art historians are now uncertain about the origins and commissioners of these two paintings. It seems likely that the paintings were both commissioned by a member of the Medici family, but this is uncertain.

The Medici's Florence was a prosperous and permissive society that allowed culture to flourish. Cosimo de' Medici set up an academy and encouraged scholars from across Europe to come to Florence to debate Neoplatonic philosophy and Rennaissance Humanism. The classical subjects of the paintings of this period suggest that Botticelli may have been associated with the academy, though he wasn't a member. Venus, who appears in many of Botticelli's most famous paintings of the period, was an important figure for the Neoplatonists, representing humanitas - the development of human virtue, in all its forms. A shift was happening across science, culture and philosophy, and Botticelli's paintings gave form to this new vision, heralding the emergence of a modern world. In these paintings we are able to see the tensions between the Medieval and the modern, the former being predominantly Christian, with art that was largely devotional, and highly decorative and stylized; the latter rational, scientific, and glorifying the Classical art that came from what the Neoplatonists believed to have been a more culturally advanced society.

Botticelli worked alongside various other key artists of the Florentine Renaissance. With some, however, he did not get on very well. In his Libro di Pittura (book on painting), Leonardo da Vinci noted that Botticelli once claimed that he did not like landscape painting because "by throwing a sponge soaked with different colors at a wall, one can make a spot in which a beautiful landscape can be seen." Leonardo responded angrily to this in his notebook: "Although that stain may suggest ideas, it will not teach you to complete any art, and the above mentioned painter (Botticelli) paints very bad landscapes."

Late Period

At some point in the 1490s, Botticelli leased a small country house and farm on the outskirts of Florence with his brother Simone. The artist seems to have led a bachelor life - he certainly never married. In Angelo Poliziano's Detti Piacevoli (1477), he presents an anecdote about an exchange between Botticelli and his patron Tommaso Soderini. When Soderini asked Botticelli why he was not married, Botticelli replies that he had recently dreamed that he was married, woke up feeling a deep sense of grief and then walked around the city to stop himself from falling asleep again and resuming the dream. There is an accusation in the Florentine Archives against Botticelli from 1502, indicating that he "kept a boy", which has led to speculation that he may have been gay or bisexual. Art historians are divided over how much should be read into this, as accusations along these lines were a common form of petty slander at the time. Many historians have also noted the homo-erotic tendencies in paintings such as St Sebastian (c. 1474).

During the 1490s, the political climate in Florence changed significantly following the death of Lorenzo de' Medici and the invasion of Charles VIII of France. A Dominican friar named Savonarola, who criticized the morals of Florentine society in apocalyptic sermons, began to have significant influence over the city as the Medicis' power receeded. This religious fervour concluded in The Burning of the Vanities on Shrove Tuesday, 1497, in which it is speculated many of Botticelli's paintings may have been lost.

The paintings of the 1500s are more sombre and overtly spiritual in content, yet they are still marked by Botticelli's warmth and imaginative brilliance. Paintings such as Mystic Crucifixion (1501), and Mystic Nativity (1501) have an emotional intensity that shows a deeper understanding of the tragedy of the human condition; they also show a great deal of attention given to the settings, whether it is detailed imaginary architecture or a rustic field. What became of Botticelli during this period is debated by scholars, some believing the more overtly religious subjects of his late paintings to be evidence that he too became a follower of Savonarola. Some suggest that he was out of work towards the end of his life, as the more scientific, humanist painters such as Leonardo da Vinci came into favor. Vasari writes that Botticelli was feckless, and squandered the money he had made earlier in his career. Whatever the reason, he seems to have died a poor man.

Botticelli died in 1510, and was buried in the chapel of the Vespucci family in the church of Ognissanti in Florence, meters away from where he grew up and lived all his life. His grave is marked by a simple circle of marble.

The Legacy of Sandro Botticelli

Botticelli's influence on the course of art history and popular culture has been significant across the centuries in a way rivalled by few other artists. His legacy begins with the artists he taught directly, such as Filippino Lippi, the son of Filippo Lippi who had trained Botticelli early in life. In an unconventional move, Botticelli finished Filippino Lippi's fresco The Adoration of the Kings (1496) (it was more usual for a pupil to finish his master's work, not vice versa). Giorgio Vasari saw Botticelli as the epitome of the "golden age" of art achieved during the time of the great patron of the arts, Lorenzo de' Medici.

However, although he was famous during his lifetime, Botticelli's reputation suffered after his death for several centuries. Perhaps because Botticelli's work remained rooted in a Medieval tradition that was forsaken during the High Renaissance, his work was dismissed along with Gothic art. So-called because it was thought at the time to be influenced by the Goths and the Vandals, who were considered to be uncultured. Another theory speculates that Botticelli's career suffered after the Medicis were forced to leave Florence, and power was usurped for a time by conservative Christian influences that denounced the decadence of the former rulers and the artists they patronised.

It was not until the 19 th century that his work was reappraised and began to be valued highly once more. The Pre-Raphaelite movement rejected the softer style of art espoused by Raphael and later artists, preferring the linearity of early Florentine Renaissance painting, and particularly praising Botticelli. Dante Gabriel Rossetti even owned a work by the artist, and wrote a sonnet dedicated to Botticelli's Primavera (late 1470s- early 1480s), believing the central figure to be the same woman depicted in the portrait he owned.

From the Pre-Raphaelites, Botticelli's influence spread widely across artistic movements. A recent exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London cites the artist's influence in works as diverse as Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman and photographer Rineke Djikstra. In addition, references to Botticelli - and particularly to The Birth of Venus (c. 1496) - can be seen in popular culture, such as in the James Bond film Dr. No when Ursula Andress emerges from the sea.

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Sandro Botticelli Biography, Life & Quotes

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Sandro Botticelli was born Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi. His date of birth is not certain, but his father, who worked as a tanner, submitted tax returns that claimed Botticelli was two years old in 1447 and 13 years old in 1458. Therefore, art historians have assumed that he was born around 1445.

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Raphael: 11 works - Google Arts & Culture

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A slideshow of artworks auto-selected from multiple collections

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The genius from Urbino

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The amount of work produced by Raphael is remarkable when you consider his untimely death at the age of 37. He produced a wealth of paintings including several Madonna's, portraits and altarpieces, all in addition to his Vatican efforts.
His only mythological work, Galatea, was painted for the Tiber villa of Agostino Chigi, another of his great patrons. Chigi was a Sienese banker and commissioned work on his private chapel located in the church of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome, also designed by Raphael. The work was completed more than a century later by Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini.

Raphael had not finished his work in the Stanza d'Eliodoro when in 1513 Pope Julius II dies and on the 11th March Giovanni de Medici is elected and takes the name of Leo X.

The artist's rise to fame and fortune continued under the patronage of the new pope, in fact, the commissions under Leo became ever more demanding. Raphael was now very successful and had an extensive workshop of about fifty pupils and associates and, due to his vast workload, his assistants increasingly completed works following the artist's designs. Some of the later works in the Stanze have been painted by his assistants and pupils.

In 1514 Raphael finished his work in the Stanza d'Eliodoro and paints his Fire in the Borgo in the Stanza dell Incendio. This is the only work that Raphael is believed to have had some involvement in the actual execution of the painting. All the remaining work in the Stanza dell Incendio was completed by his workshop.

Raphael's upbringing in the court at Umbria had honed his personal skills, he was well mannered and a favourite of the papal regime. Bramante had overseen plans for the rebuilding of St Peter's under the patronage of Julius II. He recommended Raphael for the post of chief architect and, despite the artist's limited experience, Leo X appointed him the architect of St Peter's on April 1st 1514.

In 1515/16 he designs cartoons for a series of for the Sistine Chapel. The theme was the acts of St Peter and St Paul. The tapestries were to hang below the early frescoes on the chapel walls. These cartoons, ten in all, were painted by Raphael himself as a mirror image reversed in the weaving process. The weaving took place in Brussels and in 1519 A total of seven tapestries arrived in Rome and were hung in the Sistine Chapel.

In 1517 he begins the decoration of the Vatican Loggias and the Loggia di Psiche in Chigi's Tiber Villa.

Raphael's Loggias were grand in their design and conception. The architecture, fresco decoration and stucco reliefs caused a sensation, recreating the decorative splendour of antiquity that was so much admired at the time of The Renaissance.

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The amount of work produced by Raphael is remarkable when you consider his untimely death at the age of 37. He produced a wealth of paintings including several Madonna's, portraits and altarpieces, all in addition to his Vatican efforts. His only mythological work, Galatea, was painted for the Tiber villa of Agostino Chigi, another of his great patrons.

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Raphael is one of three master painters during the High Renaissance, alongside Leonardo and Michelangelo. Born Rafaello Sanzio, he left a large body of work, the most important of which being the frescoes found in the Vatican Palace. Aside from being considered the most celebrated artist in the 18th and 19th century, here are the following facts:
1. Raphael learned how to paint from his father.

His father ran a painting workshop and was the court painter for the Duke of Urbino, a center for culture around the time of Raphael's birth.

Raphael was orphaned at 11 years-old and he took over his father's workshop. By 19 years-old, he was considered a master painter and was in high demand for commissioned works.

2. He was praised for his pleasant personality.

At Urbino, Raphael grew up amongst the aristocracy, and learned their ways and courtly manners. This made him popular with clients and the public alike, earning him the nickname "Prince of Painters".

It is this same amiable disposition that drew people to his workshop, earning him 50 pupils and assistants. They helped him finish his projects, so he can focus on others.

3. He was mainly influenced by Leonardo in developing his style.

He incorporated 's use of dynamic movement, as well as the pyramid composition, into his paintings.

Raphael also used techniques introduced by , such as sfumato (fine shading which produced a seamless transition between tones and colors) and chiaroscuro (powerful contrast between light and dark areas).

4. He had a rivalry with Michelangelo.

The two artists were constantly compared and competed for commissions. Raphael was favored between them and received the best projects due to his character and great charm.

Despite this, he secretly viewed Michelangelo 's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel and paid homage to his rival by painting him in "School of Athens".

5. He was in charge of all the Pope's artistic projects in Rome.

Aside from painting, he was involved in decoration, architecture, and antiques. He was appointed commissioner of antiquities in Rome and tasked with preserving them.

Raphael was also briefly the leading architect in the city, designing palaces, mansions and churches, including St. Peter's Basilica.

6. He was never married, but had many lovers.

Raphael's most well-known lover was Margherita Luti. She was called "La Fornarina" (The Baker's Daughter) and became the model for two of his portraits.

It is said that his early death was caused by a fever after a night of excessive sex with Margherita. A historian supposes Raphael did not tell physicians the cause of his illness and was given the wrong medicine which lead to his death.

Raphael may have passed away at an early age, but his talent and charm have enabled him to rise above his contemporaries and remain immensely recognizable today. His various and numerous contributions have made him one of the most outstanding figures, not only in art but also in history.

If you wish to learn more about the other masters of the High Renaissance, check out the interesting facts about Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.

What do you think of Raphael's technique? Who is your favorite Renaissance artist? Let us know in the comments section!

To learn more about other inspiring artists, check out their interesting facts here.
References

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Raphael Sanzio - 6 Interesting Facts * artlistr

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Raphael is one of three master painters during the High Renaissance, alongside Leonardo and Michelangelo. Born Rafaello Sanzio, he left a large body of work, the most important of which being the frescoes found in the Vatican Palace. Aside from being considered the most celebrated artist in the 18th and 19th century, here are the following facts: 1.

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Verrocchio: Sculptor and Painter of Renaissance Florence

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Verrocchio: Sculptor and Painter of Renaissance Florence

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Sculptor and Painter of Renaissance Florence, this 17-minute documentary explores the career of an exceptionally versatile artist.

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The Life of Verrocchio: Leonardo Da Vinci's Mentor

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49 Painting styles developed through time in different parts of the world

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49 Painting styles developed through time in different parts of the world

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PortraitFlip LLC - Handmade Custom Portraits

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What are the types of paintings? How are painting styles different from painting techniques? These are questions that haunt every art student.

I personally request you throw everything that you know about all these types of painting, styles, and techniques because I am going to school you in a better way!

For starters, let's just say that painting types, painting techniques, and painting styles are three different stories, although often confused.

Painting styles are subjective to an artist and mark their unique type of painting, whereas painting techniques refer to the procedure or the method used while painting.

For instance, Van Gogh's paintings incorporated the Impasto technique, but his style was predominantly that of Post-Impressionist Artists.

Now, the type of painting would primarily mean whether it is representational, conceptual, symbolic, narrative, or emotive. So, Van Gogh's type of painting can be considered representational as he mostly painted what he saw but in his own style.

To top it all, there is something called painting mediums too which mostly means which type of medium is used to paint. It can be anything from an oil painting on canvas to a charcoal pencil drawing.

So whether you are setting foot in this world of art or just inquisitive about this language of colors - I have it all covered for you.

Here's a list of things that we will cover in this blog:

1. 7 Types of Painting

2. 11 Types of Art Mediums

3. 22 Painting Styles

4. 33 Painting Techniques

This will thoroughly make out between each element that forms a complete artwork. If at any point you feel that you want to skip, you can directly land on your choice of topic with the help of our Table of Content.

Let's start with painting types...

7 Different Types Of Paintings

There can and possibly are only 7 different types of paintings.

Despite a thousand different styles, the painting can only exist in the form of any of these painting types.

E.g., one of the famous paintings of Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, was painted in Naïve art style while the technique used was oil on canvas; the painting still comes under Portrait Painting.

A type of painting is really personal to the artist, but it can never truly differ from these 7 types of art painting.

Let's try to understand each painting type, one at a time.

1. Portrait Paintings

"Every portrait painted by an artist is the portrait of."

Portrait painting is the most common and famous type of painting.

Its whole and sole purpose characterizes it; capturing a character on canvas.

The characters of a portrait painting are not limited to only humans.

Besides, it is not even limited to just one character.

Portraits can be captured in any medium the artist seems fit for his masterpiece.

Portrait paintings are best known to be kept as a remembrance of a lost loved one or for family heirloom purposes.

Famous Portrait Artists (from left): Frida Kahlo, Rembrandt, Leonardo da Vinci

2. Landscape Paintings

Landscape paintings are one of the most renowned types of painting that focuses on capturing natural elements on the canvas.

It can be safely said that this type took fame through the works of Van Gogh and his likes.

The famous landscape paintings' main objective has been to capture all the natural components.

These types of paintings have mostly been known to mirror the emotional side of the artist or reflect their thoughts through natural elements.

These components include terrains, skies, mountains, rivers, trees, etc.

Landscape paintings can be a part of memory paintings or a copied reality.

Famous Landscape Artists (from left): Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, J.M.W. Turner.

Suggested Reading - Claude Monet's Paintings

PS. - The famous Landscape paintings serve as a wonderful gift for housewarming. Although, these masterpieces were meant to be hung in museums. The same can be copied into replica art and gifted as a present.

3. Still Life

Still-life painting literally translates to a type of painting that shows inanimate objects as the subject of the painting.

Any object that is "still" and does not move is painted on the canvas, and these types of paintings are often referred to as "pieces.

Still-life paintings are mainly of 4 types -
1. Flowers and Florals
2. Banquets or Breakfasts
3. Animals
4. Symbolic Paintings, also known as Vanitas.

For people who think that these paintings are nothing but just another boring art piece do not know that these paintings are a "figure of speech" for the art world.

Most of the famous Still-Life paintings have complex narratives and are packed with evocative and emotional meaning.

Besides, still-life paintings are considered to be the perfect painting type for beginners to understand the nuances of colors, texture, and composition of elements.

Famous Still Life Artists (from left): Paul Cèzanne, Salvador Dali, Gorges Braque

4. Abstract Painting

Abstract Painting is one of those painting types that does not attempt to represent an accurate reality.

It instead uses shapes, colors, forms, gestures, and sometimes geometric patterns to achieve its effect.

Abstract Painting is known to be one of the most influential movements in the entire painting history.

The attempt of every Famous Abstract Artist has remained to add a meaningful expression to a disfigured and almost shapeless painting.

Like Still-Life paintings, Abstract paintings also have different types, namely -
1. Expressive Abstraction
2. Minimal Abstraction
3. Conceptual Abstraction
4. Geometric Abstraction
5. Action/Gestural Abstraction
6. Hard Edge Painting
7. Optical Abstraction
8. Geometric Abstraction
9. Color Field Painting

While there are many aesthetes who consider Abstract art as nothing but just a couple of dots, Abstract artists stand for a really strong message.

"Abstraction of any and all elements in the eye of a human can express and evoke emotions."

Famous Abstract Artists (from left): Wassily Kandinsky, Jackson Pollock, Willem De Kooning

Suggested Reading - Paintings by Kandinsky: The Sound of Abstract Art

History paintings or historical paintings are mostly narratives.

These are those types of paintings that capture a historical event and the main objective of the painting remains to tell a story of a specific period.

More often than not, French Revolution, Renaissance, and Fight for Independence have been static subjects of Historical paintings.

We have seen some of the major historical events being painted on canvas like "The Declaration of Independence" and " Liberty Leading The People ".

As already mentioned, these paintings were a means to depict the period from the artist's point of view.

There are not enough modern historic paintings but there definitely are a bunch of modern political paintings.

Famous Historical Painting Artists (from left): Sir David Wilkie, Paul Delaroche, Eugène Delacrioix

6. Religious Painting

You must have come across several Religious Paintings especially when you visit Chapels. The first of the religious arts was seen in the 2 nd Century in the Roman catacombs.

However, Leonardo Da Vinci's Baptism of Christ and The Last Supper changed the look of religious paintings once and for all.

These paintings have been a clear depiction of Greek and Roman Mythology and Biblical stories.

Paintings of Jesus, mythological creatures, or paintings of religious outbursts typically started to be called Religious or Mythological paintings.

Some of them, like Michelangelo's God and Adam painting, were an exact artistic representation of the story.

Most of these paintings were a part and parcel of the Renaissance Period and have seemingly become a part of ceiling paintings or frescoes.

We will learn more about frescoes in the later part of the blog, so keep reading!

Famous Religious Painting Artists (from left): Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci

Now of course, you cannot own this famous hands-touching painting, more because it is intact on the ceilings of Sisting Chapel but you can always commission a replica of the Creation of Adam.

7. Allegorical Painting

A lot similar to Religious Paintings, an Allegorical Painting type symbolizes a deeper spiritual or moral meaning.

These types of paintings mostly deal with subjects of life, death, love, virtue, justice, and the like of it.

Allegory has been used in all forms of art since ancient times, both as a literary device and artistic form.

It can be considered as a narrative or visual representation of a character or a situation that is going to unfold a hidden meaning or moral.

Primavera, one of the most famous paintings of Sandro Botticelli, is a classic example of an Allegorical painting type.

One of the key features of this painting type is that it can easily illustrate complex ideas and concepts through simplified paintings.

In modern art, allegory is defined as an art type where the depiction of narration actually means something different altogether.

Famous Allegory Artists (from left): Bronzino, Sandro Botticelli, Johannes Vermeer

Suggested Reading - Paintings of Johannes Vermeer

11 Types Of Painting Mediums

As an artist, once you have decided the type of painting you want to pursue, the next thing is to choose the painting medium type.

In the history of art, artists have been known to express their imagination through an array of artistic mediums.

But what exactly is medium in art?

A simple definition would be the element with which the artists create their works of art.

From the early natural pigments that people used to paint in caves to modern digital art, artists have learned to express themselves with the help of different art mediums.

So let me introduce you to the 10 types of painting mediums for you to choose from.

1. Tempera

The Tempera paint definition would be easy to give if I call it Egg Tempera instead.

Quite an inquisitive name, isn't it?

Tempera is a method in which egg yolk is combined with water and the pigments are used to paint.

This type of painting medium has been used for centuries due to its quick-drying capabilities.

In fact, some of the most distinguishable tempera paintings date back to the 1 st century AD.

But most of the artists have left this art medium to pursue the next one.

The biggest competition to Tempera painting medium has been Oil Paints which emerged mostly after the 15 th Century.

Although it has a slower drying technique than Tempera, it was favorable to artists who could change their paintings easily.

The slow-drying nature allowed the medium to be vulnerable and could adapt to changes and layers of paint.

This turned out to be a dream come true who artists who were on the constant lookout to modify their paintings.

After a point of time, Oil on Canvas became the most famous type of painting medium and is used even today.

3. Acrylic Paints

Just imagine the Oil Paints got a makeover. Acrylic Paints were almost the same as Oil painting mediums but had faster drying qualities.

In fact, Acrylic Paints in comparison to Oil Paints were more water-resistant and created an effect similar to watercolors.

All the artists had to do was dissolve the paint with a bit of water before applying.

Unlike Oil, with Acrylic artists could add layers and texture by constantly applying the paint until satisfied.

And to turn the painting matte, all they had to do was add a little more water.

However, it couldn't beat the realism that Oil Paints created.

4. Watercolor Paints

Watercolors, hugely popular for the cascading patterns, are a painting medium that can prove tricky for first-time users.

Although one can achieve great patterns with the watercolor medium, one needs to understand how to work with it.

The range of colors that watercolor can create is unbelievable but once an artist commits to the paints they choose, there is no going back.

Unlike Acrylic or Oil painting medium types, watercolor cannot be undone. You can alter it while moving ahead, but you can never go back to making changes.

This art medium has been used by a number of artists especially for creating landscape paintings due to the luminosity of the pigments.

Check out our watercolor painting gallery to see for yourself.

5. Charcoal Drawings

One of the oldest mediums of art, Charcoal has been an important element not just for the artists but also for the development of civilization.

It is a very readily available type of art medium throughout the ages.

This painting medium is created by binding organic charcoal powders into sticks with a wax bond.

Very few artists like Pablo Picasso could master this skillfully because the powdery nature of Charcoal could easily be erased.

With time, artists have discovered fixatives to increase the longevity of charcoal paintings.

In fact, the most famous monochromatic paintings were painted in this art medium.

6. Pastel Paintings

With the 18 th century came a painting medium that stood as a threat to the prior mediums.

It has the perfect balance between the realism of oil, the fast drying of acrylic, and the effects of watercolor.

The pigment used is similar to oil painting and is finally created by mixing the pigments with a binding material.

Depending on whether the artist wanted softer tones or striking tones, two types of pastel painting mediums can be used.

7. Chalk

Just like charcoal, chalk has also been used as a medium for painting due to its organic content and easy availability.

Minerals such as ochre, limestone, black stone, and mica, creating colors such as sanguine, white, and black, had become convenient.

Chalk started as a medium for sketching.

However, with the advent of the Renaissance Movement, a lot of mediums, including Chalk, resurrected to become of equal importance as oil mediums.

With time it has become a friendly medium. The right techniques can help an artist create a variety of strokes, textures, saturation, and color transitions.

In fact, the eraser can instantly clear an unsuccessful art without any hassle.

In modern art, Chalk has become an infamous choice for giving furniture or home décor a rustic, vintage, and shabby-chic style.

8. Graphite Pencil

Every time one talks about Graphite Pencil, the first artist that comes to my mind is none other than the famous post-impressionist artist Vincent van Gogh.

Van Gogh has a routine of sketching all his artworks with Graphite Pencils before converting them into oil on canvas.

The first use of this painting medium was witnessed in France during the 17 th Century.

These pencils have been known to be a great medium for creating outlining compositions, creating sketches, or even applying shading to your work.

Its dark and soft nature allows an artist to add depth and vibrancy to the sketch.

Graphite Pencils are a great medium for beginners as they can easily be edited by erasing. In fact, it does not even leave a mark like charcoal on the paper.

So beginners can conveniently correct and re-draw until they reach their desired results.

9. Colored Pencil

A rather modern phenomenon, the Colored Pencil painting medium is commonly used in art classes to transition to a newer medium.

Not only is this medium a great way to level up your skills, but it is also a wonderful painting medium to create professional artwork.

It gives you a starter experience of how it would feel like painting colored mediums that are comparatively harder to rectify.

With strokes just like a pencil or graphite pencil, colored pencil medium can be so much more.

One can create simplistic line art, or one can create highly detailed and expressive works of art which almost appears photorealistic.

The sky is the limit with this one!

10. Ink and Pen

If one can use pencil, graphite, and chalk to paint, why leave ink behind?

But this painting medium is actually not how modern it sounds to be.

One of the first ink and pen sketch was made by our very own Leonarda Da Vinci.

Do you remember Da Vinci was the same person who drew Human Anatomy? Well, some diagrams of the sketchbook were actually drawn in red chalk and retouched with pen and ink!

For centuries, ever since, ink has become a great way of creating solid outlines that cannot be erased.

This painting medium makes it easy for artists to trace the outline and add all the required details without any concern of fading.

Ink and pen have been used to create intricate graphic art as well as text art such as calligraphy.

11. Three-Dimensional Art Mediums

There are methods that are used to create three-dimensional artwork. Some artists create art by carving it into stone or wood, while others mold or construct them.

Carving and casting are done on solid objects. The techniques smoothen the solid object and then it is carved into the desired shape. Most of the wooden statues and stone sculptures that we see in museums are a part of it.

Modeling, on the other hand, is the use of softer materials like plaster and clay to shape it into an artwork. Pottery and terracotta models are made with this art medium.

Construction, unlike the rest mediums of art, incorporates restructuring an existing material into a new art piece altogether. Glass artists use this method for glass blowing and molding. This is a work of skill, and only a few artists achieve it.

So this is pretty much was painting mediums and their types are.

This brings us to the next most important part of the article -

You guessed it!

All Types Of Painting Styles

Now that you know the kind of painting medium you want to proceed with, it will bring you to the next big question.

What type of painting style should you choose?

Painting styles are categorized according to the art movement that the style belonged to.

In order to select the correct style of painting, you must understand each era of painting and its characteristics.

The best part is that a painting can be classified into an era just by looking at its painting style.

Some are hard to miss as the painting style classifies and represents that particular movement.

There are more than 75 types of painting styles in art today. Now, of course, it is almost impossible to adapt all these styles.

It is also almost impossible for me to point each one out.

But we will definitely include the most important painting styles that have ever existed since the emergence of art!

Here's your painting styles list.

1. Renaissance & High Renaissance Art (1400 - 1600)

Famous Renaissance Artists: Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael
Famous Renaissance Painting: Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, Birth of Venus

Renaissance or rebirth was rightly named because of the renewed interest in ancient Greco-Roman culture.

The Renaissance art style showed a gradual shift from the abstract forms of the medieval period to individualism.

This art movement gave birth to art techniques like foreshortening, sfumato, and chiaroscuro, which you will be reading about in this blog later.

The initial Renaissance phase mostly saw bits and pieces happening across Italy and France. Artists and writers were mostly concerned with the plague and war, and its influence was evident in the early Renaissance intellectual.

High Renaissance art flourished about 35 years from the early Renaissance and saw three towering figures: Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael.

Each of these three held a torch for the period through their art and expressions of classical spirit.

2. Mannerism (1527 - 1580)

Mannerism, more than a style of art, was a reaction to the harmonious ideals that were set by Renaissance artists.

Characteristics like proportion, balance, and ideal beauty were the most important factors that mannerism artists worked upon.

This art style is distinguished by artificiality, elegance, and sensual distortion of the human figure.

The subjects were worked upon with grace but had queerly elongated limbs, small heads, and stylized facial features, while their poses seemed difficult or contrived.

If we closely look at Raphael's paintings of his later life, we can see a hint of mannerism art style.

Even today, this art style continues to be debated.

3. Baroque (1600 - 1750)

Famous Baroque Artists: Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Johannes Vermeer
Famous Baroque Paintings: Girl with a Pearl Earring, Las Meninas, The Night Watch

The baroque painting style was one of the most celebrated styles of art.

It was distinguished by self-assurance, dynamism, and a realistic approach to representation.

This type of painting style has frequently been described as strange or uneven because of its flamboyant inconsistencies.

The baroque painting style is eminent by the drama, deep colors, theatrical lights, sharp shadows, and dark backgrounds in the painting.

While Renaissance art aimed to highlight calmness and rationality, Baroque artists emphasized chaos and tension.

Baroque paintings were often a representation of a moment preceding an event of high importance instead of its occurrence.

4. Neoclassicism (1865 - 1895)

In literature and art, the Neoclassical Era was a Western cultural movement that greatly took the form of an emphasis on austere linear design in the depiction of Classical themes and subject matters.

The neoclassical paintings brought about a general revival in classical thoughts that mirrored the then-on-going political and social landscapes.

The core belief of Neoclassical painters was that art should express the ideal virtues in life and should aim to improve the viewer by imparting a moral message.

Out of all the different painting styles, this art style was a response to the excessive frivolity and opulence of the Baroque art style.

This style was defined by the use of shallow space and uniform and strong lines.

It had dark and muted colors, more obvious brush strokes, and unambiguous forms to portray moral depictions of self-sacrifice and self-denial.

5. Romanticism (1780 - 1850)

Artists of the 19 th century started giving importance to emotions and imagination.

Suddenly, art became the background and the artist the foreground of the canvas.

This gave birth to the most creative movement of art, Romanticism.

Artists of Romanticism rejected the style and notions of Neoclassicism and believed that art was supposed to be a representation of the artist's emotions.

This art movement started as a response to the principles of harmony, order, and idealization that marked the previous art style.

The artworks produced during Renaissance emphasized how vital sensations and emotions were as crucial as balance and logic.

6. Realism (1848 - 1900)

Realism art style existed to represent the world honestly through art.

Its main object was to paint the world as given to us.

They rejected Romanticism's heightened emotionalism and exaltation of the past.

The realist painting style exposed topics and situations that were shunned and deemed inappropriate.

It was to bring out the reality of humans.

It portrayed stark nudes, the struggle of the working class, harsh labor, and the depiction of the solitariness of the individual in contemporary society.

Realism art included photographic accuracy, focus on contemporary subjects and settings, the use of detail, the use of color, and heightened attention to everyday life.

With these controversial depictions, the realism art style shook the art world

7. Impressionism (1865 - 1895)

Famous Impressionist Artists: Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissaro
Famous Impressionist Paintings: Luncheon of the Boating Party, Impression Sunrise, The Large Bathers

Impressionism style includes small, visible brushstrokes that offer the bare impression of the final subject.

It has unblended colors and a strict emphasis on the accurate depiction of natural light.

The practice of painting outdoors and spontaneously "on the spot" rather than in a studio from sketches is the foundation of impressionism.

The impressionist artists painted on canvas from far away with the objective of capturing the details in clarity.

Landscapes and ordinary scenes were the primary subjects of impressionism.

8. Post-Impressionism (1886-1905)

A predominantly French style of art, Post-Impressionism was the beginning of modern art.

It was a differentiation yet a continuation of the Impressionist style of art.

Post-impressionist artists followed pretty much the same patterns as the impressionist but unlike their ancestors, they focused furthermore on the artist's individual viewpoint.

The portrait style often used broken colors with short brush strokes.

The use of unnatural colors to convey emotions became a predominant style of painting.

In fact, it was post-impressionism that gave birth to Symbolism, Pointillism, Primitivism, and several other ways of painting.

If it wasn't enough, it was due to Post-Impressionism that movements like Cubism and Surrealism could ever make it to this list.

9. Pointillism [Divisionism] (1880 - 1981)

The Pointillism art movement was a branch of the post-Impressionist art style. Its name was derived as a mockery by the critics.

This portrait style consisted of a series of small, unique dots that were painted adjacent to each other to create an image.

Just like the pixels in modern computers.

Once pointillism reached its zenith, it was widely adopted by artists, which then paved the way for the rise of the Fauvist art style.

Divisionism, on the other hand, was just a support system for pointillism. It referred to the separation of colors and its optical effect to create meaning out of the dots.

10. Symbolism (1880-1910)

Famous Symbolism Artists: Gustav Klimt, Edvard Munch, Frida Kahlo
Famous Symbolism Paintings: The Crying Spider, The Kiss, The Death of the Gravedigger

To put it in very blunt words-symbolists could give form to your dreams and visions.

As opposed to the impressionist painters, symbolists went beyond shapes, lines, patterns, and tones to convey their idealogy.

Symbols in art combined religious mystery, the grotesque, the sexual, and the depraved.

The symbolic art style had themes like the macabre, the dream world, grief, evil, and mortality,

It was the bridge that connected early Romanticism and Modernism.

11. Art Nouveau (1890-1910)

Famous Art Nouveau Artists: Gustav Klimt, Alphonse Mucha, Victor Horta
Famous Art Nouveau Paintings: Daydream, The Peacock Skirt, The Slav Epic

This was one of those types of painting styles whose legacy still lives on today in many ways.

Art nouveau was most frequently used in architecture, interior design, jewelry and glass design, posters, and illustrations.

The use of a long sinuous organic line distinguishes this art style.

One of the main goals of art nouveau was to eliminate the conventional divide between fine arts and applied arts.

Plant forms and nature largely inspired the artists and took organic subjects and flattened and abstracted them into sophisticated and flowing motifs.

12. Fauvism (1905-1910)

This was one of the first contemporary art movements of the 20th century.

Fauves' painting style was distinguished by its wildly erratic brush strokes and vivid colors.

Whereas their subjects were highly simplified and abstract.

Henri Matisse, the father of Fauvism, used pure, brilliant colors aggressively applied straight from the paint tubes to create a sense of an explosion on the canvas.

One color that particularly dominated this type of painting style was Red, vibrant, blazing Red.

Fauvist art style accentuated and displayed post-expressiveness, impressionism's vivid colors, and thick paint application.

13. Expressionism (1905-1925)

Famous Expressionism Artists: Edvard Munch, Wassily Kandinsky, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Famous Expressionist Paintings: The Scream, The Blue Rider, Artist & His Model

Propelled by opposition to bourgeois culture and a passionate revival of creativity.

The Expressionist painting style spread across Europe as a trend in art, and the expressionist artists preferred to depict emotional experiences over objective truth.

The artists were only able to achieve this goal through distortion, exaggeration, primitivism, and imagination in their paintings.

These types of painting styles usually had vivid, startling violent, or dynamic use of formal components.

The artists used extreme angles, flattened forms, garnish colors, and distorted views of the subject.

Oil painting, other than any other painting medium, was seen dominating the Expressionist style.

14. Cubism (1908-1920)

Pablo Picasso, a name that has dominated Modern Art, was the father of Cubism. Most of his cubist artworks like Les Demoiselles d'Avignon remain controversial.

But it was, what it was.

Cubism, an art style, fundamentally rejected clear forms. The attempt to try and create a true three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional canvas from a fixed viewpoint was a waste, according to artists of cubism.

In actuality, the cubism art style was an attempt to emphasize the nature of the two-dimensional canvas rather than creating depth.

They tried doing this without perspective and utilizing the method of tones.

They would separate the subject into a variety of shapes before repainting it from various perspectives.

15. Futurism (1909-1914)

Futurist artists rejected the past because they believed it to be immensely oppressive.

Instead, they offered an art form that celebrated modernity, along with its industry and technology.

The main goal was to portray a vibrant future vision.

As a result, they frequently depicted urban settings and cutting-edge transportation options including trains, vehicles, and airplanes.

They promoted change by glorifying machines, automobiles, and the lower classes through methods that included repetition and blurring.

If you were to read the names of futuristic paintings, you would pretty much understand how important speed, dynamics, energy, and everything science is for them.

16. Constructivism (1914-1930)

The Russian artist Vladimir Tatlin visited Pablo Picasso in his workshop in 1913 and observed the artist's collaged item experiments.

This interaction inspired Tatlin to explore the collage medium on his own, leading to the creation of three-dimensional, abstract metal and wood collages.

Constructivism, a movement in art where the focus was on construction, started out with this. To be constructed was art.

Constructivist art was heavily influenced by industrial design.

They used simple, geometric shapes and inexpensive materials. This style of painting also used strong lines and bright primary colors like red and yellow to create a bold visual statement.

As per the main principles of constructivism - tectonics, texture, and construction were of utter importance.

In fact, it was during the use of this particular famous art style that the De Stijl magazine was published that primarily focused on constructivism.

17. Dadaism (1916-1924)

Dadaism emerged as a reaction to modernity.

Art for art's sake - to sum up the art style of Dadaism in 4 words.

The Dadaists' art and performances evolved into more experimental, rebellious, and anarchic forms as the conflict dragged on.

Under the banner of DADA, they banded together to protest the brutality and pointlessness of the war.

Dada artists frequently create satirical and absurdist works of art and poetry.

Also while posing a serious question to the audience about how we evaluate art.

One could very easily identify Dadaist art because it incorporated a lot of humor, irrationalism, and spontaneity.

However, ultimately, Dadaism meant to paint protest.

18. Surrealism (1917-1950)

Famous Surrealism Artists: Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst
Famous Surrealism Paintings: The Great Masturbator, The Broken Column, The Melting Clocks

Surrealism was the cultural movement that was significantly impacted by Dadaism.

Artists created weird creatures out of common things and painted unsettling, illogical situations, often with photographic accuracy.

Surrealist art incorporates non sequitur, unexpected juxtapositions, and the element of surprise.

The movement at the time was linked to ideologies like communism and anarchism.

Surrealism is an artistic endeavor that aims to free the imagination. It is both delicate and dynamic.

19. Abstract Expressionism (1940s-1950s)

Abstraction, one of the most unique art styles, was something that only few can master and even fewer can understand.

Artists of all stripes could express their emotions and ideas through abstract expressionism without worrying about being judged by the general public.

Strong messages and emotions are crucial to the representation but the movement is not defined by any one particular style.

The feeling of the artist or the viewer-and not the actual image-takes center stage in every piece of Abstract Expressionist art.

Abstract art has come to be known as a non-representation practice and is open to interpretation.

Abstract artists never painted to represent something, they painted for the art to take the shape of the viewer's thought.

20. Pop Art (1950-1960)

Instead, it used commonplace materials and objects like newspapers, comic books, and magazines to create bright compositions.

By questioning aristocratic society and fine art traditions, famous pop artists substituted imagery and methods from popular media and mass culture.

Pop art is noted for its striking elements, which can help you rapidly capture the attention of your audience.

The pop art movement established the notion that there is no hierarchy of culture that might prevent art from drawing inspiration from any source.

21. Photorealism (1960-Present)

The technical ability to impress viewers is a key component of the Photorealism movement.

It began as primarily an American art trend and gained popularity in response to Abstract Expressionism.

The painting style of this art movement was to accurately recreate photographs.

The artists avoided the spontaneity that is characteristic of Abstract Expressionism and meticulously planned their work to great effect.

Usually, this is accomplished by either using traditional grid procedures or by projecting the slide onto the canvas.

22. Minimalism (1960-Now)

What you see is what you see!

The idea that art should have its own reality and not be a copy of anything else can be extended through minimalism or minimalist art.

Art is considered a reflection of an experience, such as an emotion or mood, or a representation of the real world.

The painting style of minimalism is to focus solely on what is in front of the audience and makes no attempt to reflect an external world.

33 Types of Painting Techniques

Art in its most basic form is composed of four elements - medium, type style, and technique.

Since we are trying to understand all the types of painting styles and techniques, let us end with the most important one.

Painting techniques are the most crucial part of understanding art.

Whether you want to learn a new technique or add to your vast knowledge, we've got an enormous list of painting techniques.

There is not just one way of painting but a number that you can hardly fathom.

In today's world, everything is art, but what it takes for the art to sell is the painting technique.

A lot of art enthusiasts end up using painting techniques and design synonymously.

Don't get confused between design and technique just by the look of it.

Design refers to the overall organization of an art piece whereas technique means the way in which the artist uses resources to create the artwork.

Learn all you can from the list of painting techniques below...

1. Action Painting

Famous Artists: Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, Jack Tworkov

Action painting is a type of art, that uses splashed, smeared, or dripped paints on the canvas.

The action painting emphasizes the physical aspect of the painting that becomes the aspect of the finished artwork.

If you are somebody who enjoys vibrant and dynamic art techniques and styles that radiate energy, this might be just for you.

Suggested Reading - Jackson Pollock Paintings

2. Aerial Perspective

Famous Artists: Leonardo da Vinci, Renoir, Alfred Sisley

Aerial perspective, known as atmospheric perspective, is a type of painting art to creates an illusion of depth in the painting.

This effect is achieved by changing the color contrast between the background and the objects.

Here, the main focus is to simulate the effect of the atmosphere in a painting, like the way things are seen from a long distance.

This different form of painting is used to paint landscapes.

3. Anamorphosis

Famous Artists: Jean François Niceron

Anamorphic painting was fully used in the 17th century, although it is said to be a by-product of 'perspective art'

This is one of the most interesting painting techniques out there.

It is an art that plays with perspective.

When viewed from the typical viewpoint, it displays a distorted image.

However, if viewed from a specific angle or reflected in a curved mirror, the distortion is removed and the image seems normal.

One of the art techniques and styles played with the looker's vision.

4. Camaieu Painting Technique

Famous Artists: Marlene Munroe de Montigny

Camaieu originated in the ancient world and is an old technique that was used to imitate relief sculpture in architecture and cameos in miniature paintings.

A painting technique that was created using several shades of a single color a.k.a monochromatic art.

But this is a monochromatic painting that uses colors besides grey.

The camaieu technique, also known as en camaieu, uses two or three shades of a single hue other than grey.

The hue chosen is peculiar for that subject matter.

This basically means that not all monochromatic paintings are camaieu, but all camaieu paintings are monochrome.

5. Casein Painting

Famous Artists: Oscar Howe

It may sound odd, but a painting style and technique exists that uses paint made with milk.

Casein painting involves the use of casein paints that are made by mixing pigments and milk protein- casein.

Casein painting lets you create effects similar to oil painting.

Over time, casein painting is known to become water-resistant.

6. Chiaroscuro

Famous Artist: Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio, Georges de La Tour

Chiaroscuro is a type of painting art that uses strong contrast between light and dark shades.

It lets you manipulate light to achieve a sense of a three-dimensional object on the canvas.

The chiaroscuro painting technique lets you emphasize and illuminate the important figure of the painting.

By playing with the intensity and the angle of light, you can change the focus of the subject in the painting.

7. Collage Painting

Famous Artists: Hannah Höch, Henri Matisse, Man Ray

This art technique came into existence in China around 200 BC.

Collage painting, a unique type of art, involves making artwork by assembling different pieces of materials.

It is an assembled piece of art that is visually appealing.

A collage is made from bits of magazines, papers, paints, newspapers, ribbons, photographs, and scraps of other artworks.

For making a collage painting, you have to stick the bits of materials together on a flat surface to make a complete artwork.

8. Digital Painting

Famous Artists: David McLeod, Stephen McMennamy, Alberto Seveso

Digital art originated in the early 1980s, some claim its existence to be in 1967.

Digital painting unlike traditional is a modern type of painting technique that uses technology to create impressive art.

The whole artwork is made digitally as opposed to the traditional approach of painting.

Digital painting gives you the freedom of choosing many different tools and features, which allows you to create out-of-world art.

One of the best advantages you get with digital painting is that you make corrections to the painting without leaving a mark on the final artwork. (All hail the "Undo" button!)

9. Encaustic Painting

Famous Artists: Jasper Johns, Pausias, Benjamin Calau

Encaustic painting is one of the techniques in painting that uses hot-colored wax to make artwork.

These types of painting use an encaustic medium which is made by mixing color pigments with wax.

The hot medium is poured onto the surface and special brushes and tools are used to shape the painting.

Encaustic painting requires a heat lamp or heat gun to fuse and bind the medium.

10. Foreshortening

Famous Artists: Michelangelo, Correggio

Foreshortening is another type of art that uses optical illusion in a creative way.

It is a painting technique that depicts an object or human figure in the painting extending in space.

Foreshortening is all about experimenting with the angle and perspective of the subject.

The painting is always depicted from an unusual angle. For example, the human body is viewed from the top.

Suggested Read - 11 Famous Italian Artists

11. Fresco Painting

Famous Artist: Michelangelo, Sandro Botticelli, Masaccio

Fresco is a mural painting technique that lets you create art on walls and ceilings.

In this painting technique, water-based paint is applied onto wet plaster so that it becomes a permanent part of it.

When it comes to murals or wall painting, Fresco is a durable method.

The artwork, complete with Fresco techniques, looks monumental and has a matte finish.

12. Glass Painting

Famous Artists: Gerhard Richter, Brian Clarke

As per the name, glass painting involves painting on a glass surface.

It may seem like a not-so-popular technique, but glass painting was one of the most dominant forms of painting in ancient Europe.

Gesso, enamel, and acrylic paints are used for glass paintings.

This form of painting lets you create wonderful artwork on glass that can be illuminated by using a light source.

13. Gouache

Famous Artists: Edgar Degas, John Singer Sargent, Pablo Picasso

Gouache painting was developed in the 16th century when the artists used oil paint over tempera to get a matt finish.

This type of painting technique involves the use of body paints or opaque watercolors to make the painting.

Gouache paint is a water medium paint made from natural pigments, water, a binding agent, and occasionally an inert material (that gives a fluorescence effect).

You can also find acrylic gouache paint made with an acrylic binder that gives a matte finish to the painting.

When you choose to make art with this type of painting, you get the benefit of making vibrant art that will stand out on the canvas.

The paintings made from this type of technique look energetic and realistic.

14. Graffiti

Famous Artists: Cornbread, Dondi White, Tracy 168

Art in the form of an inscription or graffiti on walls can be traced back to ancient times. Modern graffiti became famous in the 1960s.

It is a type of art that is used as a form of expressing thoughts, emotions, and messages to people.

Graffiti art is somewhat similar to spray painting forms but has its differences.

At a glance, graffiti is drawing or writing on the walls in public places, usually without permission. (Watch out! It can have legal consequences!)

The English word "Graffiti" is taken from the Italian word "graffito," which translates to "scratched."

Many graffiti artists do graffiti on the walls to spread messages or as a means of thrill-seeking.

15. Grisaille

Famous Artists: Giotto, Robert Campin

Do you have a liking for mono-tone art? Grisaille might be just for you!

Grisaille is a painting style and technique where the painting is done only in shades of gray or other grayish neutral colors.

One of the prominent features of this technique of painting is that it is shaped to give an illusion of sculpture.

One can include a slightly wider color range in the grisaille type of art.

16. Impasto

Famous Artists: Vincent van Gogh, Rembrandt van Rijn, Jackson Pollock

Impasto is a painting technique that uses thick layers of paint so that the brush strokes are visible in the final artwork.

When you look at the artwork, it appears as if the painting is standing out from the canvas.

For making an Impasto painting, you can choose between acrylic or oil paints.

This type of painting technique lets you play with the light, texture, expression, or tone of the painting.

17. Miniature Painting

Famous Artists: Nicholas Hilliard, Isaac Oliver, Nihâl Chand

Miniature painting or Portrait miniature is one of the types of portrait painting that is executed on a small piece of material.

The common material used for painting was vellum, ivory, copper, or prepared card.

In the early 16th century, miniature painting was a way for artists to show their talent by illustrating a tiny painting.

This Portrait painting style was often known as limning or painting in little.

Miniature paintings, as small as 40mm x 20mm, were painted by the artists so that they could fit inside jewelry.

18. Mural

Famous Artists: Leonardo da Vinci, Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros.

The existence of Mural painting can be traced back to the late Stone Age.

This form of painting focuses on painting on walls or ceilings, rather than on a canvas.

In this painting technique, the architectural elements are incorporated into the artwork to give a beautiful three-dimensional painting.

The use of color, style, and texture can dramatically affect the quality of the artwork.

Acrylic paint is most commonly used for making mural art.

Mural painting is the only type of art painting that lets you beautify the architecture of a place.

19. Panel Painting

Famous Artists: Cennino Cennini, Dieric Bouts, Rogier van der Weyden

Panel painting is one of the oldest painting styles and techniques that originated before 600 BC.

Panel painting is a style of painting where the artwork is made on wood or metal, as opposed to canvas.

Before Canvas became widely available, the panel was used for easel painting.

The most commonly used wood for panel painting is oak, beech, cedar, chestnut, firs, larch, linden, white poplar, mahogany, olive, and dark walnut.

Making artwork on the panel will give you the benefit of creating a smooth painting, as the panel itself is textureless.

20. Panorama

Famous Artists: Benjamin Russell, Robert Barker, Franz Roubaud

The first panorama painting was done by Scottish painter Robert Barker in 1788.

Panorama is a painting technique where the scene or landscape is painted as a whole or in continuous narration.

To be precise, it gives you a wide-angle view of the landscape.

The painting is usually done on a wide canvas or a flat or curved surface.

The panorama lets you simulate the sensation of scanning a seascape or a huge landscape.

You can use any painting medium to make a panorama painting.

21. Perspective

Famous Artists: Masaccio, Paolo Uccello, Andrea Mantegna

You know that everyone has their way of seeing things, and that's what perspective painting attempts to do.

Perspective painting involves representing the painting from the viewer's perspective.

This painting style also represents a three-dimensional image onto a two-dimensional plane.

This painting type is similar to foreshortening.

22. Plein-Air Painting

Famous Artists: Edgar Alwin Payne, William Merritt Chase, Alson Skinner Clar

This painting technique originated in France in the 18th century.

Plein-air painting is the method of leaving the studio behind and going out in nature to paint.

In precise terms, this painting style is the practice of painting outdoors.

(Plein-air painting or En Plein air translates to "in the open air.")

Doing Plein-air painting lets you create wonderful artwork as the source of light is natural outside.

It will let you accurately recognize colors and how they differentiate from others.

23. Sand Painting

Famous Artists: Tim Bengel, Kseniya Simonova

Sand painting technique has been associated with numerous cultural groups around the world since ancient times.

Sand painting or dry painting is one of the unique forms of painting art that involves pouring colored sand to create a painting.

The paint used in sand painting is made by mixing crushed, colored sandstone; charcoal, pollen, or other dry material.

Sand painting involves precision and intense control over the movement of the hand. To sand paint, you'll need a lot of practice and patience.

The sand painting lets you create impressive and vibrant artwork which can be on fixed or unfixed media.

24. Scroll Painting

Famous Artists: Ma Yuan

Chinese "illustrative" scrolls, the forerunners of narrative scrolls, first appear in the late 4th century AD and impart Buddhist moral values.

East Asia is the main region for this painting technique.

The Chinese landscape scroll is the culture's greatest contribution to the history of painting.

Even the Japanese narrative scroll, which established the storytelling potential of painting, can serve as an example of the two dominating styles.

These paintings give the sense of traveling through time and space, making the viewer into a traveler.

Roads and routes are frequently portrayed, and they appear to guide the viewer's sight into the piece.

25. Sfumato

Famous Artists: Leonardo da Vinci, Correggio, Raphael

According to the art historian Giorgio Vasari, Sfumato was first invented by the Primitive Flemish school in the year 1483 -1485.

Sfumato is a type of painting technique in which colors and tones are blended to give a smooth look without leaving any mark of transition, edges, or lines.

Also, the transition between light and dark shades is invisible.

When you use Sfumato, the final artwork will appear as a flawless smooth painting.

Oil paint is most commonly used for making Sfumato, although other mediums like tempera can be used.

26. Sotto In Su

Famous Artists: Correggio, Giovanni Battista, Andrea Mantegna

Sotto In Su, meaning "seen from below," is an Illusionistic ceiling painting.

In this painting technique, the artwork is painted upon a ceiling or other higher surface which gives an illusion to the observer.

Most of the Sotto In Su paintings were created to give an illusion of an open sky.

The advantage of Sotto In Su is that it unites architecture, painting, and sculpture together.

27. Spray Painting

Famous Artists: Bansky, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Shepard Fairey

Spray painting techniques can be traced back to the 1880s.

Spray painting is a different painting style that uses a device to spray the paint.

Aerosol paint is commonly used as a medium in spray painting. Tools like a spray gun, spray booth, spray can and spray brush are used for painting.

When you use an aerosol spray to make art, it will leave a smooth and even coat of paint.

There may be different painting styles but spray painting is one for graffiti and street art.

28. Stone Painting

Discovered during the pre-historic ages but has seemingly evolved throughout the decades.

This is one of the independent painting techniques a.k.a rock painting.

Stone painting is nothing but making art on a stone surface by using strong and durable paint.

The most preferred stones for this painting technique are the riverbed stones that have a distinctive round figure.

The most common painting style used in this type of painting is mandala art.

Stone painting is usually made up of many bright colors.

29. Tachism

Famous Artists: Jean-Paul Riopelle, Wols, Jean Dubuffet

Through the 1950s, this painting technique was used in Paris following World War II.

Tachism was a painting technique that enhanced the painting with intuitive and impulsive brush strokes.

Using a loaded brush, enormous paintings with sweeping brushstrokes, drips, blots, stains, and color splashes were created.

Those who practice this technique are known as Tachists.

30. Tenebrism

Famous Artists: Caravaggio

Tenebrism is one of the most drastic painting techniques in the art world introduced to us through the paintings of Caravaggio.

Tenebrism is a term that comes from its Italian counterpart "tenebroso" which quite literally means dark and obscure. It is a type of painting technique that uses illumination and details on faces and hands placed contrasted to a predominately dark backdrop.

It uses stark contrasts of light and dark to enhance the dramatic impact of figurative compositions.

The figures in tenebrist paintings are frequently depicted against a background of extreme darkness.

The figures on the other hand are lighted by a bright, searching light that sharply yet masterfully controlled chiaroscuro that highlights their three-dimensional forms.

31. Tromp L'oeil

Famous Artists: William Harnett, Cornelis Norbertus Gysbrechts, John F. Peto

Trompe l'oeil is a French painting type that translates to "deceive the eye."

The main purpose of this painting technique is to create an optical illusion of the subject existing in the three-dimension.

Trompe l'oeil focuses on creating a realistic painting with a twist in perspective.

Zexius, one of the famous painters of ancient Greece, was known for his realistic painting styles.

"The painting is so realistic that the birds tried to eat the grapes from Trompe l'oeil."

32. Veduta

Famous Artists: Canaletto, Francesco Guardi, Paul Bril

One of the many techniques of painting, Veduta is a highly detailed painting type that depicts a city or town or any part related to the city.

It is a type of landscape painting where the size of the painting can be large, so as to accommodate the whole cityscape.

Those who practice this style of painting are called Vedutisti.

33. Replica Art

Did artists always earn from the paintings that were auctioned or sold? Not really!

With each painting of the famous artists selling for more than a million dollars, failing to be easily available to mass, artists found a better way.

Reproduction of famous artworks.

Regular artists skilled themselves by learning the medium, style, and painting techniques of these renowned artists.

This led them to create replicas of famous paintings.

Reproductions often increased the value of the original painting. The easy availability of the famous painting also helped the original artist earn some royalty!

In fact, the resemblance was so uncanny that one could not differentiate between the original and the replica.

From van Gogh painting copies to even maestros like Leonardo da Vinci can be replicated.

And if kept for a longer period, it has the potential of earning a worth.

The best thing is, artists at PortraitFlip are equipped enough to copy the famous styles of these artists.

You don't have to go searching the internet, what you are looking for is right here!

How to Find Your Art Style

This brings me to the last part of the article, how to find your art style?

Now, choosing an art style is a no-brainer. What is more important is to choose and become an expert in a medium.

If you are just beginning, then you should definitely start with the pencil sketch medium. It will give you enough space to make mistakes.

Next up, choose a type of painting. Landscape paintings or representational art should be the best choice. It is easier to replicate than to innovate.

Chalk down the art styles and techniques that go best with the pencil medium and voila! you have found your style.

Once you get a hang of it, you can slowly spread your roots across other mediums that entice you. With exposure to different mediums, many different techniques can be used too.

That's it! It just takes you to decide what you want to paint.
Now I can finally take a breather *sigh*.
Art is a creative endeavor that requires three Ps: patience, persistence, and perseverance.

Attaining mastery of styles and techniques of painting is not easy. You'll have to spend years perfecting your craft.

But don't be discouraged, because Rome was not built in a day!

That's all she said...
Hey creative peeps! This was our updated list of all types of Paintings, Mediums, Styles, And Techniques. We hope you enjoyed learning about the variety that art is and the ways in which it is practiced in the world. If we have missed any style or techniques, please let us know in the comment section below
My personal favorite painting style is Divisionism because we love Vincent and his madness.
You can follow us on Instagram, and subscribe to our Youtube channel. Which painting style do you like? And why?
Comment down below!
Bonus Tip: How would you react if you knew that you can transform your normal images using different art styles? Click Here To Know More!
Frequently Asked Questions

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49+ Types Of Paintings Styles And Techniques [Mediums Included]

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An A-Z list of all types of paintings, mediums, styles and techniques that will help you choose your art style and unleash your inner artist.

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Benefits of Art: How Art can Amazingly Improve Your Life

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Benefits of Art: How Art can Amazingly Improve Your Life

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When you think of the benefits of art, what comes to mind? Perhaps you think of the benefits of participating in arts and crafts activities. Maybe you think of the benefits of watching or listening to works of art. Or, perhaps, you think of the benefits of creating art.

No matter how you look at it, there are many benefits to be gained from engaging in some form of art. In this blog post, we'll take a closer look at some of those benefits and explore why they are so important in our everyday life.

When we talk about the benefits of art, creativity is often at the top of the list.

Art is a medium through which we can express our creativity. It allows us to explore new ideas and encourages us to think outside the box.

One of the best ways to boost your creative thinking is through art. Art can help you explore new ideas and perspectives, and it can also help you experiment with different forms and styles.

The creative expression of an artist benefits both the artist and society as a whole.

In addition, making art can help you become more detail-oriented and organized and build your problem-solving skills. It's never too late to learn how to draw or paint!

Art Encourages Freedom of Expression

Another Benefit of Arts is Freedom of expression, which is a vital element for any artist.

This freedom allows artists to explore different creative avenues and express themselves uniquely. It will enable them to communicate their ideas and feelings without fear of retribution.

In addition, freedom of expression can also be a powerful tool for social change. By speaking out against injustice and inequality, artists can help to create a more just and equitable society.

This freedom allows artists to explore different creative avenues and express themselves uniquely.

Art Helps in Focus and Concentration

We all know that art benefits your brain, but did you know that it can help keep your focus and concentration on track too? Art is a welcome mental break for students who find their attention wandering during class or professionals who struggle to remain engaged throughout the day.

Allowing yourself to get lost in an activity like painting or drawing can help recharge your brain and even make you more productive when it's time to return to the task.

It benefits the student by refocusing their mind and returning to class with a fresh perspective.

Art Improves Your Observation Skill

Art benefits the human brain by sharpening your observation skills. When creating artwork, you must observe what you are drawing or painting. Artists have to watch the minute details of a subject to accurately draw what they want because their works will be judged by it.

Slowly and steadily, you will also start observing and studying other artists' work and learn to notice tiny visual details that are often overlooked.

This observation skill will spread into your other area of life and make you a better person.

It benefits the student by improving their observational skills, which they can use to be more aware of their surroundings.

Art Benefits Mental Health

What do you reach for when you feel stressed, anxious, or depressed? A bottle of wine? A pint of ice cream? Your phone? Most of us have a crutch when under pressure, but what about pulling out a pencil and trying your hand at drawing instead?

Drawing has been proven to help calm the mind and ease stress. It's been suggested as a therapy for people with ADHD, depression, and schizophrenia. Art benefits the reason so much that some organizations use art therapy as a treatment to help prisoners cope with anxiety, stress, and depression.

Benefits of Art Therapy

The benefits of the art lead to better mental health benefits.

1. It helps to calm the mind

2. Eases stress

3. It can be used as a form of therapy for a variety of mental health issues

4. Reduces anxiety

5. Encourages self-expression

6. Boosts creativity

7. Promotes relaxation

Drawing has been proven to help calm the mind and ease stress levels.

Art Teaches About our History

Many people believe that art is nothing more than showing beauty and emotion. While that is true, it's only a tiny part of what art is. Art is also a powerful tool for teaching and learning. You can use it to teach history, culture, and the human experience.

It is especially true in the case of public art. Art Museums and other public spaces are filled with art that tells stories and teaches about critical historical moments. These art pieces help us understand our past and connect with our culture.

Without art and relics of the past, we would forget our history. Art benefits us all by preserving our heritage and experience for future generations.

It benefits the student by exposing them to art that teaches them about historical moments.

Art Benefits Students in Their Education

Art can help students develop skills in memorizing, problem-solving, critical thinking, and creativity. Additionally, art can help students build self-confidence and self-esteem.

Many professionals in education believe that incorporating art into a student's education benefits students in all learning areas, not just the arts.

Art education is being cut from school budgets due to cost constraints. It may slowly have a negative impact in the long term.

Research shows that students who study the arts score higher on standardized tests and do better in school than those who don't.

Activities that encourage students to express themselves and communicate through art can also help students develop social skills and interact with their peers.

Economic Benefits of Art

Art is a form of investment, and you're not just investing in a piece of paper or canvas. You're investing in the artist's talent and skills. The more artists sell their work, the better they get at their craft. As their skill level increases, so does the value of their work.

Some artists become so popular that their work can be worth millions of dollars. If you buy art from an up-and-coming artist, you could see a significant return on your investment down the line.

In today's world, NFT, a digital form of art through blockchain technology, is widespread. Statistics say, "NFT art sales peaked at almost 1.5 million sales per month in 2021″. NFT benefits the buyer by having their own unique one-of-a-kind digital art.

Conclusion

We've looked at some of the benefits of art in your life, from improving your observation skills and ability to memorize to teaching about our history to help improve mental health. Overall it improves the quality of life for the artist, at least within himself.

It's an exciting and diverse field that has something to offer everyone. So why not give it a try? Pick up a pencil and paper (or start painting, drawing, or sculpting) and see what you come up with.

You may be surprised at how therapeutic and satisfying the experience can be.

Related Post

Please find below a set of Related Posts which might be of interest on the Topic of Art Information:

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How does Art Benefit Your Life?

Art benefits your life in many ways, including reducing stress and anxiety and promoting self-expression. Additionally, it can help students develop their memorizing, problem-solving, critical thinking, and creativity skills. Art can benefit at all stages of life.

2. What are the benefits of Art Therapy?

Art therapy is a type of psychotherapy that uses art-making to explore emotions, reduce stress, and improve self-esteem. Making art can help boost mood, lower stress levels, and increase feelings of self-worth and achievement. Art therapy can be used to address a wide range of mental health issues, including anxiety, depression, and trauma.

3. How does Art Boost Self-Esteem?

Creating something can help people feel more capable, and the finished product can be a source of pride. Looking at art can also boost self-esteem by providing a sense of perspective and helping people to see the beauty in themselves and the world around them.

4. How Does Art Improve Your Mental Health?

Art can improve mental health by reducing stress and anxiety and promoting self-expression. Studies have also found that art can be an effective therapy for people with psychosis, allowing them to express their thoughts and feelings safely and constructively. In addition, art can also be used as a tool for social engagement, helping to build bonds between people and promoting positive interactions.

5. How Does Art Benefit Society?

Art can express ideas and emotions, document events and cultures, and engage people in critical thinking. Government can also use art to promote social change, heal trauma, and build community. In an increasingly divided world, art can help us find common ground and see the humanity in others.

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Benefits of Art: How Art can Amazingly Improve your Life?

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When you think of the benefits of art, what comes to mind? Perhaps you think of the benefits of participating in arts and crafts activities. Maybe you think of the benefits of watching or listening to works of art. Or, perhaps, you think of the benefits of creating art.

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10 Weirdest Facts About Renaissance Florence

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10 Weirdest Facts About Renaissance Florence