Heather McKim
ART 101 Art Appreciation
Instructor Anne Olden
April 14, 2013
This final paper will be contrasting three works of Leonardo da Vinci and three works of Michelangelo. Leonardo da Vinci created works such as the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper, and the Vitruvian Man. Michelangelo created works such as the Creation of Adam, the Last Judgment, and the Statue of David and Leonardo da Vinci was a High Renaissance artist which epitomized the humanist ideal. Michelangelo was and Italian Renaissance artist which influenced the Western Art.
Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is most likely the world’s most famous portrait. Portraits were more about likeness, it spoke to status and position. The Mona Lisa was once this type of portrait, however, over time the meaning shifted and became an icon of the Renaissance. (Harris & Zucker, n.d.)
However, the sitter’s identity is still a mystery. Giorgio Vasari asserted she was Lisa di Antonio Maria Gherardini. Lisa di Antonia Maria Gherardini was the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, a wealthy Florentine. The Italian contraction of Mona is ma donna “my lady”; thus being named Mona Lisa. (Kleiner, 2010). The Mona Lisa is likely a portrait of the wife of a Florentine merchant. Therefore, making her gaze meant for her husband. The portrait was never delivered to its patron so Leonardo da Vinci kept the painting with him when he went to work for Francis I, the king of France. (Harris & Zucker, n.d.).
The landscape of the Mona Lisa is a harmonious figure. It has been thought that it was to be an expression of the analogy that Leonardo da Vinci drew elsewhere between the human body and the body of the earth. (Smith, 1985).
Leonardo was a master of chiaroscuro and atmospheric perspective, which he used on the Mona Lisa, and also contemporary personalities. Atmospheric perspectives involve optical phenomena. Artists using atmospheric (aerial) perspective
References: Ashrafian, H. (2011). Leonardo da Vinci 's vitruvian man: A renaissance for inguinal hernias. Hernia, 15(5), 593-4. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10029-011-0845-6 Annenberg Foundation Barris, R. (2012). The 16th century in Italy: Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael. Retrieved from http://www.radford.edu/~rbarris/art462%20Renaissance/Raphael%2520and%2520Leonardo%2520S11.html Bertman, S Bloem, R. (2013). Michelangelo’s David. Retrieved from http://vlsi.colorado.edu/~rbloem/david.html Bradford-Landau, S Kleiner, Fred S. (2010) Gardner 's art through the ages: The western perspective, volume II, 13th Edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning Morphologie. 2008 Dec; 92(299):204-9 O’Conor Eccles, M. (1887). Leonardo da Vinci’s “last supper”. The irish monthly. Volume 15, No. 166. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20497545 Oldenburg, D Preston, P. A. (2005). The critical reception of Michelangelo’s the last judgment: The theological context. Reformation & renaissance review: Journal of the society for reformation studies, 7(2/3), 337-346. doi:10.1558/rrr.v7i2-3.337 Russell, J Rykwert, J. (2012). Leonardo 's vitruvian man. The Architectural Review, 232(1380), 98-99, 4. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/929052100?accountid=32521 Shaikh, S., Leonard-Amodeo, J Shrimplin, V. (1994). Hell in Michelangelo’s “last judgment”. Artibus et Historiae, Vol. 15, No. 30, 83-107. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1483475 Smith, W Tranquilli, A. L., Luccarini, A., & Emanuelli, M. (2007). The creation of Adam and god-placenta. Journal of Maternal - Fetal & Neonatal Medicine, 20(2), 83-7. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/201327405?accountid=32521