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Michelangelo s David Michelangelo Buonarroti was born in the small village of Carprese and grew up in Florence. Florence was the artistic center of the early Renaissance, a period of outstanding artistic innovation and accomplishment that began in the early 1400 s. The master pieces that surrounded Michelangelo were his best teachers-ancient Greek and Roman statuary, and the paintings, sculpture, and architecture of early Renaissance masters Masaccio, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Donatello, Jacopo della Quercia, and Filippo Brunelleschi. As a child he preferred drawing to schoolwork, despite his fathers stern approval. And from this one of the greatest painters, sculptors, architects, or poets was made. Michelangelo was born in 1475 and passed away in 1564.
Michelangelo was an expert in the human anatomy, which shows on almost every one of his works. Michelangelo considered the male nude to be the foremost subject in art, and he explored its range of movement and expression in every medium. Even his architecture has a human aspect to it, in which a door, window, or support may refer to the face or body, or the position of architectural elements may suggest muscular tension. I chose one of Michelangelo s greatest works, Michelangelo s David. Michelangelo s David is one of the greatest statues ever created.
The subject of this work is the Old Testament story of David and Goliath, in which the young David, future king of Israel, slings a stone from his slingshot to kill the giant Goliath, thereby saving David s nation. David is in a relaxed position, after the battle with Goliath. In Michelangelo s time it would have been more usual to show David before the battle, getting ready for the big fight, or after the battle, victorious and triumphant, with a foot on Goliath s corpse. Michelangelo however sculpted a David that looks more thoughtful. Most of the excitement is over after the battle and his muscles are relaxed. The slingshot he carries over his shoulder is nearly out of sight, which emphasizes that David s victory was one of cleverness, not of sheer strength.
The massive statue stands at an astounding 5. 17 meters (17 feet) tall. The statue was carved from a block of stone that a sculptor named Agostino di Duccio had already started in 1463, which was nearly ruined. The block of stone was very narrow, which Michelangelo would not have picked because it was to thin. Michelangelo s David is located in the Galeria dell Accademia in Florence with many other of Michelangelo s statues. Michelangelo s David was made between 1501 and 1504, it was started in 1501 and completed in 1504, which was a time that great power resided with cities that were enemies of Florence that surrounded it. 26 year-old Michelangelo saw something in the marble. In 1501, after winning the right to carve it in a competition sponsored by the Florentine Republic, he began working.
Michelangelo triumphed over even Leonardo da Vinci for the right to carve the massive piece of marble. Critics believe Michelangelo s David was carved for the purpose of being put on top of the roof of the Florence Cathedral. This is believed because the head and hands of David to large in comparison with the torso. Michelangelo had an expert knowledge of the human anatomy, he had been dissecting corpses for about five years, and he would probably not have made the mistake of making the head and hands to large and out of proportion. The critics all mostly thought that Michelangelo s David was a beautiful work of art. It was nicknamed The Giant because of its large size.
It has almost perfect detail that makes it look very life-like. It s detailed on every inch of David s body. I think that Michelangelo s David is one of the best statues ever made. It looks very, very life-like. The statue is massive and the idea that Michelangelo carved the statue from a marble block that was nearly ruined because it had been started already by another sculptor is amazing. He did a great job on making David look so real, every detail is almost perfect, all the parts of the body are nearly the exact size they are supposed to be except the for the head and the hands.
I chose this piece because I already knew that it was a very famous piece but I didn t know much other than that. I wanted to learn more about this famous piece and how Michelangelo came about making it. Although Michelangelo has many other great pieces I chose this one because one of my favorite kinds of art is sculpting. I do like this piece in the fact that it looks very life-like.
I would buy it if I could afford because I know that it is a very famous piece. I would still buy even if it wasn t famous because it looks so life-like. And for the fact that Michelangelo carved it from stone that was nearly ruined. I think it would cost a lot of money, probably somewhere up in the four to five million dollar range, partly for the fact that it was done by Michelangelo, one of the greatest artists or sculptors ever, and that it is one of his most famous pieces.
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Research essay sample on One Of The Greatest Early Renaissance
