Sistine Chapel Painting Analysis

It is a known fact that artists paint how they feel or about how they view the world, modern famous artists paint about political or social problems facing our world today such as Kerry James Marshall who paints about his view towards modern day racism. Artists of the renaissance period used art to materialize their thoughts and ideas instead of voicing their opinions and thoughts, artist of the renaissance period preferred to display their thoughts on a canvas splattered with paint. One example of artists expressing their beliefs through a brush and paint is the famous painting by Michelangelo, which was painted on the celling of the Sistine chapel. In the book titled Art, Power, and Patronage in Renaissance Italy by John T. Paoletti and

Gary M. Radke, it talks about how people of the renaissance were so fanatical about Catholicism that religious figures were often the only thing that people painted, Michelangelo was commissioned to paint the entire ceiling of the Sistine chapel. His first idea for the celling of the Sistine chapel called for the figures of twelve apostles, but Michelangelo persuaded the pope that the project was untrustworthy towards the teachings of the church. Michelangelo, while painting the celling of the Sistine Chapel, incorporated his view on religion. In the section of the celling that we now call the creation of Adam, it portrays a man who appears to be Adam himself, the other figure in the painting we assume to be God. In the section of the painting, God seems to be reaching out to Adam, this can be interpreted by how stiff his hand and finger are painted. Adam, on the other hand, appears to be uninterested in connecting with God, his hand rests on his upright knee and his hand is drawn to appear limp. Michelangelo painted him in such a way to show how during that period people were starting to lose touch with God and religion. Adam is symbolizing the people living during that time period, much like how Michelangelo viewed the common people, Adam would like to touch god but is putting in no effort to touch God whatsoever.
“The painting was a program that was to delve deeply back into the Christian traditions of the middle Ages and beyond them into the era of Greci-Roman and Herabic antiquity” (Charles Seymour, JR.

Michelangelo: The Sistine Chapel Ceiling, page 73). What this sentence is basically saying is that the whole painting of the Sistine chapel was meant to embody the ideas of the religious mentality that was embedded into the minds of the people during the renaissance period. When Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to paint the celling of the Sistine chapel, he wanted it to solely represent the ideals and teachings of the church, however Michelangelo portrayed some of his own thoughts into the art. Examples of this can be found all over the painting the last testament and in the book titled Michelangelo A Life in Six Masterpieces by Miles J. Unger, upon examination of the painting it is possible to see on the bottom right hand corner the Pope himself with a snake wrapped around him and being dragged to hell. Historians believed that Michelangelo painted the Pope in this way because he did not agree with the way Pope Julius II was running the church, Michelangelo and the Pope often disagreed on many different occasions whether it be on religion or just the way he talked to Michelangelo. Throughout the last testament Michelangelo actually painted homosexual men all around the painting, and he did not paint them burning in hell, instead he painted them in heaven along with Jesus

Christ. Michelangelo was one of the few people during that time that followed the “Love thy neighbor” verse in the bible, he believed that every decent human being should be treated with respect. Proof of him painting this can be found in the upper right hand side of his painting the last testament. Hidden messages and meanings can be found throughout all art, if it has no meaning then it is not art.
Leonardo Da Vinci was a famous artist who lived from 1452 to 1466, his paintings are especially significant in history because of not only the meanings behind his paintings, but the beautifully realistic aspects that he was able to capture with the stroke of his brush.

Da Vinci was one of the first artists to incorporate mathematics into his works of art. In the book titled Leonardo on Painting by Martin Kemp, it states that Da Vinci used angle measures to further increase the realism of his works of art. One example given by the book is about the angle of light, when light hits a shape or face at a certain angle it creates a specific shadow, that shadow allows the object to appear more three-dimensional. Another example of how Di Vinci displays his knowledge in mathematics through his art can be found in the painting the last supper, in this painting he drew the celling as more of a trapezoidal shape to make the back wall appear further away from the table rather than having the table appear to be placed directly in front of the back wall. According to Leonardo on Painting, Historians are in constant debate on whether or not his shift in art styles had any correlation with the time period he lived in, which as we all know is considered the renaissance period. Historians say that the renaissance period was a period of time in which philosophy and experimentation and free thinking trailed the minds of the people living during that

time.
Literature, such as plays, books, and stories provide significant insight as to the problems that faced the era in which they were written such as when Harper Lee wrote To Kill A Mockingbird, she wrote to confirm the existence of racism in Alabama; Shakespeare is one of the most solid examples as to how renaissance authors and writers indirectly addressed actual problems facing the society during that time period since it was highly unlawful at the time to represent any political or religious beliefs on stage. Shakespeare, throughout all his plays, mocked monarchy and constantly criticized monarchs on what he felt were stupid decisions that these monarchs made and sometimes he even embedded his own thoughts about certain social issues that were relevant during his time period within his plays and short stories. Shakespeare mostly wrote plays on human nature, he was aware of the natural greed and gluttony that lied within the human soul and he wanted to find a way to show the people of his time period the dangers that can arise if we let ourselves get lazy. Hamlet is an age old example on how Shakespeare was able to really show how dangerous and powerful greed and envy can really be. Shakespeare, throughout all of his plays, always stuck to the theme of the seven deadly sins and always made connections back to the bible since religion had such a powerful influence on the people of the renaissance period.
It is a commonly known fact that artists paint by their view of their part of the world and writers write about their opinions and beliefs. Do I agree with the statement that Often the clearest expression of an era's ideals and values can be seen in its art, architecture, and literature? The answer to that question is yes I do agree with that statement. It is easily recognizable to see the situations and problems historical people faced back then, you can recognize hidden opinions or you can see what the majority of the people, if you just looked hard enough. If you look hard enough you can see the bigger picture, you can see the little hidden messages lying within the paintings or maybe if you listen close enough to the spoken words of the Shakespearian actors you may learn a thing about how life was back in his time.