Michelangelo Achieves Perfect Balance of Secular and Non-Secular as His Career Progresses: From David to Risen Christ

Michelangelo Achieves Perfect Balance of Secular and Non-Secular as His Career Progresses: From David to Risen Christ

Elizabeth DoolittleFlagler College Christian ArtClassical AntiquityStory drivenNarrative styleProp usage to hint at narrativeSimilarity to biblical storyDepicts Judeo-Christian characters, saints and trinityNaturalismNudityDetailed musculatureRealistic rendering of figuresS-curve and contrappostoDepicts pagan Greco-Roman gods

Rona GoffenMasaccios Trinity and the Early Renaissance, 1998[the Renaissance] was not in any sense un-Christian or an Anti-Christian enterprise. (1)Rona GoffenMasaccios Trinity and the Early Renaissance, 1998Renaissance art is not necessarily concerned with new (pagan) subjects but that it represents old, that is traditional Christian subjects in a new way, with new verisimilitude. Renaissance art looks , or is intended to look, real it simulates and resembles truth. (4)Masaccio, Holy Trinity1427-1428

Rona GoffenMasaccios Trinity and the Early Renaissance, 1998Convincing the senses, the artist may hope also to convince the spirit, encouraging belief in the actual presence before us of the things being represented. (6-7)

Rona GoffenMasaccios Trinity and the Early Renaissance, 1998The monumental forms of the sacred beings require a grand three-dimensional environment to contain thempowerful naturalism of space, light and psychology to express the reality of the supernatural and that is the primary concern of the Renaissance. (21)Rona GoffenMasaccios Trinity and the Early Renaissance, 1998the perfection or revival of aerial perspective [that] allowed Renaissance artists a greater precision in this regard. (21)

the distinction is blurred between the devotional image, removed from time, and the narrative (22)Leo SteinbergThe Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion, 1983That Michelangelo conceived his figure of Christ allantica is evident, the common charge that he did so to the detriment of its Christian content does not cut deep enough. We must, I think, credit Michelangelo with the knowledge (20)Louis Marin[a] narrative theory [which] constructs a syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic structure, a representation of history, or rather a story, an iconic representation of a narrative. (108)Leo SteinbergThe Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion, 1983We must, I think, credit Michelangelo with the knowledge that Christian teaching makes bodily shame no part of man's pristine nature, but attributes it to the corruption brought on by sin. And would not such Christian knowledge direct him to the ideality of antique sculpture? (20)Michelangelo[Pieta will represent] religious vision of abandonment and a serene face of the son.

Leo SteinbergThe Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion, 1983How then could he who restores human nature to sinlessness be ashamed by the sexual factor in his humanity? And is this not reason enough to render Christs sexual member? (17) Michelangelo, David

(1501-04 CE.)

Michelangelo, DaivdSecular (antiquity)Non-secular (religious)Subjects irrelevant nudityContrapposto Highly realistic and modeling Humanistic musculature

Biblical narrative Props (rock and sling)UnbalancedMichelangelo, Risen Christ(1519-20 CE.)

Michelangelo, Risen ChristSecular (antiquity)Non-secular (religious)Subjects nuditySuperior modeling in legs and torsoHeightened realism in hairDetail of scars and stigmataContrapposto

Biblical narrative Props (cross, sponge, spear and rope)Details in modeling (stigmata, scars, relevant nudity)

BalancedLeo SteinbergThe Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion, 1983Why would not such Christian knowledge direct him to the ideality of antique sculpture? (20)