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I've seen a few other "art" threads so I figured this would be ok. :rolleyes:

 

I have been reading an interesting book titled "Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling". As you probably can figure out, it's the story of how Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel. Before starting the book, I really didn't know much more about him, Leonardo and Raphael other than they were the names of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. [blush]

 

Now I'm not claiming to be an authority on art after reading one book, but I have become fascinated with the subject and have been spending my internet time researching art as much as music.

 

I'm finding out that just as I might listen to John Mayer and hear an influence of SRV who was influenced by Jimi Hendrix who was influenced by Albert King....

 

you can see the same thing with the great artists of history.

 

And I learned that contrary to popular legend, Michelangelo DID NOT paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel while lying on his back. B)

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Like pop music, I've been fed so much renaissance art that I've lost my love for it. But I do like Botticelli and most of the Flemish painters.

 

Interesting, though, that having da Vinci and Michelangelo in the same era is like having Mozart and Beethoven or Clapton and Hendrix in the same era.

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And I learned that contrary to popular legend, Michelangelo DID NOT paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel while lying on his back. B)

 

So, how the heck did he do it? One day I should go to the Vatican and see it up close & personal.

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Like pop music, I've been fed so much renaissance art that I've lost my love for it. But I do like Botticelli and most of the Flemish painters.

 

Interesting, though, that having da Vinci and Michelangelo in the same era is like having Mozart and Beethoven or Clapton and Hendrix in the same era.

 

I had on only been familiar with the obvious scenes like Creation of Adam (someone here uses that in there avatar and it looks like God is handing Adam a Les Paul guitar), and Mona Lisa, other da Vinci sketches of machines and the human body. I've come to learn and appreciate the works of Raphael though. It's also interesting to find out that Michelangelo didn't like either of those two artist and they didn't like him either. Also, for all his brilliance and talent, Da Vinci was somewhat of a procrastinator and left a lot of stuff unfinished. :-k

 

So, how the heck did he do it? One day I should go to the Vatican and see it up close & personal.

 

There was a line in an old account of his painting the ceiling that became mistranslated to "on his back" when it really translates to "bent backward". He stood straight up on the scaffolding and painted above his head. Here is a poem he wrote to a friend describing his troubles:

 

A goiter it seems I got from this backward craning

like the cats get there in Lombardy, or wherever

—bad water, they say, from lapping their fetid river.

My belly, tugged under my chin, 's all out of whack.

Beard points like a finger at heaven. Near the back

of my neck, skull scrapes where a hunchback's lump would be.

I'm pigeon-breasted, a harpy! Face dribbled—see?—

like a Byzantine floor, mosaic. From all this straining

my guts and my hambones tangle, pretty near.

Thank God I can swivel my butt about for ballast.

Feet are out of sight; they just scuffle around, erratic.

Up front my hide's tight elastic; in the rear

it's slack and droopy, except where crimps have callused.

I'm bent like a bow, half-round, type Asiatic.

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... Also, for all his brilliance and talent, Da Vinci was somewhat of a procrastinator and left a lot of stuff unfinished...

 

Da Vinci's first love was not painting. That's why he didn't produce that much. He had an appreciation for the process more than the finished product, for the details. Da Vinci was a thinker, an observer, and a scientist. You wanna see some amazing stuff, check out his anatomic drawings.

 

Michelangelo was a genius of a different sort, a rebel and a free thinker and possibly the first "avant-garde" artist.

 

Caravaggio was great:

GENTILESCHI-Judith-Slaying-Holofernes-Uffizi-Florence-web-art-academy.jpg

 

And check out Bernini:

 

webgallery%20plutoproserpina4.jpg

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