Michelangelo Achieves Perfect Balance of Secular and Non-Secular as His Career Progresses: From

David to Risen Christ

Elizabeth DoolittleFlagler College

CHRISTIAN ART

CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY

Story driven Narrative style Prop usage to hint at

narrative Similarity to biblical story Depicts Judeo-Christian

characters, saints and trinity

Naturalism Nudity Detailed musculature Realistic rendering of

figures S-curve and

contrapposto Depicts pagan Greco-

Roman gods

Rona GoffenMasaccio’s Trinity and the Early Renaissance, 1998

“[the Renaissance] was not in any sense un-Christian or an Anti-Christian enterprise.” (1)

Rona GoffenMasaccio’s Trinity and the Early Renaissance, 1998

“Renaissance 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 GoffenMasaccio’s Trinity and the Early Renaissance, 1998

“Convincing 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 GoffenMasaccio’s Trinity and the Early Renaissance, 1998

“The monumental forms of the sacred beings require a grand three-dimensional environment to contain them…powerful naturalism of space, light and psychology to express the reality of the supernatural – and that is the primary concern of the Renaissance.” (21)

Rona GoffenMasaccio’s Trinity and the Early Renaissance, 1998

“the 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,

1983

“That Michelangelo conceived his figure of Christ all’antica 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, 1983

“We 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,

1983

“How 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 Christ’s sexual member?” (17)

Michelangelo, David

(1501-04 CE.)

Michelangelo, Daivd

SECULAR (ANTIQUITY)NON-SECULAR (RELIGIOUS)

Subject’s irrelevant nudity

Contrapposto Highly realistic and

modeling Humanistic musculature

Biblical narrative Props (rock and sling)

Unbalanced

Michelangelo, Risen Christ(1519-20 CE.)

Michelangelo, Risen Christ

SECULAR (ANTIQUITY)NON-SECULAR (RELIGIOUS)

Subject’s nudity Superior modeling in legs

and torso Heightened realism in hair Detail of scars and stigmata Contrapposto

Biblical narrative Props (cross, sponge,

spear and rope) Details in modeling

(stigmata, scars, relevant nudity)

Balanced

Leo SteinbergThe Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion,

1983

“Why would not such Christian knowledge direct him to the ideality of antique sculpture?” (20)