So Michelangelo was pretty important. There's already been entire volumes written about him and his work, and so I'll try to paraphrase. He was an Italian dude, specifically from the Republic of Florence which was one of the many tiny kingdoms which made up Italy at the time. He lived from 1475-1564, which for an artist is a pretty ideal time to be alive because of.... the Renaissance! Basically a bunch of people were like "hey let's not live in the Dark Ages anymore" and some Italians were like "you know what wasn't the Dark Ages? When Rome was a thing" and thus one of the most important human movements was born. Basically, Michelangelo is all about humanism *all highschoolers ever groan* which means a revival of the classical stuff merged with Christianity with an emphasis on the human aspect of things.
The Light One
So this is the first part of creation where God separates Light and Dark. This frame is unique because it’s the only one where you get a view from below, and looking up you can see God whooshing away the dark and bringing in some light.
The Moon and Friends One
God is angry now. Angry at the planets. Why? Cause he’s God. With one hand he points at the son and the other at the moon, and he whooshes by with a whole lot of dynamism and speed. I bet this is the last time he’ll be angry though. Haha
The Beaches One
So you don’t get any animals here, which were also had to do with this part of Genesis, but you do get God cruising above the Ocean with some angels. Land and sea get separated and all that.
The Famous One
Oh wow you recognize this one? So does everyone else. But rightfully so, as it’s kinda one of the most important images to ever be a thing. It’s humanism jacked up on steroids and Redbull. God and Adam, the divine and the mortal, just about to touch. The first human, made in the image of God, just barely lifeless as God reaches out his hand, surrounded in a cloak of angels. The Creation of Adam, folks.
The Whoops One
And so we get to humanities screw up. The Tree of Knowledge in this fresco is actually painted in the shape of a cross. And you also have a sequence of events here, as Adam and Eve are their ignorant selves on the left of the panel, and the right depicts them awkward and hunched over, presumably after they’d eaten the apple.
The Less Famous but Still Important One
Guess what, there’s a Creation of Eve, too! Not that anybody has ever paid much attention to it, which is kind of a shame. The formatting of the fresco is interesting, with God literally bumping his head against the frame. And because the Sistine Chapel was dedicated to Mary (who’s often viewed as a second Eve), this scene is right in the middle.
The Sacraficey One
Basically just Noah sacrificing some stuff.
The One Where the Whole World Turns into a Waterpark
So this is arguably the most intricate piece. You’ve got the ark on the water (God got mad and flooded the whole world), which is a metaphor for the church and those who are in it will be saved and etc etc etc. The most interesting bit of this is that it’s not in great shape. A large portion of it has been replaced, and it’s one of the only gaps in the entire ceiling that is not original.
The One Where Noah Gets Lit After the Waterpark
Basically Noah survives the flood, plants a vineyard and gets drunk (understandable). The problem is that God’s not a fan of that, he gets angry, and it’s a whole other thing about the sinful nature of mankind.
Sistine Chapel Ceiling (1512)
The David (1504)
Hands are Huuuge
In his one hand he’s got a rock, and drooped over his should he wields a sling, as were the biblical weapons of the David from the Bible. But more interestingly, take a look at his hands. They’re wayyyy to big for his body, as is his head. This is because the statue was commissioned originally to sit atop the Duomo (Florentine Cathedral), and so those features were accentuated so they could be seen from far away.
Contrapposto
So a big part of renaissance sculpture was called “contrapposto”. This was when instead of a form standing rigid and straight (think Egyptian body canon) the weight is shifted between legs, the hips are slanted, and one shoulder dropped. This makes the sculpture look far more lifelike than if it were to just be standing straight up.
A Florentine Favorite
So most people know the story of David, but basically if you don’t, he was a kid who was sent off to fight a giant. Now, does the man you see before you look like a kid? No, because he’s jacked. That’s because Michelangelo was going for physical perfection more than historical/biblical accuracy. The story of David was also a favorite of Florentines at the time, so might as well make him look absolutely stacked.
Super Human Humanist
Once again, Michelangelo is master of humanism, and the David personifies that. You’ve got a biblical character sculpted to look like the ideal human.
Biblical character + ideal but relatable human = humanism.
Structure
So we’ve got the typical structure of religious art, a pyramidal, and the vertex coincides with Mary's head.
Out of Proportion
if you take a look at Mary’s head, you’ll notice it’s a bit small for her body. When he was sculpting, Michelangelo realized he couldn’t have Mary cradle a full grown Jesus and have realistic proportions. So to cover up her larger than life body, he layered her with those draping cloths, which, to be fair, are just absolutely incredible from an artistic standpoint. I mean the guy carved them out of marble.
Holy Humanism
There’s a reason why historians bow down to this sculpture; it radiated humanism. You’ve got the Renaissance ideals of classical beauty (e.g. the Mary’s shawl, I mean look at that thing) slapped together with the naturalism which comes with being human.
Mary
There’s a big emphasis on Mary in the sculpture (which makes sense because she’s always been pretty popular). She’s depicted pretty young, given that Jesus at this point is 33, which is pretty common and a lot of historians take that as a symbol of her purity and incorruptibility.
A Rock out of Marble
Jesus and Mary are set here on the Rock of Golgotha, which is the site of Jesus’s crucifixion right outside Jerusalem.
Pietà (1499)
