Out of everything that came from the Italian Renaissance, one of the most notable figures from that era was the sculptor Michelangelo. This man was definitely no slacker when it came to his artwork. He always put 100% effort into whatever project he was working on, and he produced many works of art in his time. Of all his creations, there are a number of notable pieces that many consider to be masterpieces even to this day. To view most of these, you could just look them up online, but it definitely wouldn’t beat seeing them all in person-even though the cost for a flight to Italy would be quite expensive just to see some art. Then again, it would give you the opportunity to see a few other things, but that’s not what this blog is about.

Michelangelo was definitely known for a lot of the statues that he created. Some of the most famous of these include his statues of Moses, and Pietà. But the most notable and well known of his statues, was David. This statue was one of Michelangelo’s earliest creations. He started working on this when he was 26 years old, and it only took him three years to complete (1501-1504). Standing nearly 17 feet tall, this statue weighs over 12,000 pounds and was made out of solid marble. The statue itself would probably be in quite a poor state to this day, but between 2003-2004, it was restored to its former glory and is now housed in the art museum, Accademia Gallery, in Florence-Italy. But as with any work of art, there was a reason behind the creation of this statue. It was originally inspired by the story of David and the Goliath, a biblical story about how David had to use a slingshot to defeat the giant -since he couldn’t do it with his strength alone. The interesting thing about Michelangelo’s David statue is that it’s a depiction of David before he fought the giant. This was quite interesting since most statues of David depicted him after he defeated the giant. However, this version allowed people to see another side of the story, and showed more of what David may have been thinking as he prepared for his epic battle.

Besides sculpting, Michelangelo was also a painter. Although, at the time he wasn’t very well known for his work with a bush. That is, until Pope Julius II hired Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The famed artist rose to the task and began working on the chapel ceiling in 1508 and continued until its completion in 1512. The whole project depicted several scenes from the Old Testament. It started with “The Creation of the World” and ended with the story of “Noah and the Flood”. When Michelangelo was painting the ceiling, he was basically painting sculptures on its surfaces. This was clearly the case, as he painted so many important figures with incredible beauty and strength in detail. The Sistine Chapel painting was definitely one of Michelangelo’s masterpieces, and it showed that he wasn’t just a good sculptor or painter, but that he approached any task before him with devotion and pride.

For more art facts, check out the Accademia Gallery on their Facebook page.

Ryan Kinney

I’m currently a student in the Professional Writing program. I really like writing about superheroes and on my spare time I’m usually playing video-games or reading about mythology or fantasy.