preview

Michelangelo's Influence On Baroque Art

Decent Essays
Open Document

The history of art has been broken up into different time periods, each unique due to the influences of the time. The Baroque period began in the 1600s where artists such as Caravaggio and Bernini began experimenting with dramatic colors, light and darkness, and dramatics to tell stories. Michelangelo, while contributing to the art scene during the Renaissance period, was a large influence in the creation of the Baroque style. The ever-changing styles of art invent new periods with distinct artists that challenge each other to create stunning works that eventually influence a news style to be born. Michelangelo, a Renaissance artist, was born on March 6, 1475 in Caprese, Italy to a governor of a Florentine outpost and his wife. When he was …show more content…

Caravaggio was born on September 29, 1571 in Milan, Italy. Before he was thirteen years old, Caravaggio was already studying under a painter named Simone Peterzano learning the techniques of Mannerism; he remained there for four years before moving to Rome. In 1606, Caravaggio was wanted for manslaughter, so he fled Rome and traveled to Naples, Malta, Syracuse, and Messina. On July 18, 1610, while he was on his way back to Rome, Michelangelo died of malaria, living only thirty-nine years. Some of his most famous works he created include Judith Beheading Holofernes (1599), The Calling of St. Matthew (1600), The Conversion of St. Paul (1600), The Martyrdom of St. Matthew (1600), and David with the Head of Goliath …show more content…

This infuriated a lot of his contemporaries who stressed the importance of drawings as the backbone of art. However, he uses pentimenti, a technique that allows him to change the paintings during the process of painting. The errors are hidden beneath a second layer of paint. Because he does not draw, Caravaggio is only able to draw a limited number of figures in his paintings. Other artists around this time period were able to pack paintings full of figures because they were able to sketch out what they wanted before beginning the work. Lastly, Caravaggio is different from his contemporaries because he is not good at foreshortening people. He, for the most part, is able to foreshorten objects such as the gospel and the stand in The Inspiration of Saint Matthew (1602). In The Seven Works of Mercy (1607), Caravaggio finally masters

Get Access