ENDNOTES  page 274

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Michelangelo (as thinker): *

From 1490 to 1492 (age 15 to 17) he attended the Humanist academy founded by the Lorenzo de Medici.  He was thrown into the midst of the Medici circle, humanist poets, scientists, philosophers & artists.  From this early period he first began writing down his deepest thoughts in poetry, a practise he continued for the rest of his life.  He absorbed Renaissance Neo-Platonism through direct contact with humanist philosophers.  He met & was influenced by the prominent Renaissance philosophers & writers, to include Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola and Angelo Poliziano.  His Battle of the Centaurs (1491–1492) was based on a subject suggested by Poliziano.  He studied sculpture under Bertoldo di Giovanni, teacher & head of the academy, also at the time the custodian of the Roman antiquities in Florence.  Young Michelangelo acquired some of his early knowledge of anatomy by dissecting with Elia del Medigo, a philosopher physician, a member of this circle.  It was a field of study he would follow zealously.  After leaving the academy in 1492 he was given a room by the Prior at the Monastery of Santo Spirito & here he continued his anatomical studies with his dissections of cadavers from the hospital.

 

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Leonardo (dreamed of Rembrandt & Bach): *

Mona Lisa illustrates Leonardo’s use of subtle gradation of tone.  The background landscape was created using aerial perspective, with its smoky blues and no clearly defined vanishing point.  It gives the composition depth.  We also see his mastery of sfumato, a technique which involves the smooth, almost imperceptible, transition from one colour to another, by means of ultra-subtle tonal gradations.  This technique is particularly visible in the soft contouring of the Mona Lisa face, around the eyes and mouth.  Spengler sees in these techniques the painting equivalence to harmony in music and in this case the masterful Bach.

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Leonardo & Rembrandt were masters of chiaroscuro, & both famous for developing this technique: the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition.  It also describes the use of contrasts of light to achieve a sense of volume in modelling 3D objects and figures.  The underlying principle is that solidity of form is best achieved by the light falling against it.  In the Virgin on the Rocks we see Leonardo’s use of the soft colour tones- chiaroscuro, which gives a vivid impression of the 3-dimensionality of his figures.  For Rembrandt chiaroscuro was a prominent characteristics, his theatrical employment of light and shadow derived from Caravaggio.

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below left: Leonarod, The Virgin of the Rocks (1483-1486)                 below right: Rembrandt,  The Descent from the Cross (1633)