Assignment 6- Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonrotti

assignment 6-Michelangelo and Leonardo

One interesting thing about both Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo is that when you first think of them, each has a signature piece that comes to mind.  For Leonardo, it is the Mona Lisa, and for Michelangelo, it is the Sistine chapel.

Sistine Chapel, fresco, 1508-1512, Michelangelo

Mona Lisa, oil, 1503-1517, Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo both spent a lot of time creating works of art for the Catholic Church.  They also were both masters of the human anatomy, they studies the form and were incredibly skilled at showing movement in flat images.  One thing that I find interesting about both of them is that they tried things outside of their comfort zones.  Michelangelo said that he was not a painter when he was asked to paint the Sistine Chapel.  Where Michelangelo was an amazing sculptor, creating beautiful works such as the Pieta, Leonardo Da Vinci was an amazing painter.  

Pieta, marble, 1498-1499, Michelangelo

Leonardo was going to try his hand at sculpture when he was commissioned to sculpt a massive bronze horse that would stand 24 feet high.  It was commissioned by the duke of Milan to guard his castle.  Da Vinci was going to make sure that it was done right, and he spent years working on sketches and finally made a full scale model.  This project, however, was stopped when the French army was attacking and all of the bronze was used to make cannons, and sadly the clay horse was used as target practice.  Years later the sketch was discovered and a group decided to cast the bronze horse, unveiling it in 1999.

Horse, ink, 1482, Leonardo Da Vinci

Completely unrelated to their work, it is rumored that the two prolific artists hated each other.  It is truly a shame that these two were not friends because so much of their work is similar and they were both mentors to Raphael.  You can see similarities in their work by looking at pieces such as the Battle of Cascina by Michelangelo and the Battle of Anghiari by Leonardo Da Vinci. 

Battle of Cascina, oil, 1504, Michelangelo

Battle of Anghiari, oil, 1504-1505, Leonardo Da Vinci

Looking at the two side by side, it is easy to see how similar they were.  They both had an amazing command of the human form, and were both able to make musculature come alive.  Who knows what could have come from the two of them working together.