Art Appreciation

The traditional view is that the Renaissance of the 15th century in Italy, spreading through the rest of Europe, represented a reconnection of the west with classical antiquity, the absorption of knowledge of experimentalism, the focus on the importance humanism, an explosion of the dissemination of knowledge brought on by printing and the creation of new techniques in art, poetry and architecture which led to a radical change in the style and substance of the arts and letters. This period, in this view, represents Europe emerging from a long period as a backwater, and the rise of commerce and exploration. The Italian Renaissance is often labeled as the beginning of the "modern" era. A famous artist from Italy during this time was Michelangelo Buonarroti. He commissioned a fresco painting behind the altar of the Sistine Chapel, in Vatican, Rome, known as the Last Judgment. From the northern part of Europe, an artist by the name of Antoine Caron painted his version of the Last Judgment, with oil on panel, displayed at the Ringling Museum of Art (15th century). Each of these paintings are examples of the growth of artistic expression in Europe during the 15th century.

Michelangelo, an Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet, was one of the founders of the High Renaissance and in his later years one of the principal exponents of Mannerism. Born at Caprese, the son of the local magistrate, his family returned to Florence soon after his birth. Michelangelo's desire to become an artist was initially opposed by his father, to be a practicing artist was then considered beneath the station of a member of the gentry. As a result of his talent, he was welcomed into the home of the Medici family where he eventually apprenticed in 1488 for a three-year term to Domenico Ghirlandaio. Under this apprenticeship, he learned the technique of fresco painting which is the technique he used when he commissioned his painting of the Last Judgment (Sistine Chapel 1534-1541).

Antoine Caron was a master glassmaker and illustrator who was born in Beauvais, France. He was known as one of the few significant painters in France during the reign of Charles IX and Henry III. Antoine began his career with religious paintings. Like Michelangelo, Antoine also commissioned work for the Medici family.

The Last Judgment was a religious painting first completed by Michelangelo on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in 1534-1541. On the right and left of the face of Christ are a lily and a sword, symbolizing respectively the innocent and guilty. The painting shows that Christ has come to be the stern judge of the world. He was perceived as a giant whose mighty right arm is lifted in a gesture of damnation so broad and universal as to suggest he will destroy all of creation, Heaven and Earth alike. The choirs of Heaven surrounding him pulse and anxiety and awe. The spaces are crowded with trumpeting angels, the ascending figures of the just and downward hurtling figures of the damned. On the left, the dead awake and assume flesh; on the right, the damned are tormented by demons whose gargoyle masks the burning eyes revive the demons of Romanesque tympana. Antoine Caron's painting of the Last Judgment (Ringling Museum of Art, 15th century) is intended to have the same meaning.

In France, where Caron's from, the Last Judgment (Ringling Museum of Art, 15th century) occupied the sculptured Tympana of the center doorway of cathedrals. Overtime the attitude and attributes of Christ the judge changed. He was fully dressed; later on His right side was uncovered so as to display his wounds; later still sword and lily, symbols of justice and mercy, protrude from His mouth. This tradition of the church was established by Michelangelo,