Was Michelangelo a Genius or Is He Still one?

The name Renaissance is the French word for rinascita, which exactly means “rebirth” and portrays the radical changes experimented in Europe in almost every aspect of life during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The Italian Renaissance of the fifteenth century, expanding through the rest of Europe represented a connection of the western classical art and literature, the interest in knowledge—particularly mathematics—from the Arabs, the relapse to experimentalism, the focus on the significance of what happens now (humanism), an explosion of the propagation of knowledge brought on by the invention of printing and the creation of new techniques in poetry, architecture, and art which led to a drastic change in the style, and essence of the arts and letters. This period represents Europe emergence from a long period of darkness where there were no significant advancements on any aspect of human life, and also the rise of commerce and exploration. The Italian Renaissance is often labeled by some historians as the beginning of the “modern” era. Michelangelo was one of the most important painters, architects, and engineers from the Italian Renaissance. Most of the characteristics of the arts of this time are present on his works.

One of the most common Renaissance characteristics found in sonnet 239 and the Delphic Sibyl is the revival of the classical Greek and Roman Art. In both pieces of art, Michelangelo gives an extremely unique importance to what, with his hands he used to express what was in his brilliant mind NO ENTIENDO BN LA IDEA (similar to the importance given to the Gods in the past times). He once said that “A man paints with his brains and not with his hands.” It is unknown to who he addressed sonnet 239, but the Delphic Sibyl was in Greco-Roman times a woman who made prophecies. Here both of his works contrast in a way that maybe he kept waiting all his for “The Delphic Sybil” to show him the path to his true love that is described in the sonnet. The only thing that can be assured about all of Michelangelo’s works is that as in Greco-Roman times, where the Gods were immortalized and idolized by temples and statues, he wanted all of his works to be everlasting.

After carefully analyzing Michelangelo’s Delphic Sybil it is possible to conclude he might had hidden one bit of anatomy within his painting. I knew he had hidden a self portrait in the flayed skin in the Last Judgment so it wouldn’t be so strange to think the Delphic Sibyl looked a lot like the human heart. I also think that the idea of using the Delphic Sybil as a format for the heart, made sense as we usually think of the heart as the intuitive organ that commonly represents love. The love that he constantly expresses for the art, as in his Sonnet 239 where he demonstrates his belief in the power of art in preserving beauty and perfection compared to that of time. Said in other words, that art is more effective for portraying and preserving beauty because unfortunately when time passes we get old and it is a natural process in life to get old and decay. Maybe Michelangelo would have been happy to think that in some future time when many people were familiar