The High Renaissance: Michelangelo Buonarotti

(1475 -1564) • Doni Tondo (The Holy Family with

the infant St. John the Baptist) c. 1506, tempera on panel, diameter 1.2m, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

• David, 1504, Marble, height 4.34m, Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence

Who was he? http://www.biography.com/people/michelangelo-9407628 A short introduction to his life

http://www.uffizi.org/artworks/doni-tondo-by-michelangelo/

Michelangelo, Doni Tondo (c. 1506)tempera on panel, Uffizi GalleryThe group with the Virgin, Saint Joseph and the Child shows the twisting of the limbs and the realism of the muscles. Bright colours & lighting emphasise the sacred figures. The nudes in the background, who refer to the Classics, symbolise pagan mankind, the world before the coming of Christ; on the right the infant St John indicates the way, through baptism, from pagan to christian.

Background: Agnolo Doni was a rich cloth merchant in Florence (and a tondo is a round painting). It is thought he commissioned this painting when his first daughter was born. The tondo has a magnificent wooden frame, probably carved by members of the Tasso family. The five heads depict Jesus, two prophets and two sybils (What’s a sybil?*). The frame also includes the ‘coat of arms’ of the Doni and Strozzi families, because Agnolo was married to Maddalena Strozzi.

*sibyl (sĭb`ĭl), in classical mythology, a prophetess.

Things to think

about: what do

we do

nowadays

when a baby is

born? How do

we commemorate

special

occasions?

Michelangelo, David, 1504, Marble, height 434 cmGalleria dell'Accademia, Florence http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/Michelangelo-David.html Background information

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-oXAekrYytA Looking at Michelangelo’s David.

ACTIVITY: David is 3 times bigger than life size. What did this enormous size symbolise for the Republic of Florence?

Answer: The size was a symbol of Florence’s greatness & it was a public statement of: “We are the new Athens, we are the new Rome!”.

Extra: “Patronage: A Case Study of Images of David in the Renaissance”http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EFX96d-xO0E#!

Extra and optional:

http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/michelangelo.html (extra reading)

Sources:Gardner’s Art through the AgesSmart History by Khan Academy Biography.com