One of Michelangelo's most exquisite pieces is Pieta. In this sculpture, we can see how Michelangelo was moving away from the traditional form of sculpting. Creighton Gilbert notes that how Mary and Jesus are depicted in the statue is not typical of Michelangelo's day. Mary is seated with the dead Jesus in her lap and this image "first emerged as an abbreviation of the scene of Christ mourned" (160). Harold Keller maintains that the piece is filled with contrasts, horizontally and vertically. We also have the opposites of the clothed and the naked. The position of Jesus' body is different from most pietas of the day in that it is horizontal, producing a "step-like composition based on the sharp right able between the corpse and the upper body of the Madonna towering over it" (Keller 261). Mary's pose allows her body to become an "equilateral triangle which completely contains the dead body" (261). Keller also mentions that this sculpture "must be read from the base; it follows the edge of the Madonna's mantle at the left, rising upward in a direction parallel to that of the hanging arm of the Christ" (261). By viewing the piece this way, we find balance.
Leonardo di Vinci is also a maverick when it comes to the Renaissance. Like Michelangelo, he was a man of new ideas and techniques. He was much more than a painter; in fact, he was an incredible thinker. His ideas regarding science and nature are some of the most fascinating works from his time. His sketches express the notion of a mind observing the world around him, ideas taken directly from the Renaissance. His art reveals his sentiment that art is knowledge and we can see how he attempts to know his subjects, as they seem to come alive on the canvas. The Mona Lisa and The Virgin of the Rocks demonstrate this technique. Another technique that di Vinci possessed that made him stand out in his field was the fact that he could articulate his thoughts, a wonderful prize for future generations. His thirst for knowledge reinforced a growing sentiment that mankind had the power to know and understand many things, including elements of the natural world. His desire for knowledge spread to his counter parts and interestingly, all artistic fields benefited from his outlook. Science, literature, and the arts grew as this new way of looking...
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