Week 18 Essay

          This week I learned about the Renaissance. The Renaissance was a change in Europe (mostly Italy) that brought about new ideas and concepts. These new ideas greatly impacted the world of art. Some Renaissance artists that I learned about this week were Leonardo De Vinci, Michelangelo, Donetello, and Raphael, whom I will write about in this essay, starting with De Vinci.

          Leonardo De Vinci is known as one of the greatest artists of all time. He lived during the Renaissance in Italy. Even though he did many paintings, the most famous one of all is the Mona Lisa. This was his lifelong work that is well known all over the world today, even though no one knows who she was or why she was smiling, but we do have theories.

          Michelangelo was another Renaissance artist. He was born in Tuscany, but he and his family moved to Florence shortly after his birth. After spending his childhood in Florence, he moved to Rome and lived there for the rest of his life. He had many paintings, but he is best known for painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. It consisted of painting from parts in the old testament and many of his paintings in the Sistine Chapel are famous.

          Raphael was also a famous artist during the Renaissance. He was born in Italy, but he went to school in Florence for four years. Being a very productive man he got much work done until he died at thirty-seven. Raphael painted many paintings and even had his own workshop, which was unusually large. He spent the last twelve years in his life in Rome, working for two popes. He painted many paintings including “The School of Athens”, which is a very famous painting that even has Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, himself and other famous philosophers. Raphael, along with Michelangelo and Leonardo, make up the Trinity of the great art masters of their time.

          Finally, I learned about Donatello, who was also a great Renaissance artist, but unlike De Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael, Donatello sculpted. He did many statues and even did reliefs. Reliefs are when flat rock is carved into, in layers, making the stone look like the characters are popping out of it.

          These four people are some of the greatest and most well known artists today, and so is their artwork. Their names have even made it into television today as some of the most famous movie characters in America today; The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Even though there are many other artists, these four and their art have shaped the art world forever.