Michelangelos Pieta and Caravaggios Entombment of Christ - Term Paper Example

Michelangelo’s Pieta and Caravaggio’s Entombment of Christ Michelangelo’s Pieta and Caravaggio’s Entombment of Christ were the earlier artists and artworks which had greatly influenced Jean-Louis David’s Death of Marat. Both artworks intended to convey to the viewer the drama of what may have been the scene after the lifeless body of Christ was taken down from the cross and invoke sentiments on the viewers’ faith. Similarly, David observably intended to invoke political sentiments of viewers by his rendition of the death of his friend and French revolutionary icon Jean-Paul Marat.

In David’s painting, it is also noticeable that the lifeless arm of Marat was similarly depicted like the lifeless arm of the dead Christ carved by Michelangelo (Gardner, Kleiner, Mamiya 649) as well as the one painted by Caravaggio (De Pascale, J. Paul Getty Museum 37) thus the viewers can instantly observe the resemblance of the three artworks. The resemblance of David’s painting to the two earlier artworks may evidently show that he relied on the ability of viewers to link the Death of Marat to the Pieta and the Entombment of Christ to understand that the depicted characters died for a noble purpose and that is Christ for a religious cause while Marat for a political cause.

The Founding Fathers of the United States chose and promoted the Neoclassicism as the national architectural style of the United Sates because Neoclassicism conveyed the political ideals of the Founding Fathers that is the Athenian democracy (Palmer 107, 108). This architectural style symbolized the end of colonialism in the United States and American democracy (Hopkins 90) at the beginning of the 19th century. An example of the Neoclassical architecture style is the Massachusetts State House.Fig. 1. G.E.

Kidder Smith, Photograph of Massachusetts State House. Source Book of American Architecture: 500 Notable Buildings from the 10th Century to the Present. By G.E. Kidder Smith. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2000. 133. Print.WORKS CITEDDe Pascale, Enrico, J. Paul Getty Museum. Death and resurrection in art Guide to imagery. Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2009. Print.Gardner, Helen, Fred S. Kleiner and Christin J. Mamiya. Gardner's art through the ages: the Western perspective. Boston: Cengage Learning, 2006. Print.Hopkins, George D. Jr. Creating Your Architectural Style.

Gretna: Pelican Publishing, 2009. Print.Palmer, Allison Lee. The A to Z of Architecture. Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2009. Print.Smith, G.E. Kidder. Source Book of American Architecture: 500 Notable Buildings from the 10th Century to the Present. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2000.Print.