Michelangelos David and Berninis David - Essay Example

Michelangelo’s David is a Renaissance sculpture, while Bernini’s David belongs to the Baroque. Just as Michelangelo and Bernini lived in different historical periods and were influenced by different art schools, their statues appear to have absorbed these differences. My goal in this paper is to explore how the differences between Michelangelo’s and Bernini’s Davids represent the existing differences between the styles of Renaissance and Baroque.

Let us begin with a discussion of Michelangelo’s biography and historical period. Michelangelo was an Italian sculptor, architect, painter, engineer, and poet and he has been considered one of the most prominent artists throughout centuries (Gilbert, “Michelangelo”).  He was born in 1474 in the Republic of Florence and died in 1564 in Rome.  Michelangelo came from the minor nobility, which had lost its status before the famous sculptor was born. However, the Buonarroti family and Michelangelo himself were proud of their origin and ties with Counts of Canossa who claimed to have imperial blood (“Michelangelo-Biography”).

When Michelangelo was born the family lived in Caprese, a small town in Florence where his father was a governor.    The family later moved to Florence, “a center of thought, of culture, and of trade” at that time (“Michelangelo-Biography”). There, at the age of 13, Michelangelo became an apprentice to Domenico Ghirlandaio, one of the most famous local artists in Florence. He finished his apprenticeship in three years since there was hardly anything left to learn. After that, his life was close to Lorenzo de  Medici, who earned his fame for his patronage of art. While living in his house, Michelangelo practiced carving from marble and refined his talent.  He went to Rome around 1497 by invitation of the Cardinal of St.Georgio but came back home around 1501. While staying in Florence, the sculptor created David presumably in 1501-1504. He then returned to Rome around 1508 to create many of his masterpieces, including the Sistine Chapel’s paintings, there till 1527, when he took part in the revolt against the Medici in Florence. After Medici regained power over Florence, Michelangelo was searched to be put to death, but the protection of Pope Clement saved his life.   Michelangelo went to Rome around 1534 and never returned home. He was in service of the Popes and created The Last Judgement during that period.

Michelangelo died in 1564 and was buried in Florence. His life was closely connected to the dramatic changes of the historic period when the transition from the Middle Ages society and worldview to that of the new world took place. Indeed, “his life closes the end of the Old World and begins the New”, marked with Renaissance (“Michelangelo-Biography”).

Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) is considered to have been the greatest sculptor of his time. Similarly to Michelangelo, he was a distinguished architect. Bernini is known as a creator of the Baroque style of the art of sculpture. Even more, he “developed it to such an extent that other artists are of only minor importance in a discussion of that style.” (Hibbard, “Gian Lorenzo Bernini”). Bernini is often called a successor of Michelangelo and his most outstanding feature as an artist was an ability to produce ‘the unity of visual arts’, which according to Irving Lavin means the capacity to synthesize painting, sculpture, and architecture into the visual whole in a coherent and conceptual manner (Irving 8).