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Young World
Michelangelo
V.K. SUBRAMANIAN
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Michelangelo (March 6, 1475- February 18, 1564) was a versatile genius .
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Illustration:
Michelangelo was called a man with four souls, for he was a painter, sculptor, architect and poet. He was the finest flower of the Italian Renaissance.The versatile genius who wielded his pen, brush and chisel with unparalleled elegance, used to remark with characteristic humility: “I am always learning.”
Michelangelo’s paintings at the Sistine Chapel in Rome are the cynosure of the world. They deal with biblical themes through massive, handsome human forms, conveying a sense of awe and wonder.
Michelangelo’s famous sculptures include “Pieta” (in which the body of Christ is shown in the arms of a sorrowful Mary), “David”, “Moses”, Heroic captive”, “Dying captive” etc.,
Among Michelangelo’s architectural triumphs are: the dome of St. Peter’s church, the church of Santa Maria and the Lauretian Library of the Medici.
Dedication
A friend once asked Michelangelo why he had not married. He replied: “I have only too much of a wife in this art of mine. She has always kept me struggling on. My children will be the works I leave behind me.”
No one in the history of the world has reached the peak of achievement like Michelangelo in the two separate fields of art: painting and sculpture.
Among the poems which Michelangelo wrote, occurs the following lines:
“With my thought’s eye, unutterable here
I trace a soul, though bound in fleshy dress.
Alive with beauty and to God most near;
To that blest source, whence man and nature flow
All beauty bears affinity.”
Michelangelo believed that beautiful things raised the pure and just desire of man from earth to God, the eternal fount of all. His works are a testimony of his belief.
This is an extract from the book The Great Ones by V.K.Subramanian, Abhinav Publications, New Delhi.
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