Catherine Clement
ARTS/100
December 8, 2014
Joseph Calarco
Week 2 Assignment- How the Visual Arts Communicate
For this assignment, I have chosen option B, to compare and contrast Michelangelo’s “Pieta” and da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa”, two works of art from the High Renaissance.
Michelangelo was one of the most famous and influential artists of the High renaissance period. He created a new idea of art in the form of individualism and had such a unique style which was known as a sign of nobility in that period. One of his first works of art was The "Pieta", which was a statue of Mary holding Jesus after he was crucified before he was placed in the tomb. This piece was also the only one he ever signed. The “Pieta” was a very important Christian sculpture and it represents the sacrifice of Jesus for our sins but also shows his mother Mary showing love and a mothering nature to her son at the end of his life. It tells me that she accepted his death for the salvation of the people, which is my opinion based on my faith and the teachings of my church.
The elements of composition in this piece are texture, …show more content…
The painting shows a woman sitting in front of a window with landscape in the background that was blurry and shadowy to look at. She had a famous facial expression of a smile but not quite a smile. It makes you wonder what she was thinking or feeling or what she was waiting to reveal while posing for this painting. There is a unique and mysterious way about the painting. I think the painter had a crush on her, and in order to be perfect, he took many years to finish this painting. I also believe that da Vinci may have used the look of this woman many different times in other paintings which make me believe that the crush made him have different ideas of what the woman should be or the ideal woman based on