An Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet and engineer, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simon is also famous for two sculptures, aside from his Michelangelo paintings, These sculptures, completed before he turned thirty, are the Pieta and the David.
As an architect, he revolutionized classical architecture by using plaster as the main element in his design of the dome of St Peter’s Basilica also in Rome.
Michelangelo is the best documented artist of the 16th century when the sheer volume of surviving correspondences, reminiscences, and Michelangelo paintings in the form of sketches are taken into account.
Michelangelo’s versatility in the disciplines of the highest order lead him to be often considered for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man, along with his fellow Italian and rival, Leonardo da Vinci. This versatility Michelangelo acquired despite his making only a few forays beyond the arts. The Renaissance man is a man whose seemingly infinite curiosity was equalled only by his inventive powers.
Da Vinci paintings include the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. These two Da Vinci paintings occupy unique positions in the art world as the most famous, most reproduced and most parodied portrait and religious, respectively, paintings of all time. Their fame is approached only by the Creation of Adam, by Michelangelo, Da Vinci’s rival and co-Italian painter.
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian polymath, having been a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer, one time or the other. However, it is primarily for his Da Vinci paintings that he was renowned for.
Other than his iconic Vitruvian Man drawing, only 15 Da Vinci paintings were able to survive the passing of the centuries. This phenomenon, though largely due to Leonardo’s persistent and more often than not disastrous experimentation with new techniques, is also attributable to his chronic procrastination of his own accomplishments.
However, these few Da Vinci paintings comprise a contribution to later generations of artists, together with his notebooks, containing drawings, scientific diagrams and thoughts on the nature of painting. Again, this contribution is only rivalled by the corresponding contribution of his chief rival contemporary, Michelangelo.
The earlier Da Vinci paintings were products of an education in the studio of the renowned Florentine painter, Verrocchio.
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