The Influence of NeoPlatonism on Michelangelo
by Dr. Deborah Vess
Professor of History and Interdisciplinary Studies
Georgia College & State University
All rights reserved.
Introduction
Michelangelo's art is representative of idealism. Michelangelo was heavily influenced by NeoPlatonism. Just as the ancient Greek philosophy Plato emphasized an ideal world of "forms" or perfect, eternal, and unchanging examplars of existent and even non-existent things, the NeoPlatonists emphasized the realms of the One, Nous, and Soul. Michelangelo's art portrays NeoPlatonic thought in marble and in paint.
NeoPlatonism
NeoPlatonism, as a school of thought, had its origins in the work of
Plotinus in the third century. Plotinus argued that there were three hypostases:
the One, the Intelligible, and the World Soul. The One was the highest,
most perfect realm. The One was completely undifferentiated and, therefore,
nothing could be said about it. It was, then, even beyond being; the One
transcended all categories which could be applied to it. The other two
hypopstases "emanated" from the One. They were not created, but rather,
came into being as a result of a corrupt desire to be other than the One.
The Intelligible was the Divine mind for Plotinus, and took its form by
reflecting back on the One. The realm of the Intelligible was populated
by divine ideas, which were the perfect exemplars of sensible objects.
The physical world came into being as a result of the emanation of Soul
from the Intelligible. Some souls become corrupted and associate with
matter. Matter was a complete negation, neither good nor evil in itself,
but utterly formless. Soul informs matter, and makes it what it is. Matter,
while not evil in itself, is, however, the source of evil. Being bound
up with matter corrupts the soul; some souls forget their divine origins
and become too concerned with sensible things. . All souls, however, eventually
seek to return to the One. Plotinus argued that the soul can become reunited
with the One through contemplation. The life of the philosopher, for Plotinus,
was the best attempt to free oneself from the bonds of matter and achieve
a vision of the One.
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Michelangelo's NeoPlatonic Philosophy of Art
NeoPlatonism had a profound influence during the Renaissance. Lorenzo de Medici was a prominent patron of the arts, and supported Marsilio Ficino and the NeoPlatonic Academy in Florence. It was in the Medici compound that Michelangelo got his early education, and he was no doubt familiar with Ficino's works and with his translations of Plotinus and Plato.
Michelangelo's philosophy of art was NeoPlatonic, and represented a departure
from other theories of the time. Michelangelo believed that the artist's
function was to bring pre-existent forms out of the material at hand:
"the greatest artist has no conception which a single block of marble
does not potentially contain within its mass, but only a hand which obeys
the intelleto can accomplish that" (Clements 16). Art forms, or
the concetto, exist independently of the artist, and are implanted
in matter by nature. The artist's function was to draw these forms out
of the material.
In this statue
from the Tomb of Julius II, one gets a very strong impression that the
figure, which we may think of here as the embodiment of the Platonic form,
is struggling to free itself from the block which entraps it. Michelangelo
was such a gifted sculptor that he rarely used wax madels or practiced
on marble before making a work. He saw the sculptor's art as simply making
the form inside the marble visible to others. This statue gives a clear
impression of what Michelangelo envioned as lurking in the marble.
Michelangelo viewed this ability as a supreme gift. He had the ability
to perceive harmony and beauty, or an intelleto. "Fine painting
is nothing other than a copy of the perfections of God and a remembrance
of his painting, and lastly a music and melody which only the intelleto
is capable of hearing" (Clements 18). This ability, or intelleto,
was a gift from God: "the Idea of Beauty, which is a mirror and a lamp
to both my arts, was bestowed on me at birth. Whoever conceives otherwise
is mistaken. This Idea alone lifts my eyes to those high visions which
I set myself to paint and carve here below" (Blunt 69).
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The David
Michelangelo was famous for his ability to harmonize the design of a
statue with the proportions of the block of marble. Several artists had
already attempted to carve the block which eventually became the David.
It was too narrow for others to work with; only Michelangelo was able
to create a workable plan for the block, as he saw the form of David within
the block. For Michelangelo, this ability was a gift from God, and those
who possess intelleto did not need to rely on artificial techniques
to create a work of art.
Another view of the David.
The David is larger than life size; it is about nine feet tall. Michelangelo has emphasized the hands of David, which are larger than they should be had they been true to typical human proportions. David was a shepherd boy who killed a giant by throwing a rock from his slingshot. The hands are "idealized" and emphasized as they accomplished this important task. The stance of the David is twisted, and the manner in which he holds his slingshot would make any action impossible. See if you can find other parts of the statue that are out of proportion and unrealistic.
Realism: DaVinci and Alberti
Michelangelo differed in this respect from many Renaissance theorists,
who argued that art should reproduce nature. Da Vinci believed that "the
most praiseworthy painting [was that] which has the most conformity
with the object imitated" (Clements 147). To this end, he advised painters
to use mirrors, since mirrored reflections were "the true painting" (Clements
147). This scientific view of art was further developed by Ghiberti. In
his Commentaries, he argued that the mathematical proportions of
the human body were the basis of its beauty. Similarly, Alberti argued
that artistic beauty was "a kind of harmony of all the parts of a thing
of such a kind that nothing could be taken away or altered without making
it less pleasing; Beauty is a kind of harmony and concord of all the parts
to form a whole which is constructed according to a fixed number ... as
the highest and most perfect law of nature demands" (Blunt 15). One of
the methods Alberti employed to achieve such an end was a process of mathematical
averaging, by which he could "eliminate the imperfections of natural objects
by combining the most typical parts" (Blunt 18).
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Idealism in Art: Michelangelo's Statues
Michelangelo's theory of the concetto and intelleto was in opposition to these theories. He was often criticized for not faithfully representing his subjects. The statue of Lorenzo de Medici, for example, bore little resemblance to its subject. The Virgin of the Rome Pieta appears to be around twenty five years of age, not much older than her crucified son. The Virgin is portrayed as a young woman because her beauty is timeless.
The body of Christ would not be long enough for a normal human male if laid out lengthwise. His body length, however, has been adjusted to appear in proper proportion to those who would view the statue from a distance and from below.
The proportions of Michelangelo's figures were often unrealistic. According
to Vasari, his figures "were often nine, ten, and twelve heads long; he
departed not a little from the work regulated by measure, order and rule
which other men did according to a common use and after Vitruvius .. .
to which he would not conform" (Blunt 75). Michelangelo also violated
the rules of perspective, often making objects in the background appear
larger than they should be.
Michelangelo did not, then, stress the literal imitation of nature. Michelangelo
disliked this trend in art, since this was an area where "one cannot make
fixed rules, making figures as regular as signposts" (Blunt 75). Durer
relied on precise proportions in representing the human figure, and Michelangelo
found his work uninteresting. Flemish painting was equally distasteful,
since their painting is "expressly to deceive the outer vision ... and
all this, although it may appear good to some eyes, is done truly without
reason or art, without symmetry or proportion, and without attention to
selection or rejection" (Clements 207-208). For Michelangelo, the function
of art was to represent ideal beauty. Consequently, Michelangelo portrayed
figures which are not engaged in any particular activity. The David
and the Virgin are ideal types, for example, not particular individuals.
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Divine Beauty and The Artist's Creation
The artist, for Michelangelo, resembled God. Just as God implanted Beauty in the physical world, the artist attempts to create the concetto in matter. Beauty in the physical world "awakens in the soul an inner image", and this image is superior to anything in the world, since it is closer to ideal beauty. "The beauty which you see comes truly from your lady; but this beauty grows, since it ascends to a better place when through mortal eyes it passes on to the soul ... There it is made into something divine" (Clements 7).
Anything the artist creates, then, will be inferior to the concetto. Many of Michelangelo's works were unfinished. If the artist's function was merely to release the forms imprisoned in matter, the unfinished work had as much merit as the completed work, since it "communicates the whole image even though it is itself fragmentary" (De Tolnay 95). Vasari argued that "one can recognize the perfection of the[se] work[s] even though [their] parts are incomplete" (De Tolnay 95). Faithful representation was not important to Michelangelo; rather, conveying the concetto and the ideal forms was the aim of Michelangelo's art. Many of Michelangelo's works were unfinished, yet for Michelangelo, these works were more perfect than finished ones in many cases.
Look at Michelangelo's unfinished statuary: from the tomb of Julius II
Humans as the Center of Creation
Michelangelo's art consistently focused on human subjects. Da Vinci's
portraits, such as the Mona Lisa, often included elaborate landscapes.
Michelangelo rarely included such details in his paintings or his sculpture.
This preoccupation with the human figure can also be attributed to Neoplatonic
theories. Ficino had described man as the center of being, as the "connecting
link between God and the world" (Quoted in Panofsky 137). For Ficino,
a human was a "rational soul participating in the Divine mind, employing
a body" (Quoted in Panofsky 137).
A human soul consisted of an anima prima and an anima secunda.
The anima secunda, or the lower soul, was closely connected with the
body. It consisted of the faculties of nourishment and growth, external
perception, and internal perception, or imagination. The anima prima,
or higher soul, consisted of reason and mind. Reason applies the rules
of logic to the images which come from the lower soul. It is, then, involved
with sensual experience. Mind, however, has a higher function -- it contemplates
the Divine Ideas; consequently, it can discern truth. The mind, then,
is closer to the divine intellect. Reason can allow itself to be influenced
by the world, or it can allow mind to guide it. Humans share the faculties
of the lower soul with the animals; mind resembles the divine intellect.
Reason can descend to the level of the brutes, or it can rise to the realm
of the intelligibles. Humans, then, occupy a central position between
the realm of pure matter and the realm of pure intelligence.
Michelangelo translated these ideas into art. The figures of his early
and middle periods represent physical perfection. Michelangelo saw the
body as a reflection of the beauty of the soul. David's
inner strength, for example, was reflected in a strong and beautiful body.
Most of Michelangelo's figures were nude. Some scholars, such as Jacob
Burckhardt in the 19th century, argued that the Renaissance was basically
worldly in nature. Michelangelo's preoccupation with the human nude would
seem to support this contention, as medievals refrained from portraying
the nude body, which they considered to be profane.
The Body as a Reflection of the Divine
The use of nudes, however, had a positive connotation within the iconographic
tradition. Caesare Ripa's encyclopedia of iconography described two personifications,
Felicita Eterna and Felicita Breve, which were interpreted
as the antithesis between eternal and temporal values. Felicita Eterna
was portrayed as a "resplendently beautiful, blonde young woman, whose
nudity denotes her contempt for perishable earthly things" (Panofsky 151).
Felicita Breve, on the other hand, was always clothed, which signified
her devotion to things of the world.
Ficino expressed this dichotomy with Venus Coelestis and Venus
Vulgaris. Venus was the pagan goddess of love, and the two Venuses
represented two different kinds of love. Love was the basis of NeoPlatonism.
Plato's Symposium argued that love was the active force which bound
everything together; Ficino argued that love was "only another name for
that self-reverting current from God to the world and from the world to
God" (Panofsky 141). Love had motivated God to "spread himself" into the
world, and love motivates men to return to him. Love's ultimate goal is
reaching God, who manifests himself in beauty. Ficino, therefore, defined
love as "a desire for the fruition of beauty"(Panofsky 141). The two Venuses
were alternative ways of pursuing beauty. Venus Coelestis rises
above earthly things, while Venus Vulgaris is satisfied with the
sensual world. Titian's Sacred and Profane Love embodies these
ideas; Botticelli's The Birth of Venus can also be successfully
interpreted within this framework (cf. Robb). The use of the nude came
to signify "the ideal and intelligible as opposed to the physical and
sensible, the simple and "true" essence as opposed to its varied and changeable
images" (Panofsky 159).
Michelangelo's use of the nude, then, was not necessarily indicative of
paganism. For Michelangelo, "the beauty of God [the] beautiful
human face here shows ... My mind to heaven by grace or charity, the heart
is late to love what the eyes cannot see" (Linscott 144). Human beauty
reflects God's beauty : "Nowhere does God, in his grace, reveal himself
to me more clearly than in some lovely human form, which I love solely
because it is a mirrored image of himself" (Blunt 69). Michelangelo worshipped
the nude, but this was not indicative of secularism; rather, it was, for
the Neoplatonist, a tribute to God's own beauty.
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The Body as a Reflection of the Soul
The body was not only a reflection of the Divine, but it was a reflection
of the human's inner self. The intense spirituality
of Michelangelo's Moses
was portrayed in a body of huge proportions and massive strength.
Michelangelo's ability to depict this tremendous radiation of inner strength
became known as his terribilita. Moses is portrayed "as the personification
of the elemental forces -- the human volcano about to erupt with righteous
wrath ... the dead center of a hurricane of emotional fury" (Fleming 190).
This is revealed by the "the powerful musculature of the arms, the fiery
mood, and the torsions of the body" (Fleming 191). To look at a detail
of Moses, click here.
Neoplatonists argued that matter, in itself, was a complete negation,
and depended on the soul to endow it with shape and life. The higher realms,
then, inform the lower realms. The Intelligible is a reflection of the
One, Soul is a reflection of the Intelligible, and matter is reflection
of the soul. Michelangelo's treatment of the body as a reflection of the
inner self is consistent with Neoplatonic tenets.
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The Soul's Struggle to Free Itself from Matter
The awe inspiring quality of Michelangelo's figures was also due to his
belief that the soul was continually in conflict with the body. The union
of the soul and the body corrupted the soul by diverting its attention
to sensual experience, rather than the higher realms. Ficino argued that
"sense ... can perceive neither itself nor intellect and the objects of
intelligence (Cassirer 204) In the body, the soul is truly far more miserable,
both because of the weakness and infirmity of the body itself and its
want of all things and because of the continual anxiety of the mind; therefore,
the more laborious it is for the celestial and immortal soul continually
to follow its happiness, while fallen into an intemperate earthly destructible
body, the more easily it obtains it when it is ... free from the body"
(Cassirer 211).
Further, Ficino claimed that
"the motion of all natural species proceeds according to a certain principle
... a motion does not wander from one uncertain disorderly state to another
but is directed from a certain and orderly state [its origin]to
a certain and orderly state [its end], harmonizing with that origin"
(Cassirer 194-195). The soul "characteristically incline[s] toward
the infinite," which is universal truth and goodness (Cassirer 202).
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The Unfinished Tomb of Julius II
Michelangelo portrayed the struggle of the soul to return to the infinite in stone. The unfinished works from the tomb of Julius II seem to be struggling to free themselves from the surrounding stone. Michelangelo's figures also express"action barely restrained" (Clements 175). This tension was accomplished by the use of the contraposito. Michelangelo encouraged his students to "always make a figure pyramidal ... and serpentine formed" (Clements 175). The use of contraposito dictates that "whatever action a figure is engaged in, its trunk [will] always appear twisted, so that if the right arm is extended forward or makes any other gesture designed by the artist, the left side of the body shall withdraw" (Clements 177). For this reason, "one sees in [Michelangelo's] paintings the most difficult movements...for this reason tending toward a certain savagery and terribility" (Clements 179).
Contemporaries, such as Canova, argued that Michelangelo "deliberately
chose contorted and convulsed movements" (Clements 179). Michelangelo's
use of contraposito was consonant with Alberti's view that painters should
express the soul with bodily movements rather than with expressions. The
use of contraposito contributed to the sense that the figure
is struggling to free itself from corruptive matter.
The bondage of the soul on earth was deeply felt by Michelangelo: "since
half of me, descended from the heavens, thereto with longing flies and
turns again" (Linscott 109). The bondage of the soul in matter was bitter
indeed: "if suicide for any on earth were licensed, since by death we
think we'll return to Heaven, It would be right for him who lives a bondsman,
wretched, unhappy, with such true observance" (Linscott 31). Michelangelo's
art as well as his thought, then, embodied Neoplatonic ideals. In the
Dying
Slave, Michelangelo depicts a soul in bondage to matter, symbolized
by the fetters which bind the slave on the chest. The slave has become
lazy, and is no longer struggling to free himself from the influence of
matter..
The theme of the soul's return to the One or God was frequently emphasized
in Michelangelo's art. The Bacchus is an example of a soul which
is too intent on physical pleasures. Bacchus' gaze is fixed on his oversized
goblet of wine, and his stance indicates that he "is considerably affected
by the consumption of his product" (Hartt 70). This is the sort of life
which man must avoid.
The tomb of Julius II and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel illustrate
the triumph of the soul over the material world. Both the tomb and the
Sistine chapel can be interpreted within a NeoPlatonic scheme, but in
these works, NeoPlatonism operates in conjunction with Christian ideology.
The struggle of the soul to free itself from matter is equated with the
Christian doctrine of resurrection and eternal life.
The tomb of Julius II was originally planned on a massive scale as a free-standing
monument with more than forty statues. Julius died before the tomb could
be completed, and difficulties in negotiating with his heirs, as well
as the impracticality of the project resulted in a smaller wall tomb which
is now in the aisle of the Church of San Pietro in Unicoli. Tombs of popes
were traditionally in three levels, which symbolized earthly existence,
death and salvation (Fleming 189). Michelangelo's original plan for the
tomb incorporated these divisions into a Neoplatonic representation of
the soul's reunion with God. The lowest level included several slaves
who were struggling to free themselves from their bonds. These statues
represented souls who were enslaved in matter. The low state of the slaves
was further emphasized by the appearance of the face of an ape in the
marble around the Dying
Slave. The ape was a "symbol of everything sub-human in man, of
lust, greed, and gluttony" (Panofsky 195). Ficino and the Neoplatonists
argued that the lower soul was "that nature which we have in common with
the all animals" (Cassirer 196). In Christian terms, the slaves represented
the soul in bondage to the passions. Bound slaves had long been used as
a symbol of the "unresurrected human soul held in bondage by its natural
desires" (Panofsky 194). The slaves were contrasted with the Victories,
who "represent the human soul in its state of freedom, capable of conquering
the base emotions by reason" (Panofsky 197). The lower level of the tomb,
in both the Christian and Neoplatonic frameworks, represents the soul
in its least desirable state.
The lower level of the tomb symbolizes life on earth; the middle level
depicted the kind of men who "pointed the way toward the divine goal of
humanity -- reunion with God" (Fleming 189). The Neoplatonist Landino
argued that the vita activa and the vita contemplativa were the two roads
to God. Michelangelo symbolized this idea with the figures of Rachel and
Leah, Moses and Paul. Rachel, who looks upward, personified the contemplative
life; Leah, who looks downward, personified the active life. Rachel and
Leah represent Neoplatonic themes; Moses and Paul symbolize biblical themes.
Moses represented the Old Law; Paul the New. Both, however, arrived "through
a synthesis of the active life and the contemplative life at a vision
of the face of God" (De Tolnay 39). All four figures represented the victory
of the spirit over the physical world.
The second level also included an effigy of the Pope, who was carried
by two angels up to the third level, which consisted of the Madonna and
child. This clearly invokes the Christian theme of the resurrection and
eternal life of the soul. The original scheme of the tomb, then, with
its depiction of biblical characters and the theme of resurrection is
outwardly Christian. Many of its elements, however, invoke Neoplatonic
ideas. The tomb of Julius II, then, is neither entirely Christian nor
Neoplatonic, and art historians have consequently argued over the iconographic
scheme behind the tomb. Condivi argued that the theme of the tomb was
primarily a tribute to the dead pope. The face of the ape, for example,
was meant to symbolize the arts which Julius patronized. The fact that
the lower level of the tomb included several reliefs depicting the achievements
of Julius seems to support this interpretation. The tomb, then, appears
to have multiple layers of meaning. Its complexity illustrates the extent
to which a pagan philosophy could be blended into an Christian framework.
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The Sistine Chapel Ceiling
The ceiling
of the Sistine
Chapel follows the same type of program. The ceiling is divided into
a series of triangles, squares, and circles. Plato regarded mathematics
as eternal truths; the geometrical shapes of the Sistine Chapel represent
the immutable mathematical forms. The scheme of the ceiling is divided
into three zones. The lowest zone, which is also the one which receives
the least amount of light, is "peopled by a race enduring the vicissitudes
of the human condition" (De Tolnay 40). The middle zone consists of Old
Testament prophets and pagan
sibyls, "who have knowledge of the Divine and mediate between man
and God" (Fleming 192). The juxtaposition of pagan sibyls and biblical
prophets suggests a scheme which is not entirely Christian. The use of
prophets and pagan exemplars side by side suggests that it is the qualities
they shared, rather than their specific beliefs, which made them important.
They are the "inspired men and women who, through the exercise of their
minds and imaginations, became the mediators between the human and divine
spheres" (Fleming 192). Each of the prophets and sibyls are accompanied
by two youths, which, in Platonic theory, "personify the rational faculties
... by which man rises to the contemplation of divine truth" (Fleming
192). In traditional Christian art, these figures would have been angels.
The center of the ceiling depicts the story of man and his relation to
God. On the surface, it is a portrayal of biblical history, beginning
with the creation and ending with the Last
Judgement. The nine scenes, however, are in reverse chronological
order, beginning with the Drunkenness
of Noah. Noah symbolizes the soul who is overwhelmed by temptations
of the flesh; his enslavement to the passions is symbolized by a scene
to his left, which shows him tilling the fields. This is consistent with
NeoPlatonism, which often symbolized the lowest state of the soul by drunkenness.
The panels progress from the representation of man in his lowest state
to the creation. In the Creation
of Adam, there are two genii under the arm of God. One
is a girl, who "represents the Platonic idea of Eve,
preexisting in the divine intellect" (De Tolnay 45). The final panel,
God
Dividing the Light from Darkness, represents the realm of pure being.
In the Creation of Eve, God was portrayed as a human; in this panel he
is seen "as a swirling abstraction" (Fleming 194). Beginning with the
Drunkenness of Noah, the panels "ascend the ladder of the histories
into the pure light of knowledge, to the point of dissolution into the
freedom of infinity" (Fleming 194). The panels, then, may be interpreted
as a Neoplatonic manifesto.
To further explore the Sistine Chapel, look at:
In this panel, Michelangelo portrayed one of the cardinals who had condemned his paitings for their overt display of the human body in hell. He paints himself as a flayed skin, refleting the tortuous years of work on the Sistine Chapel Ceiling.
Conclusion
Michelangelo's idealism reflected an intense awareness of beauty as the
highest good. His interest in the beauty and dignity of the body as a
reflection of the beauty and dignity of the soul illustrated the Neoplatonic
belief that all creation was a reflection of the One, the divine. His
art is a timeless expression of teh struggle of humankind to achieve unity
with the creator. Michelangelo's contorted figures symbolize the struggle
of the soul to free itself from matter and achieve a vision of God; the
power of such figures as the Moses symbolize the ability of humankind
to attain the greatest heights.
While the medievals urged the Christian to abandon life in the world,
Renaissance Neoplatonists found God in the world's beauty. The Renaissance
man did indeed tend to worship the world, but at least for the Neoplatonists,
this was part of the worship of God. Michelangelo once said that art is
brought from heaven (Blunt 72). Only divine inspiration could have created
the David and the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and it was to the divine
that Michelangelo wished to appeal.
Works Cited
Blunt, Anthony. Artistic Theory in Italy. London:Oxford University Press, 1940.
Burckhardt, Jacob. The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy. New York: Random House, 1954.
Cassirer, Ernst, ed. The Renaissance Philosophy of Man. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1948.
Clements, Robert J. Michelangelo's Theory of Art. New York: New York University Press, 1961.
De Tolnay, Charles. The Art and Thought of Michelangelo. New York: Pantheon Books, 1964.
Fleming, William. Arts and Ideas. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1974. Hartt,
Frederick. Michelangelo: the Complete Sculpture. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1968.
Kristeller, Paul Oscar. Eight Philosophers of the Italian Renaissance. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1964.
Kristeller, Paul Oscar. The Philosophy of Marsilio Ficino. Gloucester: Columbia University Press, 1943.
Linscott, Robert, ed. Complete Poems and Selected Letters of Michelangelo. New York: The Modern Library, 1963.
Panofsky, Erwin. Studies in Iconology: Humanistic Themes in the Art of the Renaissance. New York: Harper and Row, 1939.
Robb, Nesca. The NeoPlatonism of the Italian Renaissance. London, 1935.
Web Sites for Further Exploration:
Sistine Chapel Ceiling: Entrance
Has a clickable map of the ceiling linked to details of each panel. Also images of the pre- and post- restoration ceiling.
- Michelangelo
- In Italian but worth exploring.
- Michelangelo
- nice set of links.
- Cappella Sistina
- Take a virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel .
- very nice and glitzy site.
- The Art of Michelangelo
- The Saint's in Michelangelo's Last Judgment
- The Tondo Doni by Michelangelo
- clickable image map!
- Uffizi - Michelangelo Buonarroti
- CGFA- Michelangelo
- several images and a biography.
- Michelangelo:
1475-1564
web-chronology project.
- A very nice list of links to Michelangelo's works on the web.
- Michelangelo:
Web Museum Entry
Thais - 1200 anni di scultura italiana - Firenze, Galleria dell'Accademia
Go to the Michelangelo works.
copyright © Dr. Deborah Vess 1998-2001, Georgia College & State University and the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. All rights reserved. Rights to chapters authored by contributing faculty members reserved to Georgia College & State University, to the Interdisciplinary Studies Program at GC&SU, and to the individual faculty authors.