The aroque period is a continuation of Renaissance arts’ naturalistic realism and progress in terms of creating art with new perspective that was dynamic and seemingly three-dimensional. The scenes of the renaissance have been described as often seeming like windows into another plane because of their masterful awareness and execution of octagonal and vanishing point in culmination with new stylistic conventions such as shadowing, foreshortening, chiaroscuro, and sfumato. Religious and biblical narratives were not uncommon despite a stylistic shift towards more humanistic representations even of the Virgin and Child themselves.
This video is an interesting conversation by Khan Academy experts in an in depth look into the specific figures seen in throughout Michelangelo’s interpretation of the The last Judgment.
The commissioning of Michelangelo was an interesting decision as he himself primarily considered himself a sculptor first and foremost. As we have we have seen i the past, Michelangelo was a master sculptor and the attention to musculature and human form is testament to that.
The ascension of the virgin Mary is a beautiful story told as you progress into the church, step by step, toward the nave. At first glance, standing at the entrance, you will only see several saints near the outside of the circular template. Moving further toward the nave, images of wingless angels and different biblical characters expose themselves to you. Adam and Eve narrate their emotions through their postures, with Eve reaching toward Mary in gratitude and Adam with his hand on his chest as if accepting his fault, or his sin. At the center, Mary contorts her body and reaches toward the divine light. In this image, the emphasis is placed on her reception to the divine. She served as a connection