1HISTORY OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION
Michelangelo was an Italian painter, sculptor, architect and poet of the Renaissance
period popular for his work of art during that phase. The versatility and a typical example of
renaissance art form in his renowned art work in David and Pieta made him a subject of research
even today. From that point of view the purpose of this essay to evaluate the Renaissance culture
and society through the art works of Michelangelo.
Before going to discuss about the influence of Michelangelo’s artwork on the then
society, it is important to mention the characteristics of his paintings. There are series of
remarkable paintings done by Michelangelo in terms of the Pieta, David, the Last Judgement and
the frescos done in the ceiling of Sistine Chapel in Rome. In this context, the social condition of
that time was predominantly controlled by the Roman churches. In his writing Günther (2017)
showed that before and during the period of renaissance the Catholic churches imposed a series
of draconian rules on common people. In the name of God, they were started doing exploitation
and tortured the commoners and restricted their knowledge so that free voices could not be
emerged (Cooke, 2017). From that point of view, Gilead (2016) argued that renaissance was a
cultural revolution that ousted the papal autocracy and enlightened people with the ideas of
liberal thoughts and rational standpoints. As a matter of fact, the renaissance art and architectures
played a significant role in order to influence the popular psyche to a great extent and succeeded
to divert them common minds from religious dogmas to rational vision. In this regard, the
paintings and sculptures of Michelangelo are identified as true example of the renaissance art
forms.
As far as the paintings of Michelangelo are concerned, it can be seen that most of the
paintings were portraying three important features like individualism, secularism and artistic
realism. As the meaning of the sculpture was deciphered by Luiten (2015) it can be stated that

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AS405 History Of Western Civilization

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