Michelangelo (Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio) is a famous Italian artist (painter, sculptor, architect, poet) born on March 6, 1475, in Caprese Tuscany. He grew up in Florence Italy and is known as one of the most accomplished artists in history. His father was a sculptor.

Michelangelo is known for his sculptures, oil paintings, fresco paintings and architecture designs and expressing his rebellious views with his art. At the age of 13, he was the apprentice of master painter Domenico Ghirlandaio. Michelangelo studied at the Platonic Academy run by the Medici family in Florence, where he sculpted the ‘Battle of the Centaurs’ during his apprenticeship with Lorenzo de Medici (1449 – 1492).

When considering Michelangelo’s techniques and mediums, its important to remember that era provided a very limited pure color palette of the Cennini system. Cennino d’Andrea Cennini (1360 – 1426) was an Italian painter influenced by Giotto’s technique for painting shadows (cangiente).

Michelangelo’s influences:

• Donatello (1386 – 1466)
• Masaccio (1401 – 1428)
• Cennino D’Andrea Cennini (1360 – 1427)
• Giotto di Bondone (1266 – 1337)
• Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378 – 1455)
• Catholic Religious Artwork of 1400s
• The Human Form
• Capturing Spiritual Essence of his Art Subjects.

Michelangelo Artworks

• Pietà 1498 – 1499
• The Torment of Saint Anthony 1488
• Madonna of the Stairs 1491
• Battle of the Centaurs 1492
• St. Petronius 1495
• Angel 1495
• Manchester Madonna 1497
• David 1501 – 1504
• Madonna of Bruges 1504
• Battle of Cascina 1504
• St. Matthew 1506
• Doni Tondo 1507
• The Creation of the Sun, Moon and Plants 1511
• Separation of Light from Darkness 1512
• The Creation of Adam 1512
• Sistine Chapel Ceiling 1512
• Rebellious Slave 1513
• Moses 1515
• Young Slave 1525
• The Dream of Human Life 1533
• Crouching boy 1534
• The Genius of Victory 1534
• The Conversion of Saul 1545
• Rachel and Leah 1545
• The Crucifixion of St. Peter 1546
• Rondanini Pieta 1564

Michelangelo Style:

• *see mediums and techniques further in this document
• depicts collected figures.
• awe inspiring grandeur
• cangiante
• sfumato
• unione
• fresco marked by belezza di colore
• fresco marked by brilliant colors
• pre-Renaissance Italian painting
• Catholic Religion themes
• Greek Mythology themes
• Classical Greek View of “the man is the measure of all things”

Michelangelo Art Mediums:

• architecture
• painting: fresco, oil
• poetry
• sculpture: marble

Michelangelo Techniques:

• Cangiante:
  • cangiare (to change)
  • introduced by Giotto (1266 – 1337)
  • change color to different, lighter hue when original hue can’t be made light enough or dark enough.
  • often used for angel drapery
    • Example: Sistine Chapel, transitions from green to yellow in the robes of Daniel.
    • Example: Kiss of Judas by Giotto di Bondone
• Chiaroscuro:
  • uses shadows and a single light source to create depth and drama. Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Leonardo da Vinci and Caravaggio use chiaroscuro techniques.
  • Chiaro (clear / bright).
  • Scuro (obscure / dark).
  • Usually used for oil painting.
  • Usually seen in early Baroque-era art
  • Challenging and Time Consuming to create
  • Ancient Greece 5th century origins with the painter Apollodorus Skiagraphos’s hatched shadows to suggest 3D depth known as skiagraphia (shadow drawing) technique.
  • Note ‘tenebrism’ is similar to but different from chiaroscuro. Tenebrism is an extreme version of chiaroscuro with very dark or black features and the subject is separated from the setting more than we see in chiaroscuro technique.
    • Example: portrait with face illuminated by a gold candle-lit glow
    • Example: still life of a dark room lit by a single window
• Sfumato:
  • fumo (smoke)
  • method of color-blending and shading to evoke soft, smoky haze.
    • Example: Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci
    • Example: The Creation of Adam, Michelangelo
• Unione:
  • developed by Raphael in Stanza della Segnatura
  • similar to sfumato, but more useful for edges of chiaroscuro with vibrant colors.
  • conveys contrasts
  • harmony & unity without excess & accentuation
  • provides color richness
  • Softer than chiaroscuro with tonal key

EXPERIMENT 1

	AI Text Prompt Bad Practice: DALLE-2 “fresco painting of a cat on a sunny day, in the style of The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo, digital art”
	AI Text Prompt Bad Practice: local Stable Diffusion “fresco painting of a cat on a sunny day, in the style of The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo, digital art”
	AI Text Prompt UnBundled: local Stable Diffusion “fresco painting of a cat on a sunny day. The painting is highly symmetrical and dynamic with a strong diagonal line in the composition, to create a sense of tension and movement. The color palette is earth tones, browns, greens, and grays. Sfumato blends colors together to create a soft, hazy effect. Digital art”
	AI Text Prompt Unbundled: local Stable Diffusion “fresco painting of a cat on a sunny day. The painting is highly symmetrical and dynamic with a strong diagonal line in the composition, to create a sense of tension and movement. The color palette is earth tones, browns, greens, and grays. Sfumato blends colors together to create a soft, hazy effect. Digital art”

EXPERIMENT 2

	AI Text Prompt Bad Practice: DALLE-2 “fresco painting of a cat on a sunny day, in the style of The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo, high detail, high definition, high quality, photo-realistic, 8k”
	AI Text Prompt Bad Practice: local stable diffusion “fresco painting of a cat on a sunny day, in the style of The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo, high detail, high definition, high quality, photo-realistic, 8k”
	AI Text Prompt Unbundled: local Stable Diffusion “photorealistic fresco painting of a cat, chiaroscuro, sfumato, depth, realism, light, shadow, movement, depth. hazy, atmospheric. cat face illuminated by a beam of light, contrast between light and dark, high detail, high definition, high quality, photo-realistic, 8k”
	AI Text Prompt Unbundled: DALLE-2 “photorealistic fresco painting of a cat, chiaroscuro, sfumato, depth, realism, light, shadow, movement, depth. hazy, atmospheric. cat face illuminated by a beam of light, contrast between light and dark, high detail, high definition, high quality, photo-realistic, 8k”

EXPERIMENT 3

	AI Text Prompt Bad Practice: DALLE-2 “fresco painting of a family on a picnic with a cat, in the style of The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo, high detail, high definition, high quality, photo-realistic, 8k”
	AI Text Prompt Bad Practice: local Stable Diffusion “fresco painting of a family on a picnic with a cat, in the style of The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo, high detail, high definition, high quality, photo-realistic, 8k”
	AI Text Prompt with Unbundling: local Stable Diffusion “photorealistic fresco painting of a family on a picnic with a cat, light, shadow, movement, depth, chiaroscuro, sfumato, depth, realism, light, shadow, movement, depth. hazy, atmospheric. cat face illuminated, high contrast, high detail, high definition, high quality, photo-realistic, 8k”
	AI Text Prompt Unbundled: DALLE-2 “photorealistic fresco painting of a family on a picnic with a cat, light, shadow, movement, depth, chiaroscuro, sfumato, depth, realism, light, shadow, movement, depth. hazy, atmospheric. cat face illuminated, high contrast, high detail, high definition, high quality, photo-realistic, 8k”

References:

• Art History Terms
• Cennini, Cennino D’ Andrea,Libro dell ‘Arte (The Craftsman’s Handbook)
• Chiaroscuro Painting Techniques
• Michelangelo.org
• Biography of Michelangelo
• Michelangelo’s David

Featured Image on this Post: AI Text Prompt: local Stable Diffusion: “If you follow the course of one man through constant practice, your intelligence would have to be crude indeed for you not to get some nourishment from it. Cennini, high detail, high definition, high quality, photo-realistic, 8k”