Michelangelo (The Last Judgement)

 

The name of this piece is The Last Judgement and it is painting painted my Michelangelo. The Last Judgement is a type of fresco( technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid lime plaster). It was painted on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel between the time of 1536 and 1540.

Michelangelo, in full Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (born March 6, 1475, Caprese, Republic of Florence [Italy]—died February 18, 1564, Rome, Papal States), Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect, and poet who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. Michelangelo was considered the greatest living artist in his lifetime, and ever since then he has been held to be one of the greatest artists of all time. A number of his works in painting, sculpture, and architecture rank among the most famous in existence. Although the frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel are probably the best known of his works today, the artist thought of himself primarily as a sculptor. His practice of several arts, however, was not unusual in his time, when all of them were thought of as based on design, or drawing. Michelangelo worked in marble sculpture all his life and in the other arts only during certain periods. The high regard for the Sistine ceiling is partly a reflection of the greater attention paid to painting in the 20th century and partly, too, because many of the artist’s works in other media remain unfinished.

The Last Judgment is a canonical fresco by the Italian Renaissance master Michelangelo executed on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. The work took four years to complete and was done between 1536 and 1541 (preparation of the altar wall began in 1535.) Michelangelo began working on it some twenty years after having finished the Sistine Chapel ceiling.The work is massive and spans the entire wall behind the altar of the Sistine Chapel. It is a depiction of the Second Coming of Christ and the final and eternal judgment by God of all humanity. The souls of humans rise and descend to their fates, as judged by Christ surrounded by prominent saints including Saints Catherine of Alexandria, Peter, Lawrence, Bartholomew, Paul, Peter Simon, Sebastian, John the Baptist, and others.This painting qualifies as a Renaissance art piece because it depicts humans in great detail which was a new concept of the Renaissance era.

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The year is 1515 and I am a merchant in Florence, a booming economic city. The plague has wiped out most of the population and the efforts to rebuild the society are in motion for the survivors such as myself. The efforts to rebuild mean a high demand for merchants, bankers, and tradespeople throughout the city. As of late I've been very well-off and making so much money I don't know what to do with. With my increasing wealth I've been put in a new social status know around town as the middle-class. I'm not quite sure but education is becoming more important in the city, everyone is becoming literate and reading for recreation. Also, my friend who's a banker and doing very well, was telling me about this study that he called arithmetic that he was learning and my other friend who's a tradesman is learning several different languages that i had never even heard of before. This a very odd time with so much change and advancement I guess you could say it's very overwhelming for myself, but i do know that there's money to be made and I'm making lots of it so I can't complain to much.

A modern day example of Niccolo Machiavelli is Adolf Hitler. Hitler resembles Machiavelli because Hitler's demise came from his obsessive focus on war and controlling as much of the world that he could. I do not believe that it is better to be feared than loved. Any leader in history that ruled by fear was eventually brought  out of power by revolting citizens or government officials. If you are loved instead then the people will support you and not try to overthrow your power.