Michelangelo's Work and Progress

Laurentian Library
Michelangelo, 1571
Florence, Italy

During the Renaissance, an era where the old became the new, and it comes to the art and architecture themselves since they're an impact based on the ancient cities and soon for the future generations when looking at the works. Speaking of the artists during that era, one of the artists that paved the way is Michelangelo. He's known for his work in Florence and his artwork are well known since the present day. One of the articles to discuss today is the Laurentian Library which was designed by him and also took place in Florence, Italy. It goes into depth about the architectural works and the design process overall. Coming from a chapter of Architectural History, Michelangelo's Laurentian Library: Drawings and Design Process by James G. Cooper mentions how: "Michelangelo would later rework certain design ideas that he developed...for subsequent projects in Rome, including an early design for the Palazzo dei Conservatori…." (Cooper, 49). Since he used his concept design for the architecture and used them for other works in Rome and the Renaissance itself. Overall, Michelangelo and his work would stand out during the Renaissance, and his design of the library is one of them based on his sketches and designs to make what it is today.

School of Athens
Raphael, 1509-1511
16'5" x 25'3"
High Renaissance

One of the highlights of thing in this chapter is how it goes into depth with his sketches and design when it comes to working on the Laurentian Library. Mentioned the details of the pillars such as how they mentioned, "The possibility suggested by the rapidly sketched idea of including a small columnar order between the portals...Michelangelo redrew the principle elements at a larger scale with greater time, care, and attention to detail." (60). How Michelangelo would go through the length of detail to make it perfect for anyone from far away and up close to see the pillars in the library with the scales from large to small, and taking extra time in his craftsmanship. Relating to this type of reading would come from a video vs. text discussion back on September 23, where we would discuss Raphael's School of Athens and how he also would take the time and work in his painting, with the video talking in further detail and breaking down the figures and the surroundings alongside. Mentioning how, the architect "grand architecture, very high, sort round of arches, classic sculpture and meches" (High Florence…,4:50-5:07) since it sort of similar to what is being read in this article. Overall, comparing to Chapter 13 and to Michelangelo's work in this article is very different from one another since this talks about his sketches and drawing on one of the architectures in the Renaissance and I'm surprised that I never learned about this when looking at Michelangelo himself and what he contributed to in Florence and the era itself.

The reason why I chose this article for Michelangelo is that, like I mentioned before, this is very new to me and I never notice since I only know some of his works and, rarely, his architecture designs. How it mentions, "Michelangelo initiated the design process by using ideas borrowed from other buildings, which were then developed and transformed by rapidly working from one drawing to the next as a means of initiating his own creative impulse." (83). Stating how he has his own creativity from taking inspirations from other complexes and making it into something new. This made me interested in this article, and how he does it with the designing process and creating a new complex, and also how this article caught my attention when looking for one to post here.

Two sources you could check out more about this architecture are the video below and a page that talks about the library itself.

Work Cited

COOPER, JAMES G. “Michelangelo’s Laurentian Library: Drawings and Design Process.” Architectural History, vol. 54, SAHGB Publications Limited, 2011, pp. 49–90, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41418348.