Greatest Paintings of All Time (Incomplete / In Progress)

[AfterHours]

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475 - 1564)

Best Works:
7.9/10: Pieta (1499) [Sculpture]
8.1/10: David (1504) [Sculpture]
7.3/10: Doni Tondo (circa 1506)
7.3/10: Moses (1515) [Sculpture]
10/10: Sistine Chapel: Ceiling and The Last Judgment (1512; 1541)
7.8/10: Pauline Chapel: The Conversion of Saul and The Crucifixion of St. Peter (1545; 1550)
8.0/10: Medici Chapel: The Sagrestia Nuova (1555) [Sculpture and Architecture]
7.3/10: The Deposition (1555) [Sculpture] [aka, "Bandini Pietà" or "The Lamentation over the Dead Christ"]
7.4/10: Laurentian Library - Michelangelo Buonarroti (Begun 1525, completed posthumously, 1571; Tribune of Elci rotunda added by Pasquale Poccianti in 1841) [Architecture]
8.5/10: St. Peter's Basilica - Principal Architects: Donato Bramante (1503 - 1514); Michelangelo Buonarroti (1546 - 1564); Carlo Maderno (1603 - 1629); Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1629 - 1676) (Building completed and opened 1626; various additions thereafter) [Architecture]

Pieta - Michelangelo Buonarroti (1499) [Sculpture]

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FRONT VIEW - LARGE: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/..._black.jpg
FRONT VIEW - VERY LARGE: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/...399%29.jpg
RIGHT SIDE VIEW - LOW ANGLE: https://mymodernmet.com/wp/wp-content/u...ieta-3.jpg
OVERHEAD VIEW: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BljZeFRCYAA...name=small
OVERHEAD VIEW - DETAIL - JESUS' FACE: https://stpetersbasilica.info/Altars/Pi...usface.jpg

Notes of mine that will be used for a future (better detailed and written) analysis:

-The sculpture depicts Mary holding her dead son Jesus in her lap after he has suffered and died upon the cross
-Through stunning technique Michelangelo has managed to imbue the sculpture with immense emotion, tremendous pathos, ex: the dropped head, resigned and fair face of Mary; the limp and sunken Jesus in her lap; the ripple effect and cascading drapery of her clothing.
-However this is only the first layer of its depiction, as Michelangelo manages to sublimate, illuminate and reconcile the mystery and paradox of Jesus and the Virgin Mary through astonishing technique, a miraculous compositional unity, through a profound and deeply moving fusion of multiplied expression and meaning
-Here begins the first unqualified masterpiece of Michelangelo's career, a career that will be marked by an astonishing ability to infuse his works with a singular sense of awe, loaded with ambiguities, multiplied meanings. The sensation he would produce in all his greatest works would later be termed "terribilitia", or "terrifying power".
-Every major component to the work is double, tripled in intent, meaning, expression, profundity.
-The sculpting technique is so advanced as to give Jesus impossibly soft skin (in stone! Impossible!), so as to give his legs an impossible sense of real "gravity"; you can actually feel the "hanging" sensation of the left, dangling leg; you can actually feel the sunken body submerging itself in her lap; you can actually feel Mary's right hand pressed against the "soft" skin of Jesus; the pathos and real sense of hanging "gravity" of her left hand giving way. No where else in sculpture is an artist able to imbue (especially relatively "motionless") figures with such distinct and individual life, with an incredible and unmistakable sense of "life energy". Many sculptors would activate figures physically (never more so than in the Mannerist and Baroque movements that Michelangelo influenced so markedly) but few would activate them so "individually" and "emotionally" (so uniquely and distinctly to the personalities and thematic or emotional context), and even fewer still (if any) with such convincing and compelling "gravitas".
-Part of this lies in Michelangelo's ability to coalesce the whole body into a "symphony" of figuration, where each individual gesture or body or appendage position (of a leg, arm, head, torso and so on) is balanced or counter-acted (whether in tension or harmony, or both) by another, so that the figure is a ripple effect of all his or her parts, each leading to the other (in a simultaneity of tension and harmony).
-The more profound, multiplied emotional content and meanings of the work might begin from the top, with Mary's head and face. In her face we see a serene, resigned female, closed eyes, quietude, solemn. From the crown of her cloak down through the drapery of her clothing there is a tremendous ripple effect of movement all the way down to her waist area. This seems to symbolize the pain and grief that is contradicted (doubled in meaning, both sides of her predicament simultaneously) by the serenity and quiet resignation of her face. This is further expressed by her right hand that holds her son Jesus, pressed hard into his skin, while her left hand is removed and seems to gesture to let him go. She is consumed by both the need to accept the fate of her son and all that it means, while also experiencing the tremendous grief and pain of a mother who is holding him dead in her lap.
INCOMPLETE...MUCH MORE TO ADD...

David - Michelangelo Buonarroti (1504) [Sculpture]

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MAIN VIEW - VERY LARGE: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/...noised.jpg
DETAIL - HEAD: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/...JBU013.jpg
DETAIL - HEAD: https://www.flickr.com/photos/38240758@N06/51188103483/
DETAIL - HEAD: https://twistedsifter.com/wp-content/up...d_09-2.jpg
DETAIL - UPPER BODY - LOW ANGLE: https://www.flickr.com/photos/155903506...666613825/
DETAIL - CHEST/TORSO: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/...JBU042.jpg
DETAIL - RIGHT SIDE - LOW ANGLE: https://www.flickr.com/photos/130558987...387836914/
DETAIL - RIGHT HAND: https://www.flickr.com/photos/albyn/50478628263/
DETAIL - RIGHT HAND: https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/imag...20hand.JPG
ALTERNATE VIEW - BACK - LOW ANGLE: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bruchez/17602149229/
PHOTO SERIES - SEVERAL ANGLES: https://www.flickr.com/photos/profzucke...otostream/
VIDEO - 360 DEGREE VIEW: https://www.newsflare.com/video/224977/...egree-view
VIDEO - HIGH QUALITY VIEWS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z42qh2FKau4
IMAGE FOR SCALE - Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence, Italy: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nanpalmero/51351266306/
IMAGE FOR SCALE - Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence, Italy: http://www.mysunnylittlecorner.com/uplo...642244.png
IMAGE FOR SCALE - Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence, Italy: https://www.cntraveler.com/gallery/best...n-florence
IMAGE FOR SCALE - Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence, Italy: https://external-preview.redd.it/jCV1sO...d6ab8fe670
IMAGE FOR SCALE - Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence, Italy: https://corrierefiorentino.corriere.it/...2104141958

Doni Tondo - Michelangelo Buonarroti (circa 1506)

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FULL VIEW - LARGE: https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/holy-...&pid=1
FULL VIEW - VERY LARGE - ZOOM FUNCTION: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset...JCwg?hl=en
FULL VIEW - LARGEST IMAGE - HIGHEST RESOLUTION AND QUALITY - ZOOM FUNCTION: https://www.haltadefinizione.com/en/vie...buonarroti
IMAGE FOR SCALE - Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy: https://news.artnet.com/app/news-upload...4x684.jpeg

Moses - Michelangelo Buonarroti (1515) [Sculpture]

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FULL MAIN VIEW - LARGE: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ryanhadle...otostream/
FULL MAIN VIEW - VERY LARGE: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/...JBU160.jpg
UPPER BODY - VERY LARGE: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/...JBU190.jpg
ANGLED VIEW - VIEWER'S RIGHT - LARGE: https://www.flickr.com/photos/dese/48567949391/
ANGLED VIEW - VIEWER's RIGHT: https://www.flickr.com/photos/92275331@N07/33717719098/
ANGLED VIEW - VIEWER's RIGHT - UPPER BODY - VERY LARGE: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/...Detail.jpg
ANGLED VIEW - VIEWER's LEFT: https://www.flickr.com/photos/16914951@N03/25434855961/
ANGLED VIEW - VIEWER's LEFT: https://www.flickr.com/photos/70125105@N06/35605022926/
DETAIL - VIEWER'S LEFT SIDE: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/...JBU350.jpg
DETAIL - UPPER BODY: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ryanhadley/48031463146
DETAIL - UPPER BODY: https://www.flickr.com/photos/robmenting/15560954066/
DETAIL - FACE: https://www.flickr.com/photos/paullew/5573931334/
IMAGE FOR SCALE - San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome, Italy:

Sistine Chapel: Ceiling and The Last Judgment - Michelangelo Buonarroti (1512; 1541)

Ceiling - FULL VIEW:

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Ceiling - RIGHT SIDE - NEAREST THE ENTRANCE:

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Ceiling - LEFT SIDE - NEAREST THE LAST JUDGMENT:

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Altar Wall - The Last Judgment:

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NOTE: None of the images truly do the work justice, except for the Virtual Tours and Video footage. The Virtual Tour is based on very HQ photography and approaches an ideal presentation of Michelangelo's work in part because it is truest to the actual lighting conditions with which the artist produced it, aligning best to the coloration, tones and various technical choices Michelangelo made. The video footage provided is still very HQ and is "live" so tends to give the closest example of actually visiting the Chapel today. However, it should be noted that it yet doesn't quite present the work under as accurate conditions (relative to Michelangelo's technical choices) as the virtual tour, because so much new lighting has been added in more recent years, making portions of it (especially the Last Judgment) that weren't intended to be so bright, where Michelangelo specifically made use of the lighting of the Chapel with particular regard to the form of his composition and placement of figures. The other images provided are helpful for a general acclimation to the work, for thematic study, in learning the progression of imagery, but should not be used to evaluate the full quality and emotional sensation of Michelangelo's painting and artistry. The Last Judgment, especially on the internet, tends to be poorly photographed much too often as it is probably impossible to capture in a single, balanced shot at closer distances (so often has the mediocre inconsistency of quality that seem attributable to a "collage" of connected photos, however seamlessly presented), and in the process almost always loses some grandeur and expressivity of its figurative modelling, some of its polish/finish and proper color, and above all, the sheer magnitude, force and sense of weight that is brought upon the painted space (rising and collapsing) and "outwards" by the figurative momentum, its foreshortening or "three-dimensionality". I recommend very HQ, large scale Art books, specifically dedicated to this work, for any detailed, up close analysis and thorough evaluation of the individual figures/imagery. I recommend the Virtual Tour for when taking a step back to evaluate the work in larger sections.

VIRTUAL TOUR - PANORAMIC FULL VIEW: http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/...ina_en.htm
VIDEO - INSIDE THE VATICAN - CEILING & THE LAST JUDGMENT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kywzKENX8n4
VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxn0KbFTtU8
FULL VIEW - 360 DEGREE PANORAMA: https://www.360cities.net/image/sistine...ity-rome-2
FULL VIEW - 360 DEGREE PANORAMA: https://www.360cities.net/image/the-sistine-chapel
IMAGE FOR SCALE - Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Italy: https://www.italyperfect.com/blog/wp-co...-Crowd.jpg
CEILING - PICTORIAL SCHEME: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/...posite.png
CEILING & THE LAST JUDGMENT - DETAIL - ALL WORKS - INCLUDING HISTORY & THEMES (Mediocre Picture Quality): http://www.wga.hu/tours/sistina/index_c.html

INCOMPLETE ANALYSIS - NOTES/OUTLINE/ROUGH DRAFT:

-The decorative program of the Sistine Chapel encapsulates the history of salvation. It begins with God's creation of the world and his covenant with the people of Israel (represented in the Old Testament scenes on the ceiling and south wall), and continued with the earthly life of Christ (on the north wall). The addition of the Last Judgment completed the narrative. (Khan Academy)
-Michelangelo's Ceiling and Last Judgment are a visionary synthesis of painting, sculpture, architecture and poetry, all brought into three-dimensional fruition entirely through two-dimensional painted fresco

__________

Initially, Pope Julius II wanted Michelangelo to paint the twelve apostles. According to Ross King, in his book Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling, Michelangelo wanted to continue to do more with the human form:

“[The Pope] gave [Michelangelo] instructions to paint the Twelve Apostles… Michelangelo was clearly still not satisfied with his efforts. His main problem with the proposed scheme was that, apart from the Twelve Apostles, there was very little scope for him to explore his interest in the human form.” (King 58, 59).

The human form presented the unparalleled potential to express the divine. Michelangelo, with an interest in exploring the full scope of the human being’s relationship with the divine, became more and more ambitious with his design for the Sistine Ceiling. There was a problem, however: anyone who created anything for the Sistine Chapel would have needed their designs approved by the Pope’s official theologian.

Michelangelo decided to discuss these matters with the pope himself. King states: “Audaciously outspoken as ever, [Michelangelo] complained that the design proposed by His Holiness would prove a cosa povera (poor thing). Julius appears, for once, to have acquiesced without much argument. He merely shrugged his shoulders and then, according to Michelangelo, gave him free rein to design his own program. ‘He gave me a new commission.’ the artist later wrote, ‘to do what I liked.’” (King 60).

During our interview, Dr. Wallace told me:

“This is the great question that no one has been able to resolve in 500 years: to what degree did Michelangelo have freedom, and how much was he told to do? I think it did start out [with] the Pope [saying], “Okay, let’s do twelve apostles.” Our early drawings show that Michelangelo was… thinking a much simpler design [with] more geometry and a few figures… Once he got started, he became more ambitious, and this is… typical of Michelangelo. Once he starts and reconciles himself to a project, he tends to increase the ambition. And so at what point did the design become much more complicated? We don’t know exactly… I think… Michelangelo comes to [the pope] and says, “I think we can do something more spectacular,” and the pope’s going to say, “Yes, go ahead, do it.” I don’t think Michelangelo was being told what to do.”

All evidence seems to point to Michelangelo having the freedom to create the design he wanted. He wanted to explore the expressive divinity of the human form. He completely transformed the pope’s initial desire for twelve apostles into “[o]ne of the largest assemblies of images ever planned… [which] would ultimately involve more than 150 separate pictorial units and include more than three hundred individual figures.” (King 65).

What changes did Michelangelo make? What were his ambitious ideas for the Sistine Chapel? According to King, “[T]he apostles were replaced… by seven prophets from the Old Testament and five sibyls from Pagan mythology. Above these figures, in the rectangular panels running along the spine of the vault, would be nine episodes from the Book of Genesis. The spandrels and lunettes, meanwhile, would feature portraits of the ancestors of Christ — a rather uncommon subject — and the pendentives four more scenes from the Old Testament” (King 64).

I asked Dr. Wallace, “Why did Michelangelo make these changes? For instance, why did he include the five sibyls from pagan mythology in a Christian Chapel?”

Dr. Wallace responded:

“The Sistine is… not just nine stories of Genesis… It’s the whole cornucopia of creation. It’s everything. It’s not a separation between Christianity and paganism. It’s God’s creation [, and] he created pagan antiquity before he created Christianity… He created the world. The sibyls are the counterpart to the prophets: they are the pagan world before Christianity came. So in the same way we have pagan sibyls [on the Sistine], we also have Jewish stories on the Sistine. The Sistine is not Christian, Jewish, [or] pagan, it’s all of creation.”

Pauline Chapel: The Conversion of Saul and The Crucifixion of St. Peter - Michelangelo Buonarroti (1545; 1550)

THE CONVERSION OF SAUL:


THE CRUCIFIXION OF ST. PETER:

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FULL VIEW - PAULINE CHAPEL - VIRTUAL TOUR: https://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle...ina_en.htm
FULL VIEW - THE CONVERSION OF SAUL - LARGE: https://media.patronsvaticanmuseums.org...9dc6f.jpeg
FULL VIEW - THE CONVERSION OF SAUL - VERY LARGE: https://media.patronsvaticanmuseums.org...9dc6f.jpeg
DETAIL - THE CONVERSION OF SAUL: https://media.patronsvaticanmuseums.org...9dc6f.jpeg
DETAIL - THE CONVERSION OF SAUL: https://media.patronsvaticanmuseums.org...9dc6f.jpeg
FULL VIEW - THE CRUCIFIXION OF ST. PETER - VERY LARGE: https://media.patronsvaticanmuseums.org...9dc6f.jpeg
DETAIL - THE CRUCIFIXION OF ST. PETER: https://media.patronsvaticanmuseums.org...9dc6f.jpeg
DETAIL - THE CRUCIFIXION OF ST. PETER: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/...%2C_03.jpg
DETAIL - THE CRUCIFIXION OF ST. PETER: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/...%2C_07.jpg
DETAIL - THE CRUCIFIXION OF ST. PETER: https://media.patronsvaticanmuseums.org...9dc6f.jpeg
DETAIL - THE CRUCIFIXION OF ST. PETER: https://media.patronsvaticanmuseums.org...9dc6f.jpeg
IMAGE FOR SCALE - Pauline Chapel, Vatican City, Italy: https://www.kofc.org/assets/images/down...chapel.jpg
IMAGE FOR SCALE - Pauline Chapel, Vatican City, Italy: https://catholicphilly.com/media-files/...RTHDAY.jpg
IMAGE FOR SCALE - Pauline Chapel, Vatican City, Italy: https://www.acistampa.com/image/2cp_149....jpg?w=810

Medici Chapel: The Sagrestia Nuova - Michelangelo Buonarroti (1555) [Sculpture and Architecture]

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MAIN FRONT VIEW - Tomb of Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici with Night and Day: https://www.viabizzuno.com/img/public/2...ole_52.jpg
MAIN FRONT VIEW - DETAIL - Tomb of Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici with Night and Day: https://www.viabizzuno.com/img/public/2...ole_56.jpg
GIULIANO DI LORENZO DE' MEDICI - VERY LARGE: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jorge-11/...otostream/
NIGHT - VERY LARGE: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jorge-11/...otostream/
NIGHT - DETAIL: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jorge-11/48169932291/
DAY - VERY LARGE: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jorge-11/...otostream/
DAY - DETAIL: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jorge-11/...otostream/
NIGHT AND DAY - DETAIL: https://www.viabizzuno.com/img/public/2...ole_58.jpg
MAIN VIEW - Tomb of Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici with Dusk and Dawn & Surrounding Architecture: https://1890056479.rsc.cdn77.org/rivist...orenzo.JPG
MAIN FRONT VIEW - VERY LARGE - Tomb of Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici with Dusk and Dawn: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jorge-11/...otostream/
VIEW - VERY LARGE - Tomb of Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici with Dusk and Dawn: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/...renz-1.jpg
LORENZO DI PIERO DE' MEDICI - VERY LARGE: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jorge-11/...otostream/
LORENZO DI PIERO DE' MEDICI - LOW ANGLE: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jorge-11/...otostream/
DUSK - VERY LARGE: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jorge-11/48170001352/
DAWN - VERY LARGE: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jorge-11/...otostream/
DAWN - VERY LARGE - ALTERNATE ANGLE: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jorge-11/...otostream/
DAWN - DETAIL: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jorge-11/48169999607/
DAWN - DETAIL: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jorge-11/...otostream/
DAWN - DETAIL: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jorge-11/...otostream/
OVERHEAD VIEW: https://www.viabizzuno.com/img/public/2...ole_53.jpg
MAIN VIEW - Tomb - Medici Madonna, San Cosma and San Domano: https://1890056479.rsc.cdn77.org/rivist...nifici.JPG
MEDICI MADONNA: https://1890056479.rsc.cdn77.org/rivist...ambino.JPG
SAN COSMA: https://1890056479.rsc.cdn77.org/rivist...-cosma.JPG
SAN DOMANO: https://1890056479.rsc.cdn77.org/rivist...amiano.JPG
FULL VIEW - LARGE - CEILING AND UPPER WALLS: https://www.viabizzuno.com/img/public/2...ole_54.jpg
FULL VIEW - LARGE - CEILING VIEW FROM THE FLOOR: https://www.francozampetti.com/f/sagres...&pid=1
360 DEGREE PANORAMIC VIEW: https://www.360cities.net/image/09-medi...ht-and-day
VIDEO TOUR - VERY HIGH QUALITY - Sagrestia Nuova @ 1:55: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgaqqgwgaAs
VIDEO - WALKING TOUR - Sagrestia Nuova @ 22:50: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNxm_ztcEV4
IMAGE FOR SCALE - Medici Chapel, Sagrestia Nuova, Florence, Italy: https://www.barnum-review.com/wp-conten...24x681.jpg
IMAGE FOR SCALE - Medici Chapel, Sagrestia Nuova, Florence, Italy: https://www.barnum-review.com/wp-conten...24x681.jpg

Notes for future analysis:

(Even for an incomplete set of “notes” the following needs editing. It was very haphazardly written, just notes taken at various times when I was learning more about and analyzing the work. Features some mistakes and some notes also repeat other notes, due to this being multiple parts of separate notes just thrown together. In other words, I am just throwing this on here for now and will edit and improve these “notes” sooner or later. Eventually the idea would also be a more “professionally written” analysis, hence “notes for future analysis”.)

Two Dukes as main figures in the work, died unexpectedly, causing a crises in the Medici family that their lineage could end and that perhaps the ego's and extravagance were being punished by God.

Vasari, referring to classical architecture vs the visionary Medici Chapel: "broke the bonds and chains that had previously confined them to the creation of traditional forms"

Michelangelo moves beyond that into a more "subjective" expression with architecture, no longer mimicking or reviving the ancient or classical past.

Everything in the room is in "tension" or opposition of elements, though at the same time sublimated.

Technically the work is unfinished, or at least we think it is (it’s not entirely clear, because we don’t know for sure if Michelangelo didn’t just change his plans). Based on research, it likely would’ve featured an additional much larger double tomb (part of which is the Medici Madonna) for the more prominent Medici(s) that had passed, with an additional, more elaborate sculpture and a Resurrection painting (by Michelangelo) in half-circle above. And the other two tombs may have featured the fascinating idea of two additional sculptures, “river gods” lying directly on the floor. None of the tomb’s sculptures have official bases/pedestals. They are lying “directly” on their surfaces, on the sarcophogi. The idea seems to have been to fuse painting, architecture and sculpture into one – a bit like The Sistine Chapel did all suggested “through” painting, only here each would be infact its own actual art form (painting is actual painting, the sculpture is actual sculpture, the architecture real architecture, none fictive)

The work expresses a remarkable and unique state of resignation, unanimity (despite Mannerist, dense, means and technicalities in the sculpture and surrounding lower rung of architecture), reflecting the fall or reconsideration of the Medici’s prior bravado and extravagance; feelings that God may be punishing the family for being too ego-tistical, extravagant and and that their bloodline is being threatened by these unexpected deaths.

Resignation, inwardness, purgatory, abstraction, ambiguity among all the figures and (incredibly) the architecture too (a new form of “Mannerist” architecture, featuring remarkable and singular ideas that would also be developed and populate the Laurentian Library vestibule)

Death, increasing illumination, buoyancy, resurrection is being expressed by the stages of the ascending levels of architecture (with counterpoints to the protagonists being expressed in the sculptures, where the surrounding architecture seems to conceptualize their fate from God and their thought processes in confronting this upon death).

Lowest level of architecture (walls, doors, windows, pillars, etc) is all an expression of Purgatory, the consideration of one’s state before expunging sin and reaching Heaven. As the architecture rises, so does its ascendance towards increasing heavenly considerations. This is also supported by how Michelangelo played with light, with the room and architecture and sculpture being at its darkest in the lowest echelon, and then carefully considered (not overdone) light entering in with real windows as we rise and then the “floating” dome at the point of the vaulted ceiling. The density of the lowest level features an incredibly unique density of ideas, false windows, false doors, pillars inside frames, surrounded by larger pillars as confounding structures that aren’t (technically) supporting another structure that would call for this (like another ceiling). These confounding densities of “unnecessary” architectural details are abstractions of thought and consideration in the realm of Purgatory before we/the protagonists advance and take into account the next stage. The frames and perimeters of the architecture quite literally suggest the movement and increasing density of thought, ascending through the symmetry and suggested trajectory of the architectural composition as it flows more complicatedly and densely to an increasing freedom and “floating” expression (one will literally “feel” this if one follows each line/frame and direction of the architecture’s composition from the bottom up). These abstract concepts are suggested by how Michelangelo composed the progression of ideas (like a trajectory of consciousness) where (for instance) the “half-circles” that populate the “windows” of the lower section, open up in “ecstatic” or “buoyant” half circles above them, the windows become real windows (from false ones below that are "walled-off", part of Purgatory), and the tops of these are developed into triangular tops from half-circular ones, with the space increasing, opening up into larger embrasive shapes, and the density decreasing. At the top the circles become complete, the triangles supporting them ecstatic and elastic. Also, the lower rung advances from an overwhelm of white (with densely packed darker pillars hemmed in with such) into an increased reliance on the darker facades giving the white more simplicity and space to shape and open up the space (these figures are, again, as if “trajectories of thought” or “abstract concept” being “envisioned, considered”, an extremely unique architectural expression from Michelangelo).

(^^^ Note: the above paragraph is quickly and haphazardly written from various notes I took and will be edited to include more descriptive, precise architectural terms to describe better what is meant)

The two (central, opposite wall) Dukes are not of their likeness. Michelangelo took great creative liberties on their representation, preferring (as is generally the case with him) to impose his own artistic considerations and tendencies above the restrictions of reality or strict representation so that he can symbolically express ideas rather than an explicit picture of exact persons.

In ancient times the day was broken up into four parts. 2 "active" times of day = Day/Night. 2 "passive" times of day = Dawn/Dusk

Night: Crescent moon and star on headband. Satyr mask, symbol of fallacy "a curtain of darkness falls which masks us all" (Michelangelo poem). Poppies (opium) narcotic of sleep. Lunar glow from extra polish of figure.

Figures compliment and contrast each other, dominated by relaying, trading tension/inverse or comparable movements that seem to fuse and react to each other. Day is turning inward (bodily), Night is open (bodily), though Day's head is rising (like a sun). Night's head is bowing down into its own shadow (darkness).

Juliano: Baton indicates he is a military figure/leader (to impart orders unto soldiers). Baton and armour indicates a great military figure. Motif on chest, grotesque face, somewhat like a rodent. Mouse is a symbol of death in context of this figure. Petrarch (a source of inspiration of Michelangelo's work here and his next favorite poet after Dante) wrote a poem called "triumph of time": "fame can conquer death but ultimately time will conquer fame". Metaphor for time is a mouse who is described as nibbling away at a building eventually bringing it down.

Niches to immediate left/right were to include figures of "Grieving Earth" and "Rejoicing Heaven".

Novel idea of sculptures without pedestals/stands. The allegorical sculptures of the Duke’s tombs are basically laying directly on the architecture, upon the sarcophogi. Originally also wanted sculpted “River Gods” occupying floor space beneath the sarcophogi of each of the Duke’s tombs.

Duke’s face visitor as he/she enters, intentionally left ambiguous as to whether really “looking at” us or not, pitting the viewer in an immediate position to consider these sculptures. Is also looking at the Medici Madonna across the room, and not at the altar on the other side of the room.

Duke 1: represented allegorically, not actual likeness. Long neck, turned, more “alert” representing “the active life”. Open shirt shows lots of “potential” or “summoning” action by the tension and turning movement and immense (unleashed) strength/physical power in the torso and chest. Michelangelo invents an armor that is practically a substitute for skin and features death symbol insignia.

Duke 2 “Lorenzo”: Pensive, contemplating. Pronated arm symbol of death. Left elbow rests on cash box with animal face. Hand on chin, holding cloth. Blank eyes looking at Madonna but also into “eternity”.

Lower allegorical figures are very unique development of sculptural art. We are no longer in the age of the David, or the Pieta. Michelangelo has shaped them into meditations on time: day/night and dawn/dusk … He is reliant (mostly) on body language and metaphor and the degrees of finish/polish (or lack thereof).

Night: feminine and masculine, very muscular, immense tension and contortion. Body is bent into impossible pose and contortion (Michelangelo is intentionally discarding his earlier physical realism for meaning, metaphor). Head down, curling inward as with the top half of the body ... musculature extremely tight as if moving, turning inward "upon itself", body is contorting into an inward momentum that seems to forgo (leave behind, "replace") "itself" (as if the upper body is soon going to blanket the lower body), further expressing "night" overtaking day (and probably the idea of death/time overtaking life). The body is simultaneously bulging with intensity and "spent". Poised ambiguously between sleep and wakefulness. Illustrious shine, radiance that suggests an imposed (through sculpture alone!) “moon light”. Surrounding her are symbols that represent darkness, death (the owl, the hollow mask upon a mask upon a mask).

Day: Immense, high-tension, musculature, impossible body contortion and pose. His face is among Michelangelo’s invention of the “non-finito” in art. His head seems to rise above his body/right shoulder as a visual metaphor of the sun rising above hills/the horizon, the indeterminancy and ambiguity of Time. Where “non-finito” it seems to express the gradation and changing of light across the different parts of its surface (in other words, Michelangelo is using the “non-finito” to express the qualities of light on the sculpture through the physical sculpture alone, a first in the history of art; before this was used the light of the space solely and the change of position from which one looks at the sculpture – such as his David – but now this change/passage of time is also being expressed in the very stone itself, with no change in position of the viewer or difference in lighting of the room necessary to see it). The convolution and musculature and how the body is turning “over” (“revolving” into the direction of the wall) – while the “sun” of the head rises and peaks outward into the chapel – is all counterpointing among its own inter-related parts (and against/in relation to the whole chapel itself) to express the motion of time (turning clockwise, like the “revolving” body and its turning/twisting parts) as the day opens up, as time flows forward, as light opens up and the prior darkness recedes across its surface (again, further developed by the whole composition and lighting trajectory of the chapel; all an expression of resurrection, Purgatory, the passage of time, of life and death).

Dawn: Precariously perched as if about to fall off the sarcophogi. Lifitng of the cloth veil suggest that the cloak of darkness is being removed. Vacant eyes and open but equally vacant mouth leave us suspended between silence (and vision) and speech, metaphor for suspension between light and dark of dawn, also perhaps “eternity”.

Dusk: Similarly “non-finito” especially the head, contrast with polish of much of the chest, torso, legs. Parts of the body (feet) seem sinking back into the stone, and the other “non-finito” parts further express “dusk”. The body position, sunken and barely awake, further expresses the ambiguity of gradual decline, twilight.

MEDICI MADONNA: Add analysis of additional figures... etc

Unique arrangement: the altar is placed so that the priest would stand behind it, standing in a small space looking out into the larger space ... with the statues facing away from him looking to the Madonna and Child (Medici Madonna), with the priest facing that way, paralleling them

Ground level: 8 doors, only 1 was functional (at the time). Each closed door has moulding surrounding it, including the bottom, increasing the sense of its falseness. Above all doors and surrounding the space are niches, traditionally only for sculptures to be presented inside. Exposing the niche AS the sculpture, sculpture and architecture as one?

There are 8 doors around the floor of the chapel. 4 of them are false doors (don’t open/close), purely decorative (part of Purgatory). 8 the numerological representation of resurrection, infinity.

Due to the architecture and how Michelangelo placed the windows, the light is very subtly controlled to give one the sense that we are “among the dead” at and near the floor of the chapel, where (without additional, artificial lighting) it is rather dim-lit, adding foreboding and chiarascuro to the sculptures and architecture, while the light increases gradually as one ascends towards the ceiling.

The circular dome above has a very light, weightless buoyancy to it. Its grand but “quiet” circular design (referencing the pantheon), with adjacent circular designs.

Contrary to the “unattractiveness” of the female figures that may seem “grotesque” or the breasts too “bulbous” to most heterosexual men today, this is more a modern phenomenon than one that would've seemed out of place in Michelangelo's time. While Michelangelo took these expressive preoccupations farther than probably any artist of his time, evidence from contemporary critics is that these females were praised especially because of their "masculine" qualities. Regardless of how “incorrect” it may seem to modern eyes, in Michelangelo’s time this was considered a form of praise (to make them more masculine, perhaps a symbol of their lessened association from “original sin”, a symbol of strength, lack of weakness -- moral and physical). One must also observe and remember that Michelangelo’s men were also physically exaggerated (as was common in, particularly the Mannerist and Baroque periods -- both male and female) and just as individualized in their expression and symbolism (not to mention that earlier examples prove he was completely capable of very feminine and beautiful women by today's standards. For instance, in sculpture the Pieta and his various Madonnas; for painting his stunning early yet incomplete, Manchester Madonna: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/pain...er-madonna ... or the slim unfinished female figures in his incomplete Entombment: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/...angelo.jpg )

Precursor/invention of a uniquely Mannerist sculpture and architecture and an extraordinary expression in art history in that, through essentially Mannerist (exaggerated, dense, convoluted) means, Michelangelo manages to yet express abstract, ineffable, resigned, esoteric concepts -- abstract conceptual art -- centuries before Modern art.


The Deposition - Michelangelo Buonarroti (1555) [Sculpture] [aka, "Bandini Pietà" or "The Lamentation over the Dead Christ"]

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MAIN VIEW: https://www.flickr.com/photos/profzucke...otostream/
ANGLED VIEW - VIEWER'S RIGHT: https://www.flickr.com/photos/profzucke...otostream/
ANGLED VIEW - VIEWER'S LEFT: https://www.flickr.com/photos/profzucker/50515296542
ANGLED VIEW - VIEWER'S LEFT: https://www.flickr.com/photos/profzucke...otostream/
ANGLED VIEW - BACK SIDE - VIEWER'S LEFT: https://www.flickr.com/photos/profzucke...otostream/
DETAIL - VIEWER'S LEFT: https://www.flickr.com/photos/profzucke...otostream/
IMAGE FOR SCALE - Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Florence, Italy: https://www.theflorentine.net/wp-conten...4886-1.jpg

Laurentian Library - Michelangelo Buonarroti (Begun 1525, completed posthumously, 1571; Tribune of Elci rotunda added by Pasquale Poccianti in 1841) [Architecture]

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VESTIBULE WALL - DETAILS / PILLARS: https://www.flickr.com/photos/profzucke...otostream/
VESTIBULE WALLS - WINDOWS / BLIND WINDOWS: https://buffaloah.com/a/virtual/italy/f...rLIB_3.jpg
VESTIBULE WALL: https://www.flickr.com/photos/profzucke...otostream/
VESTIBULE CORNER - UPWARD VIEW: https://www.flickr.com/photos/profzucke...otostream/
VESTIBULE CORNER - BRACKETS: https://www.flickr.com/photos/profzucke...otostream/
VESTIBULE WALL - "HANGING" BRACKETS: https://www.flickr.com/photos/profzucke...otostream/
VESTIBULE STAIRCASE - OVERHEAD VIEW: http://www.museumsinflorence.com/foto/b...stears.jpg
VESTIBULE STAIRCASE & WALL - SIDE VIEW: http://www.museumsinflorence.com/foto/b...scale1.jpg
VESTIBULE STAIRCASE & READING ROOM ENTRANCE - SIDE VIEW: https://buffaloah.com/a/virtual/italy/f...rLIB_2.jpg
VESTIBULE STAIRCASE & READING ROOM ENTRANCE - SIDE VIEW: https://www.flickr.com/photos/profzucke...otostream/
VESTIBULE TO READING ROOM - ENTRANCE: https://www.flickr.com/photos/profzucke...otostream/
VESTIBULE TO READING ROOM - ENTRANCE: https://www.flickr.com/photos/profzucke...otostream/
READING ROOM: https://www.flickr.com/photos/profzucke...otostream/
READING ROOM: https://www.flickr.com/photos/profzucke...otostream/
READING ROOM - CEILING: https://www.flickr.com/photos/profzucke...otostream/
READING ROOM - STAIN GLASS: https://www.flickr.com/photos/profzucke...otostream/
IMAGE GALLERY: https://buffaloah.com/a/virtual/italy/f...o/lib.html
IMAGE FOR SCALE - Laurentian Library, Florence, Italy: https://exurbe.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/4.jpg

St. Peter's Basilica - Principal Architects: Donato Bramante (1503 - 1514); Michelangelo Buonarroti (1546 - 1564); Carlo Maderno (1603 - 1629); Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1629 - 1676) (Building completed and opened 1626; various additions thereafter) [Architecture]

Central External View:

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External View - St. Peter's Square and Colonnade:

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Central External View - Facade and Obelisk:

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Interior - Central Nave:

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Interior - Altar and Dome:

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Interior - Dome and Altar:

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Interior - South (Left) Transept:

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Interior - North (Right) Transept:

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Interior - Apse and Chair of St. Peter:


360 DEGREE PANORAMIC VIEW - CENTRAL POINT OF ST. PETER'S: https://www.360cities.net/image/st-pete...-vatican-3
360 DEGREE PANORAMIC VIEW - BALCONY OF ST. PETER'S DOME: https://www.360cities.net/image/balcony...city-italy
VIRTUAL TOUR: https://www.vatican.va/various/basilich...ex-en.html
VIDEO - WALKING TOUR - VERY HIGH QUALITY: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B54PR2kvWE
VIDEO - EXTENDED GRAND TOUR - VERY HIGH QUALITY: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvjtzKUaq-s
FLOORPLAN, HISTORICAL INFO AND INSIGHTS: http://stpetersbasilica.info/floorplan.htm
HISTORICAL INFO, INSIGHTS AND PHOTOS: http://www.digital-images.net/Gallery/S...s_ext.html
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Best Classical
Best Films
Best Paintings

[RoundTheBend]

Sorry to interrupt the standard programming... just read the OP and wanted to say that Christ's Entry into Brussels in 1889 is easily top 3 paintings at the Getty. Good stuff.

[AfterHours]

[RoundTheBend]

double post

[RoundTheBend]

[Applerill]

Why isn’t there any MS Paint representation?

[RoundTheBend]

[AfterHours]

[AfterHours]

[AfterHours]

Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519)

Best Works:
7.0/10: The Annunciation (circa 1475)
7.6/10: Virgin of the Rocks (circa 1483-1486) [Paris/Louvre Version]
8.9/10: The Last Supper (1497)
7.6/10: Mona Lisa (1505)

The Annunciation - Leonardo da Vinci (circa 1475)

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FULL VIEW - LARGE: https://www.analisidellopera.it/wp-cont...azione.jpg
FULL VIEW - HIGHEST QUALITY - ZOOM FUNCTION: https://www.haltadefinizione.com/visual...o-da-vinci
VIDEO - ALTERNATE, ANAMORPHIC PERSPECTIVE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFL_2L634Zw
IMAGE - UFFIZI GALLERY, ITALY: https://c8.alamy.com/comp/M902F0/floren...M902F0.jpg

Virgin of the Rocks - Leonardo da Vinci (circa 1483-1486) [Paris/Louvre Version]

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FULL VIEW - VERY LARGE: https://gallerix.org/storeroom/991555443/N/1612438096/
IMAGE - Louvre: https://media.cntraveller.in/wp-content...inci-1.jpg
IMAGE - Louvre: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EHnacrbU4AE0TVl.jpg

The Last Supper - Leonardo da Vinci (1497)

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FULL VIEW - VERY LARGE: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/...inci_5.jpg
FULL VIEW - VERY LARGE - ZOOM FUNCTION: https://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/last...ography/2/
FULL VIEW - HIGHEST QUALITY - ZOOM FUNCTION: https://www.haltadefinizione.com/visual...da-vinci-1
GIAMPIETRINO'S REPRODUCTION - FULL VIEW - VERY LARGE - HIGHEST QUALITY - ZOOM FUNCTION (to help illustrate the details, difficult to see in Da Vinci's deteriorated original): https://artsandculture.google.com/asset...Swj5Pus85w
TONGERLO OIL COPY: https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/cont...%80%99.jpg
TONGERLO OIL COPY - DETAIL: https://www.artdependence.com/media/803...ngerlo.jpg
IMAGE FOR SCALE - SANTA MARIA DELLE GRAZIE, MILAN, ITALY: https://youth-time.eu/wp-content/upload...1a3_XL.jpg
IMAGE FOR SCALE - SANTA MARIA DELLE GRAZIE, MILAN, ITALY: https://kbotkin.files.wordpress.com/201...g_9829.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ECB-PKeWsAA...name=large
https://www.evenopstap.be/wp-content/up...1181_3.jpg
http://yab.be/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/IMG_9937.jpg

Earlier pic: https://e.snmc.io/i/fullres/w/a746c4be2...01/7950706

INCOMPLETE ANALYSIS - NOTES/OUTLINE/ROUGH DRAFT:

-Leonardo Da Vinci's The Last Supper is a depiction of the final meal that, in the Gospel accounts, Jesus shared with his apostles in Jerusalem before his crucifixion. Leonardo depicts the moment when Jesus declares:

"Verily I say unto you, that one from among you shall betray me." And struck by a profound consternation, each one of them asked him, ‘Lord, is it I?’ He replied: "He who has shared this meal with me, shall betray me. The Son of man is leaving; as it has been written of him. But, woe betides he who has betrayed the Son of man! That man would wish he had never been born." (Matthew 26; 20-22)

Mona Lisa - Leonardo da Vinci (1505)

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-The Mona Lisa has riddled and fascinated viewers across the centuries, becoming one of the most well-known works of art in history.
-The portrait is that of Lisa Gherardini, finally confirmed in 2005 with what appears to be solid evidence (after centuries of speculation).
-With this work, Da Vinci completely upended conventional portraiture, in technique and form, as well as the emotional, intellectual and psychological depths of his vision.
-Instead of painting the model in profile, as was the custom, Lisa Gherardini is depicted in the act (or at the end of the act), of turning towards the painter to face him. Da Vinci is essentially reproducing the moment of his visionary change to the genre. He depicts her as if she is caught slightly off guard, a knowing gesture from both the painter and the sitter of the change he has introduced (he, knowing of its change relative to art and the ensuing purpose he has for doing it; she, of the unexpectedness of his request to turn towards him instead of sitting in profile). This is one of many signs of a dense enigma throughout the painting.
-Hans Memling, among some others, had indeed painted some earlier portraits from similar positions, turning the model away from profile, but they're only alike superficially. Though a great artist in his own right, Memling was not the genius Da Vinci was (was anyone?), and his novel portraits were not of nearly the same purpose and ambitious, visionary scope as Da Vinci has accomplished with the Mona Lisa (and it is probable that Da Vinci was unaware of Memling's work). Regardless, Da Vinci's masterpiece was certainly revolutionary, at the very least, to the traditional form of Italian portraits (but really, well beyond that). With the Mona Lisa, Da Vinci far transcended even his own revolutionary portrait of just over a decade earlier, Lady with an Ermine, which was perhaps the first to make a concerted effort at unveiling the psychological depths of its model.
-Da Vinci's deeper purpose in turning and facing Lisa Gherardini is not just a novel positional change-up, but a visionary unveiling and unification of both her state of mind, and his, the breadth, sublimation and beckoning enigma of which could not have been achieved in profile. As she has turned towards Da Vinci, each of them are suddenly revealed in a dense, mystical fusion of emotions, visions and subliminal messages intellectual and psychological, earthly and metaphysical, science and spiritual.
-Mona Lisa exhibits Da Vinci’s sfumato technique fully developed, inimitable and without peer. The painstaking techniques applied aligns the figure and background in a miraculous and smooth visual poetry of shadow and light, of gentle gradations of form and depth, of indefinite borders, that captures and reveals the model’s spiritual essence, bringing her physique into a breathtaking vision of unusual presence and the environment into poetic ode or rumination, bordering on the surreal. Her form seems to exist in a separate “dimension” from the environment she is painted in, while also remaining “in” it or specially connected to it. In her face, body and clothing, she is depicted in a smooth, effortless, miraculous beauty of tone and grace as if pictorially elevating from the canvas. The technique evokes characteristics and values that seem infinite and indefinable, evoking the metaphysical, an eternal mystery, an eternal inner state of being. Applying his own invention of aerial perspective, the backdrop fades off into the distance. The rock formations and mountainous ranges, river and landscapes behind her seem to travel off into the ends of the Earth, across an ancient imaginary landacape, into the distant, smoky recesses of thought, enraptured in the ever more metaphysical the further off into the horizon they go. Da Vinci transforms the art of the portrait into the depiction of an entire lifetime, into the infinite.
-Da Vinci had been given permission to dissect human corpses at the Hospital of Santa Nuova in Florence and, later, at hospitals in Milan and Rome. With over 240 detailed drawings and about 13,000 written words, he compiled a massive treatise on the human anatomy over the course of several years. His analyses and drawings were far ahead of their time and, if published, would have undoubtedly made major contributions to medical science. One of his many studies that profoundly fascinated him was the study of the female conception of the fetus and the ensuing cycle from inside the womb to birth. He made one of the very first scientific drawings of a fetus while in utero (drawn from an actual model corpse). In painting the Mona Lisa, the peculiar placement of her hands was another novelty (portraits in profile did not include the hands at all). Slightly rounded and plump and covering her stomach, they are very possibly a “hidden” sign that she was pregnant during the painting. It is very possible she had recently gained knowledge of this fact and is, at the moment, keeping it a secret. It may be that her purpose in commissioning the portrait was to celebrate this (Gherardini would’ve been pregnant with any one of her children during various times when the work is believed to have been painted).
-Da Vinci was intensely interested in the formation of the Earth and he spent long periods of time throughout his life studying rocks, landscapes and nature. He was obsessed with water, which he considered for earth what blood is for the human body, a circulatory system like that of humans as it flows from the mountains to the sea and returns again. He considered a human body connected to the whole natural system of the Earth, as a microcosm of it.

“Leonardo mapped the human body. He charted its skeletal rocks, the course of its “rivers” and its fleshy soil, both within and without. He dissected the world, teasing out its bony rocks, its earthly flesh and its watery veins, both in its surface topography and deep within its core… Always, looking at his drawings of real sites, we can sense his urgent concern with the body of the Earth as a functioning system.”
--KEMP, M. (2006): Leonardo da Vinci: Experience, Experiment, and Design.

-The landscape, mountains, rock formations and water-ways behind Lisa Gherardini, from the left side to the upper right side and back again, exhibit this cyclically. This backdrop appears to extend from the flowing overhang from the shoulder of her dress, and the formations of rock seem to form parallels with the formations and sleeves of her clothing and sculpture. This environment behind her is also metaphorically connected to her mysterious smile. The geometric curvature of the backdrop, from the left-to-right, ascends upwards unnaturally, paralleling the geometric curvature of the uneven smile on her face in the foreground. It seems very possible that between her mysterious smile and the environment are allusions to the secret of her pregnancy. It seems likely that the emotion and mystical beauty with which they are depicted reflect Da Vinci’s psychological immersion, awe and intense scientific and emotional investment in these phenomena, and his correlation between them: Mother Earth, her birth, circulatory system and life cycle; Mona Lisa, Earth’s microcosm, her pregnancy, circulatory system and life cycle.
-Da Vinci was an illegitimate child. In his time, this meant that he was essentially damned to a life of poverty, or at best the attainment of the lower middle class. So he had to make his own way in life, against all odds, a life turned against him from birth. He harbored a tremendous love and sympathy for his poor, unheralded mother who gave birth to him out of wedlock. Lisa Gherardini too, was middle class (in another novelty, portraits of the middle class were very unusual). Even more revealingly, he depicts her, a married woman, without her wedding ring (like his mother). (NOTE: Her depiction as a virtuous woman and faithful wife could have been other reasons for this placement and ring-less depiction of her hands. But I believe Da Vinci, as always, had deeper, more personal, profound and meaningful aspirations, especially those which would evoke his studies, obsessions and preoccupations, symmetrically tying them all together). Her pose also forms a triangle, and it is likely that he intentionally depicted and revealed her in that pose to suggest the holy trinity and a divine relationship or metaphorical correlation with The Virgin Mary, traditionally in the same position when holding Christ. Instead of holding “Christ” in her arms, she is “holding” her child in her stomach, her hands over it. It seems likely that his depiction of the Mona Lisa is also a deep-seated, nostalgic reflection of his mother; he towards his mother and his mother towards him; he towards The Virgin Mary, God and the divine, and The Virgin Mary, God and the divine towards him.
-It has long been widely speculated that Da Vinci was homosexual. One proposed indication of this in his art is that he had a tendency to assign feminine qualities and features to male figures, giving them an androgynous appearance (this was not necessarily uncommon in the Renaissance, so is far from conclusive). The Mona Lisa is certainly no exception and represents the most perplexing, exact balance between male and female he ever depicted. The painting may be a veiled disclosure of himself as homosexual, and perhaps a yearning for God to accept him as such. Particularly around the eyes, sides of the forehead and her nose area, Da Vinci has carefully and subtly changed and shadowed the features, and certainly not to make her look more feminine or beautiful! Portraits were supposed to flatter their models and Da Vinci, through his unparalleled knowledge of the human anatomy and his breathtaking sfumato technique, could have accomplished this well beyond that of anyone else in the period and probably beyond that of anyone in the history of art (see his earlier figures to leave behind all doubt). But instead he seems to have carefully painted her to appear both masculine and feminine, simultaneously, indecisively. It is possible the depiction incorporates that of Andrea Salai, who has been viewed as the model for Da Vinci's earlier, androgynous depiction of St. John the Baptist. Salai was Da Vinci's longtime student, servant, and has been speculated to have been his lover. Regardless of the truth or not of Da Vinci's speculated homosexuality, the painting nonetheless presents an extremely enigmatic portrait in terms of features, beauty, gender and psychology. A small part of its current enigma of visual characteristics may also be attributed to wear and tear of the work, where some parts have lost their original definition (such as the eyebrows), but even dismissing these there is no doubt we are looking into a radiating enigma with even scans and imaging of the work's layers proving that it underwent a long, subtle and careful development of changes from its initial likeness.
-Intensely fascinated by mirrors, Mona Lisa becomes Da Vinci's mirror, a reverberating series of merges and reflections, each of their selves reflecting off of each other from artist to model, model to artist, an infinite metamorphosis, as streams-of-conscious.

“The air is filled with endless images of the objects distributed in it; and all are represented in all, and all in one, and all in each, whence it happens that if two mirrors are placed in such a manner as to face each other exactly, the first will be reflected in the second and the second in the first. The first being reflected in the second takes to it the image of itself with all the images represented in it, among which is the image of the second mirror, and so, image within image, they go on to infinity in such a manner as that each mirror has within it a mirror, each smaller than the last and one inside the other. Thus, by this example, it is clearly proved that every object sends its image to every spot whence the object itself can be seen; and the converse: That the same object may receive in itself all the images of the objects that are in front of it.”
--Leonardo Da Vinci

-True to Da Vinci's studies and fascination with mathematics and geometry, as well as the divine symmetry of all his masterpieces, the Mona Lisa is drawn according to golden ratios. The shape of the painting itself, is a golden rectangle, encapsulating her. Her face is drawn according to a golden rectangle, and if one draws again from the line separating her eyes, it can be seen that this was done according to another golden rectangle. One can find further golden rectangles making up her body (the distance between her face and hands, for example). Furthermore, Da Vinci’s extensive use of sacred geometry can be seen if one studies the work closely enough. I am not sure if I agree with every single aspect presented in the following video; nonetheless, the main point is well illustrated: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rgq9SsqdyQA

-Fundamentally, the work seems to be a visual poem or hymn to and in praise of the metaphorical Beloved Lady, a mystical, enigmatic ideal of women that was a key inspiration to the Renaissance depictions and through the works of poets like Dante or Petrarch that Da Vinci surely would've known from his time, through his own studies and library of literature and poetry. She is always out of reach. She is as much divine as human; real but abstracted into an inaccessible and elusive ideal.
-It is a final ode and essay on optics, between visions through science and visions by the divine, where everything one sees might at first seem purely physical or straight-forward, but all is backed or sourced by something more, something indefinable except to those that can know it and experience it. Something present but beyond seeing clearly because the divine cannot be seen clearly.

"In her countenance appear such things as manifest a part of the joy of paradise. I mean in her eyes and sweet smile, for here love draws them as to himself. They overwhelm our intellect as a ray of sunlight does weak vision. And since I cannot fix my sight on them, I am content to say but little of them."

"Since in the face the soul operates principally in these two places; that is, in the eyes and in the mouth. It dawns these most of all and directs its full attention to creating beauty there. It is in these two places that I maintain these delights appear in her eyes and in her sweet smile. These two places may be called, by way of a charming metaphor, the balconies of The Lady, who dwells in the edifice of the body, which is to say the soul. Because here, though in a veiled manner, she often reveals herself."

--Dante, Convivio, The Banquet (NOTE: Translation, structure and punctuation may be imperfect. If you know these Dante quotes and can produce it, please send it to me)

-This staggering work is a moving and awe-inspiring synthesis of the major life-long preoccupations Da Vinci held dear: philosophically, scientifically, artistically, anatomically, sexually, familial, mathematically, psychologically, emotionally, spiritually. And it can be considered a culmination of all his life's work as one sustained vision, constantly altering its character and dimension for the viewer, a perpetual enigmatic metamorphosis or stream-of-consciousness to behold.
-It is no wonder that Da Vinci apparently kept the Mona Lisa for the rest of his life, unwilling to part with it. It is speculated that he continued to refine it into its current state until his death. Perhaps he kept making the subtle changes necessary to achieve such a complex embodiment, his complete vision, his final culminating synthesis. Where one figure can be depicted against a landscape, and the whole of his art, his studies, his philosophy, his life and personality can be unveiled at once without any story or action present; an ultimate in artistry and expression of being.

FULL VIEW - LARGE - HIGH QUALITY: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/...a_Lisa.PNG
FULL VIEW - VERY LARGE: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/...ris%29.jpg
IMAGE - MUSEE DU LOUVRE, PARIS, FRANCE: https://www.wmagazine.com/wp-content/up...p;w=1536px
MONA LISA - DIGITAL RESTORATION: https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3343/358...7319_o.jpg
MONA LISA - DIGITAL RESTORATION - LARGE: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/...onardo.jpg
MONA LISA SUPERIMPOSED WITH ANDREA SALAI'S FACE:
MONA LISA SUPERIMPOSED WITH DA VINCI'S "ST JOHN THE BAPTIST": http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_0yhVo-TfeQg/T...l3john.jpg
COMPARISON - Da Vinci's Mona Lisa to an "exact" copy by his assistant who would have painted his alongside him and copied his every stroke: http://www.experimental-psychology.de/c...2times.jpg
Notice how clearly this shows the changes Da Vinci made to her face. His assistant's version depicts Gherardini in a prettier, much more feminine light, while Da Vinci made her look more masculine -- presumably after the original execution of the work. His assistant, who was a pro, couldn't have been that far off.
COMPARISON - In the 16th century, famous art historian Giorgio Vasari wrote: “Leonardo undertook to execute, for Francesco del Giocondo, the portrait of Mona Lisa, his wife; and after toiling over it for four years, he left it unfinished….” And then Vasari attributed to the portrait some characteristics that don’t quite line up with the famous painting hanging in the Louvre today — “rosy and pearly tints,” eyes that had a “lustre and watery sheen which are always seen in life,” a nose “with its beautiful nostrils, rosy and tender.” Does this sound like it's describing the Mona Lisa we're so familiar with today? Not really? Recently, another painting was discovered that has't yet proven to be an original Da Vinci (but it seems probable), now being called the Isleworth Mona Lisa, which may have been painted earlier than the present day version as a precursor to it. It looks incomplete and better matches the beauty described by Vasari. Seeing the difference between the two further demonstrates the plausibility of the theory that Da Vinci later made several major changes to the work in order to create his true vision. See the comparison here: http://cdn8.openculture.com/wp-content/...-merge.jpg
GOLDEN RATIO: http://media.tumblr.com/c7971955d6d39da...s740mf.jpg
SACRED GEOMETRY, INCLUDING "ISLEWORTH MONA LISA": https://artislimited.files.wordpress.co...ometry.jpg
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