The Wheel and Axle

He wasn’t really a Ninja Turtle.

by on Mar.06, 2017, under Travel & Culture

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When one says “Renaissance Man,” people almost always instantly think of the great Leonardo Da Vinci, which is not surprising given his wide array of disciplines and contributions.

However, there is another. No, not a Jedi. People often forget that Da Vinci’s contemporary Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni – or Michelangelo for short, as that name is quite a handful – was also a master of multiple disciplines.

Yes, we all know he sculpted the Pietà and David. The latter, in particular, was something that surely piqued the curiosity of young boys at the cusp of realizing they’re gay – or was that just me when I was a kid? What, you never wondered why the subject matter had such a small penis? Even art historians and other scholars have discussed the matter. I was just being scholarly. Art and penises are always interesting topics, and even moreso when combined.

I digress.

We also all know how busy Michelangelo got by painting the entire ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Yes, he managed to create such a masterpiece despite having an apparent disdain for painting. Good Lord, what would it have looked like if he actually held painting in high regard and had his heart fully into it? His Sistine Chapel masterpiece is an example of High Renaissance art, “High Renaissance” referring to the period of Italian Renaissance visual art at its most glorious height (and not, as some might assume, art produced at great heights like, say… on a ceiling, ha!).

Despite primarily being known for his sculpture and painting, Michelangelo also dipped his masterful fingers into the realms of architecture and even poetry. He was in fact one of the architects of St. Peter’s Basilica. He also wrote over 300 poems and madrigals.

Could this master be any more prolific?

We as a society across history were surely blessed to have been given this man five-hundred forty-two years ago. What a poorer place the world would be without Michelangelo.

Happy birthday, Michelangelo!

06 March 1475 – 18 February 1564

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