M9 Videos Review

            I chose to watch The Drawings of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance because both Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci played an important role during the Renaissance, and I was interested in learning more about their ideas, sculptures and drawings.

            From the video, The Drawings of Michelangelo I learned that the examination of his world reveals emphasis on the solar plexus of human figures. He contemplated his death, and created his crucifixion drawings, exploring his conflicts feelings of hope and dread.

            From the video, Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance

I learned how technical problems and philosophical considerations are intertwined in Leonardo’s mind and work. I also learn how Leonardo spends many hours, sometimes days, thinking about his painting without picking up a brush. To him, proportion and balance must flow from the artist’s knowledge of his subject. He states, “Beauty and harmony are of the divine nature.”

            The videos related to the readings in the text because it talked about their drawings and how they played a major role during the Renaissance period. For example, in The Drawings of Michelangelo and the readings, both talked about he was called by the Medici pope to design the Medici family church of San Lorenzo, though it became a funerary chapel and family tomb. However, many of his sculptures remain and are compared to the actual pieces. In Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance and the readings, both states how he indulges in the “exploration of the true,” also they talked about his many other talents such as inventions, musician, military engineer, court painter and a entertainer. Both films were interesting and added depth to my understanding of who they were and how they contributed to the Renaissance.