The most famous punch of the Renaissance

 

Designed by Johannes Stradanus "Lorenzo de’ Medici in the Sculpture Garden," 1571 Tapestry, 425 x 455 cm (167 5/16 x 179 1/8 in.) Museo Nazionnale di San Marco, Pisa Soprintendenza alle Gallerie, Florence

Designed by Johannes Stradanus
“Lorenzo de’ Medici in the Sculpture Garden,” 1571 [detail]
Tapestry, 167 5/16 x 179 1/8 in.
Museo Nazionnale di San Marco, Pisa

When he was only fifteen, Michelangelo was invited by the ruler of Florence, Lorenzo de’Medici, il Magnifico himself, to live in his palace and be trained in a school that he had established to foster the next generation of Florentine master sculptors.  The sculptors were taught by an old man, Bertoldi di Giovanni, the last living student of the great Renaissance sculptor, Donatello.  When Michelangelo arrived, the school’s star pupil was Pietro Torrigiani, a talented artist three years older than he was.

According to the Renaissance biographer Vasari, the day Michelangelo first visited Lorenzo de’Medici’s garden he noticed Torrigiani making small clay figures.  Michelangelo thought he could do better, found some clay, and preceded to do just that.  Torrigiani learned quickly that he was now facing a formidable rival.  Soon his fellow students were studying the new arrival’s drawings, not his.  At the dinners in the Medici Palace, he couldn’t help noticing that Michelangelo was often found sitting next to Lorenzo de’Medici himself — closer than il Magnifico’s own children.

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First artists — mostly women?

These hand stencils found in the El Castillo cave in Cantabria, Spain, were probably made by a man (left) and a woman (right), respectively. Photographs by Roberto Ontanon Peredo, courtesy Dean Snow

These hand stencils found in the El Castillo cave in Cantabria, Spain, were probably made by a man (left) and a woman (right), respectively.
Photographs by Roberto Ontanon Peredo, courtesy Dean Snow

An article in National Geographic presents research by an archeologist at Penn State that proposes that most of the pre-historic art found in caves was done by women.  This is based on analysis of the hand stencil “signatures.”

Will La Sagrada Familia finally be finished in 2026?

 

La Sagrada Familia in 2013

La Sagrada Familia in 2013

Sagrada Familia 2026

3D visualization of the finished Cathedral

A 3D animation which shows what Antoni Gaudi’s iconic Sagrada Familia in Barcelona will look like when completed has just been released.  Begun more than 130 years ago in 1882, the push is on to finally  finish the cathedral by the 100th anniversary of Gaudi’s death.

http://youtu.be/RcDmloG3tXU