Michelangelo - Sistine Chapel - The Separation of Land and Water

We just learned about Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel - The Creation of the Sun, Moon, and Plants.

Another famous part of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel is The Separation of Land and Water.

This shows God flying along with his arms stretched out as he separates the land from the water and makes the oceans and continents.


(from: wikipedia - sistine chapel ceiling)


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Michelangelo - Sistine Chapel - The Creation of the Sun, Moon, and Plants

We just learned about Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel - Separation of Light and Darkness.

Another famous part of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel is The Creation of the Sun, Moon, and Plants.

There are 9 paintings that tell the story from Genesis how God created the world.
First is the Separation of Light and Darkness.

Second is this painting showing two pictures of God.
On one side of the painting God has his hands up pointing toward the sun and the moon.
The other side of the painting shows God holding his hand toward some plants as he created plant life.


(from: wikipedia - the creation of the sun, moon, and plants)


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Michelangelo - Sistine Chapel - Separation of Light from Darkness

We just learned about the Michelangelo's Moses.

Another famous painting that Michelangelo did was the Sistine Chapel - Separation of Light from Darkness.

AFter Michelangelo had finished Moses, the next big project he did was the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
This project was huge, and he painted over 300 figures on an area over 5,000 square feet.

The paintings were all made in different groups.
One group was nine paintings telling stories from Genesis.

In the beginning of the book of Genesis in the Bible it says:
And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
>God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness.
God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

Michelangelo made a painting of God with his arms up in the sky separating the light from the darkness.


(from: wikipedia - separation of light from darkness)


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Michelangelo - Moses

We just learned about the Michelangelo - Piccolomini Altarpiece.

Another famous sculpture is Michelangelo's Moses.

After Michelangelo had finished his statue of David he was very famous, and was asked to make over 40 statues for the tomb of Pope Julius II.

He finished statues for people from the Bible of Moses, Leah and Rachel.
After that it had been about 10 years, and the people who were paying for the sculptures decided they didn't want any more, so he didn't get to finish the rest of the statues.

Michelangelo's statue of Moses is interesting because there are horns on Moses' head.
This is because when people were reading the Bible in Hebrew they thought it said that when he came down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments that his face was so changed after talking to God that he had horns on his head.
People now believe the words really say that his face was full of brightness, and so those would be like rays of light.
Michelangelo felt that this Moses was his greatest sculpture ever, and when he was done he stood up and shouted to the statue "now speak!" because it looked so good like it was almost alive.

The statue of Leah shows her face down as if she is working, and the statue of Rachel shows her face up like she is praying.
In the Bible Leah was working very hard raising seven children, and Rachel prayed for many years and then finally had two children of her own.




(from: wikipedia - moses (michelangelo))


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Michelangelo - Piccolomini Altarpiece

We just learned about Michelangelo's sculpture of Bacchus.

Another famous sculpture by Michelangelo was the Piccolomini Altarpiece.

In 1481 AD a famous church leader named Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini wanted to make a really big sculpture with lots of statues to honor the Poccolomini family name.
It was supposed to have 14 sculptures on it, and he asked sculptor Andrea Bregno to do it.
He worked on it for 4 years, but then had to quit because the work was too hard for him at the age of 70.

Next the artist Pietro Torrigiano was hired to work on the altarpiece, but he only made one sculpture and then quit.

Tdeschini tried for another artist, and hired Michelangelo to make the rest of the sculptures.
At the same time, many other people saw the Pietà sculpture he had just finished and were so amazed and also wanted him to sculpt other things.

He started working on sculptures for this Piccolomini Alterpiece, but when he was offered the chance to make the statue of David he didn't spend much time on this altarpiece because he liked that other sculpture better.

After he had worked for a few years on the David sculpture, the person who hired him died.
When Todeschini died, his family asked Michelangelo to just do 4 sculptures so they could be finished.
He did sculptures of Saint Peter, Saint Augustine, Saint Paul, Saint Gregory.



(from: wikipedia - piccolomini altarpiece)


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Michelangelo - Bacchus

We just learned a little about Michelangelo.

Another famous sculpture from Michelangelo was Bacchus.

While he was working in Florence, and before he made his famous Pieta sculpture, Michelangelo was hired to make a statue for the garden of a famous rich person.
He decided to make a sculpture of Bacchus, the mythical Roman god of wine.
The rich person did not like the statue and so he gave the statue to one of his friends.

Because it is one of his first sculptures it is very famous, and also a funny story because Michelangelo became one of the greatest artists of all time, and someone once refused one of his statues because they didn't think it was good enough.


(from: wikipedia - bacchus (michelangelo))


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Michelangelo

We just learned about the Anatomical Drawings of Leonardo Da Vinci.

Another one of the most famous artists of all time is Michelangelo.

His full name was Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, and he was born in Italy in the area now called Tuscany.
The family moved to another town called Settignano right after he was born, where his father owned a farm and a marble quarry.
When he was only 6 years old his mother died, so he was raised by his father, a nanny, and the nanny's husband.
Michelangelo said that part of the reason he was good at sculpting was because he grew up learning to use a chisel and hammer at the marble quarry.

When he was about 13 he moved to Florence for school, but was only interested in art, and was given a job as an apprentice to Domenico Ghirlandaio, the artist who painted the walls of the Sistine Chapel.
Many years later Michelangelo would be hired to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

After making some sculptures Michelangelo later made the very famous sculpture of Pietà with Jesus being held by his mother Mary.
That sculpture helped people see how good of an artist he was, and helped him get people to hire him so he could become one of the greatest artists of all time.


(from: wikipedia - michelangelo)


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Anatomical Drawings - Leonardo Da Vinci

We just learned about the Leonardo's Robot.

Another famous thing Leonard did was make Anatomical Drawings.

This means he studied things like arms and legs, and tried to draw sketches of how they work.
He made drawaings of how the human body moves, and even some pictures of what he thought babies looked like before being born.

Da Vinci studied humans and other animals too, and made many drawings about how a bird is able to fly.



(from: wikipedia - science and inventions of leonardo da vinci)


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Leonardo's Robot

We just learned about Leonardo da Vinci's Paris Manuscripts.

Another one of his famous inventions was called Leonardo's Robot.

Some time around 1495, Leonardo da Vinci came up with the idea to make a mechanical knight, that could move around.
He made some sketches on how to make it using pulleys and cables that were inside metal armor.

He showed it off to some people in Milan, and by pulling on cables he could make it stand, sit, and move its arms and head.

His robot has been lost, but some people have followed his designs and made copies of what they think his looked like long ago.


(from: wikipedia - leonardo's robot)


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Paris Manuscripts - Leonardo da Vinci

We just learned about Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Arundel.

Another famous book of inventions that Leonardo wrote was called the Paris Manuscripts.

These were writings of his thoughts on science and inventions he dreamed up between the years of 1488 and 1505.
They are called the Paris Manuscripts because after Leonardo died these writings were all collected and stored in a museum in Paris.

The Paris Manuscripts have over 2,500 pages of Leonardo's writings.
He wrote about helicopters, submarines, geometry, botany, engineering, physics, painting, water, flight, and astronomy.

One of the most famous of his drawings was of a design for a helicopter he called the Aerial Screw.



(from: wikipedia - leonardo's aerial screw)


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Codex Arundel

We just learned about Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Atlanticus.

Another one of Leonardo da Vinci's famous books of inventions is the Codex Arundel, written around 1500 AD.

While da Vinci was working on his art, he also took a lot of notes about how the world works.
He was learning about how weights and pulleys worked, how mirrors worked, and even had ideas about the sun and moon.

One of his ideas was to use a curved mirror to take sunlight and use the solar power it to heat up cauldrons.
His book Codex Atlanticus is 283 pages of his writings about how things work.


(from: wikipedia - codex arundel)


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Codex Atlanticus

We just learned about the Leonardo da Vinci painting Virgin and Child with Saint Anne.

Another famous work of Leonardo's is Codex Atlanticus.

During his time as an artist, Leonardo also was famous for making drawings of inventions.
The book Codex Atlanticus is a big book of over 2,000 pages of his inventions.

It has drawings of things like giant crossbows, machines, parachutes, pumps, and gears.


(from: wikipedia - codex atlanticus)


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Virgin and Child with Saint Anne - Leonardo da Vinci

We just learned about the lost painting by Leonardo da Vinci called The Battle of Angiari.

Another famous painting by Leonard da Vinci is Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, painted in Florence in 1503 AD.

This is a painting of the baby Jesus holding a lamb, while his mother Mary is looking at him.
In some Bibles the mother of Mary is called Anne, and so the woman behind Mary is supposed to be Jesus' grandmother Anne.

Jesus holding the lamb was important Because Jesus was called the lamb of God, and he is also supposed to be the shepherd for his people the sheep.
The painting shows the family of Jesus, with grandmother Anne looking at Mary, Mother Mary looking at Jesus, and Jesus has the lamb.


(from: wikipedia - virgin and child with saint anne (leonardo))


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The Battle of Anghiari - Leonardo da Vinci

We just learned about Leonardo Da Vinci's painting the Virgin of the Rocks.

Another famous painting of Leonardo's was The Battle of Anghiari made some time around 1505 AD.

This painting is also called the "Lost Leonardo" because the painting is missing.
People know about the painting because some other painters made copies of the original and they are still around.

This was a painting of a big battle with people on horses fighting for a flag.
It was painted on a wall in the town hall in Florence, and Michelangelo made a painting on the wall across from it.
This was the only time the two masters worked on a project together.


(from: wikipedia - the battle of anghiari (leonardo))


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Virgin of the Rocks - Leonardo da Vinci

We just learned about Leonardo da Vinci's painting Annunciation.

Another of da Vinci's paintings was Virgin of the Rocks.

da Vinci moved to Milan Italy in 1482, and worked there until 1499 AD.
Some people call this da Vinci's "First Milanese Period".
While he was there, he made one of his most famous, The Last Supper, and a few others like his painting of the Virgin Mary.

This painting is about 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide, and shows Mary with Jesus and John the Baptist as babies, and the angel Uriel.

An interesting thing about this painting is that there are two copies of it.
One copy is in the Louvre museum in Paris France, and the other is in the National Gallery in London England.
Most people think they were both made by da Vinci, or at least that he helped work on them and maybe had some painting assistants help as well.

Paris:

London:

(from: wikipedia - virgin of the rocks)


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Annunciation - Leonardo da Vinci

We just learned a little about the early life of Leonardo da Vinci.

Another famous work of art was the painting Annunciation by Leonardo da Vinci made in 1475 in Italy.

By the time Leonardo turned 20, he had his own place to make art, and was working with some other famous artists of the time in Florence, Italy.
He learned about art and science working in Florence for 10 years until he was 30.
People say that paintings from this time are from his "First Florentine Period".

Annunciation is an oil painting made on wood, that is about 3 feet tall and 8 feet wide.
The painting is about the Bible story in Luke chapter 1 where the angel Gabriel tells Mary she is going to be Jesus' mother.


(from: wikipedia - annunciation (leonardo))


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Leonardo da Vinci

We just learned about the Statue of Jimmy Carter by Frederick Hart.

We've learned about sculpture and art from all over the world!
Let's learn a little more about some of the most famous artists in history.

One of the most famous artists ever was Leonardo da Vinci.

His full name was "Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci".
His father's name was Ser Piero, and he was born in the town of Vinci in 1452.
So his name really means Leonardo, son of Ser Piero, from Vinci.

He grew up in this small town near Florence Italy with 12 brothers and sisters, and without a lot of money.
When he was about 14 years old he moved to Florence and got a job as a student in an art studio.

He was working for a famous artist named Andrea del Verrocchio, and he worked with other famous artists like Donatello, Ghirlandaio, Perugino, Botticelli, and Lorenzo di Credi.
While he was studying there he learned about all kinds of science, not just about working with paint and sculptures.

The first painting that we know was made by Leonardo da Vinci is a drawing of the Arno Valley in 1473.


(from: wikipedia - leonardo da vinci)


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Statue of Jimmy Carter - Frederick Hart

We just learned about the Flying Pins by Claes Oldenburg.

Another famous American sculpture is the Statue of Jimmy Carter by Frederick Hart in Atlanta Georgia in 1994.

The statue of President Carter is bronze, and shows Carter standing with normal pants and his sleeves rolled up like he is working.
Frederick Hart worked with Carter when he was running for president, so they called on him to be the artist to make this sculpture.

Hart was born in Georgia, and later moved to Washington DC to learn art.
He became famous for making lots of statues and memorials.


(from: wikipedia - statue of jimmy carter)


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Flying Pins - Claes Oldenburg

We just learned about the Monument to Joe Louis by Robert Graham.

Another famous work of American art is Flying Pins by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen made in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

Oldenburg was born in 1929 in Sweden, and in 1936 his family moved to Chicago where he learned to be a sculptor.

In 2001 he made a sculpture of giant bowling bins and a bowling ball.
They were all made from steel, plastic and foatm, and the pins are about 24 feet tall.


(from: wikipedia - claes oldenburg)


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Monument to Joe Louis - Robert Graham

We just learned about the sculpture Truncated Pyramid Room by Bruce Nauman.

Another famous American sculpture is the Monument to Joe Louis by Robert Graham made in 1985 in Detroit, Michigan.

Graham was born in Mexico, and when he was 6 years old his family moved to California where he went to college to learn about art.

The monument to Joe Louis was made to honor the famous boxer Joe Louis, one of the best boxers of all time.

Joe Louis had a very hard time growing up and in the sport of boxing because he was a black African American person, and there were a lot of people who were racist and did not like to see African American people winning at things.

Because he kept winning and was a champion for many years, he was someone that other black people could look up to and have hope for a better future.

The sculpture is a 24 foot bronze arm, made as a copy of Joe Louis' arm.
It is hanging from a frame, and the fist actually can swing back and forth like it is punching.
This was meant to be a symbol of how the power of his arm helped fight against racism.



(from: wikipedia - monument to joe louis)


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