Sir Anthony Blunt on Leonardo and Michelangelo - Discussion 4

 

Sir Anthony Blunt wrote extensively on the artist methods of both Leonardo and Michelangelo. What his analysis boils down to is that Leonardo is a master artist concerned with scientific procedure and accurateness, where as Michelangelo was a master artist concerned with pure aesthetics, at times bending the truth to please the eye. 

Leonardo is described as meticulously astute to the scientific nature of perspective and anatomy. He used these sciences to lend accuracy and beauty to his artworks, and according to Blunt maintained that even the media of painting was more noble and scientific than that of his fellow Michelangelo's sculpture. Painting is able to utilize color, aerial perspective, and depict luminescence better than sculpture can. Leonardo also greatly emphasized drawing from life, due to his belief that if one were to draw from a previous sketch it will become more and more "unnatural and mannered." Copying the work of another painter could also lead to this horrible fate, in Leonardo's eyes. 

  

While Leonardo was most opposed to mannered nature in artworks, it was not a concept that Michelangelo was opposed to. He, like Leonardo, dissected bodies to gain an intimate knowledge of anatomy, but did not fret over tweaking the bodily composition to further please the eye. At times he fiddles with figures, mostly those of women, to gain ideal musculature. In subject manner Michelangelo most always utilized biblical figures, and explored his own faith through them. His process was also significant spiritually, since he felt that one did not carve a sculpture, they simply unveiled what God had left inside to be discovered. 

To compare the two artists it to compare two kinds of fruit. Both are of the most talented to have ever lived, but neither are concerned with the same methodology or purpose. On one hand there is Leonardo, concerned with all things academic and the scientific nature of painting; on the other is Michelangelo, concerned with the will of God, and how best to please him and fulfill his spiritual life.