Michelangelo and Pope Julius II

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that religious art during this period was an intensely social production and vision, a dialogue between religious leaders such as Pope Julius II and artistic producers such as Michelangelo. Popes commissioned artistic works and inspired, guided, and checked the artist's individual vision. The author points out that Pope Julius II, who was as careful in planning as he was in his military achievements, enriched the landscape of Rome by adding many fine buildings to the city, including the Vatican Museum and art collection and the Sistine Chapel. The paper relates that the role of the artist was expanded rather than limited by the patronage and commissions of the papacy, and rather than embodying narrow religious ideals, Michelangelo and others were prodded to create works with expansive, complex renderings of Biblical figures as both human and divine in nature.

From the Paper:

"Pope Julius II, often known as a kind of warrior pope because of his influence in political as well as spiritual affairs, even more renown to the ages for his tireless patronage of the arts. He is also called the savior of the papacy, because of his integrity, relative to his contemporaries, and his restoration of legitimacy to the church because of limiting some of its excesses excesses, albeit not enough to stifle the Reformation later on. Also, it is unlikely that Julius would have, had he lived after the reformation, been able to commission such anthropomorphic and expansive works of religious art, some of which were designed to commemorate his own personal memories and accomplishments, such as the commissioning of the tomb that first drew Michelangelo to Rome."

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