Sistine Ceiling Analysis

There are many differences that can be pointed out when evaluating the Maesta and the Sistine Ceiling. One of the main differences between these two paintings is that the Maesta establishes union through their religion that depicts the Virgin Mary as the central figure of their belief system, whereas the Sistine ceiling is a painting that is devoted to the catholic church with god as their drive in their religion. This difference is important because it shows how important religion was to both the Romans and Sienese. Both of these paintings depict a contrasting view on who they worshipped. The Maesta creates an image around the Virgin Mary as she was believed to be the most respectable person and powerful. In the Sistine Ceiling, we get to

The Maesta was painted in Siena which most of its time was at war with Florence, it is believed that Siena won the war because of the grace of Mary, this comes to show the importance of Mary to the Sienese people. In the Maesta the Virgin Mary is portrayed as the central point in the painting. Duccio uses bold colors such as red, gold and dark blue to draw attention to the Virgin Mary. Duccio’s bold use of color introduced greater elegance, another key element to his paintings was that the characters are also drawn with, unrealistic facial features which stands out drastically while analyzing the painting. When analyzing the Maesta you also see the characters in the main panel have a gold circle shaped background behind their heads, each panel has a gold background that depicts the amount of wealth and intelligence the Sienese wanted to claim about to each other. The central panel of this painting shows the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus as being larger than the others surrounding them, the people around are looking up at Mary as with out up most respect . Also in the central panel, we get to see how much work, money and thought was put into the Virgin Mary. The Virgin Mary is painted with dark blue color which is considered to be very expensive at the time due to all the lapis that would have been essential to produce. Not only was Mary painted wearing

Michelangelo was a sculptor before painting, his sculptor skills and talents are definitely seen in the Sistine Ceiling. In this painting, all the people are drawn more realistically than the Maesta, he is able to illustrate both strength and elegance while also representing the ideal beauty. The most important part of the Sistine Ceiling are the series of nine scenes that move across the central panels, it starts with the creation of the world and god separating light from darkness. Michelangelo wanted to honor God through the Sistine Ceiling by constructing a connection between man and God in all his panels. He used this connection because god in the Rome religious society was considered to be an almighty and powerful being. In this painting Michelangelo painted each of his character which such grace and detail making the painting more realistic, not only were the characters realistic but they were also perceived as masculine. The detailed arm and leg muscles and male features add to the masculinity, even the women are portrayed as masculine one example of this is the Lilyan silby , we see her twisted body as well as every muscle in her back . It is said that Michelangelo used male models to not only help him paint the Lilyan silby but also for other of his female characters. Another important characteristic in the Sistine