Michelangelo vs me
That would not be much of a comparison. Kinda like comparing a Cheetah to a tree frog really. But in ,many ways I do have an easier time. Of course Michelangelo was easily the best Sculptor (Moses, David, Pieta) who ever lived, one of the best Renaissance Painters (see the Sistine Chapel), poet, architect (St. Peters dome) and so much more.
But, he had real disadvantages comparatively: Michelangelo had to write letters to correspond with his family. I can pick up the phone and call mine. They may not answer of course but I can leave a message. Michelangelo had to travel by horseback for a week to go from his native Florence to Rome. I made the trip via high-speed rail in less than 2 hours cost about 60 Euro round trip.
I can get on the internet and send photos or my work all over the world, post them on this website, print them and hang them on the wall, mail them to friends. In Michelangelo’s time, people would travel for weeks to see his latest masterpiece. (Actually, I think he wins that one, if people traveled weeks to see my latest work THAT would be an accomplishment.)
Michelangelo lived under a theocracy with a tyrannical pontiff Julius II known as “Il papa terribli” (The terrible Father). Come to think of it I was living in a Theocracy too, at least until I moved out of the states and away from George “I talk to God everyday” Bush. Of course Pope Julius the II ruled for a lot longer than 8 years and the Constitutional protections did not exist (even in their currently shredded form).
Honestly, communication, politics and possibility are far better today then they were in the Renaissance, this website is a testament to that, scheduled elections are a testament to that, modern medicine is a testament to that, signing onto my web-cam is a testament to that. Flying to Europe to photograph Michelangelo’s master pieces is a testament to that.
However, despite clear superiority in travel, and medicine and food and so many other things. Millions of people travel to Italy every year to see sculptures of Michelangelo, paintings by DaVinci and Raphael, Baroque Churches and the Ancient Coliseum. Is it possible that art was better then than it is now?
Michelangelo apprenticed under a master sculpture for a decade; he learned the art of fresco from accomplished guildsmen and local legends. In the Renaissance Art was a craft, a career; you could become a star like being a stockbroker only without the red bull. (Michelangelo even had his own personal biographer) Basically, great artists were the “big swinging dicks” of the Renaissance.
Art today is a folly, a diversion, a hobby or worse, the pursuit of shameless self-promotion (Britney, Boy Bands, Reality TV, etc). Will people 500 years from now make a pilgrimage to see the birthplace of Mel Gibson?
I have been writing poetry for 15 years and yet my formal training consists of a single 1 semester course at an engineering University over a decade ago. I worked at a photography studio for a single year and had to learn the rest the hard way. We, as an era of humanity, have been bewitched by the notion of the self-made artist and the results are obvious; plenty of vision, paucity of skill.
Think of it this way…
Michelangelo lived over 500 years ago but he still gets more Google hits than most people who are alive today. That speaks volumes.