The Artist, the Poet, and the Renaissance Man

            A person’s feelings can be expressed through many different forms and in many different ways. The Renaissance artist and writers were no different in this aspect but there was a silent war going on between the two sides. One side of the argument comes from Leonardo da Vinci who believed that it was better to express the feelings and emotions of the time in art, using colors to capture people and nature. The other side of the argument came from William Shakespeare who used words to express the situations and feelings of the time and whether art and nature can be altered. Lastly there was also those like Michelangelo who both wrote poetry, painted, and sculpted the nature of life but also understood the true significance of life, nature, art and poetry. Was there one form that was superior to the other? Or did these men not understand the significance of all the forms of art whether drawn, sculpted or written and how they would significantly shape the world in the centuries since?

            The artist is someone who paints nature and life as a way to capture the moment in time and keep the beauty of this moment so that it would live on. According to Leonardo da Vinci believed that “Painting is born of nature – or, to speak more correctly, we will say it is the grandchild of nature; for all visible things are produced by nature, and these her children have given birth to painting.” (p.46) Da Vinci believed that since god created nature then man created art in order to capture its beauty. He also believed that the artist was closer to man in the sense that an artist would be able to capture the moment and it would be marveled by man, stirring their emotions, and enamor them. Further arguing “If poetry deals with moral philosophy, painting deals with natural philosophy. Poetry describes the actions of the mind, painting considers what the mind may effect by the motions [of the body]” (p.47) His words art meant to show people that as words could tell you and make you feel one way a painting can do the same and show you much more.

            The writer is someone who writes about not only the beauty of nature but also the emotions of man. One of the most famous writers of this time is William Shakespeare whose words have shown the world the beauty and disasters that are intertwined with words. Late in his life Shakespeare wrote the comedy The Winter’s Tale in which he addresses the debate of art and nature but instead uses the characters of the play to talk about the debate. Polixenes and Perdita are debating about the artificial flowers and whether man could change nature, Polixenes says “Yet nature is made better by no mean But nature makes that mean. So over that art Which you say adds to nature is an art That nature makes.” (p.45) Shakespeare is attempting to say the same thing as Da Vinci that god created nature except adding that man can alter nature as well and it will still be nature. Without painting the conclusion of his words in color Shakespeare is arguing through words spoken by his characters, saying that nature isn’t defined by what god created but by what man could also create whether it’s with words and poetry or art.

            What challenges this debate are the art and words of Michelangelo who painted as well as Leonardo Da Vinci but also was a poet. In a sonnet to Vittoria Colonna, he wrote about art saying,

Perhaps on both of us long life can I Either in color or in stone bestow, By now portraying each in look and mien; So that a thousand years after we die, How fair thou wast, and I how full of woe, And wherefore I so loved thee, may be seen. (p.48)

Michelangelo was trying to convey in words that he would paint or sculpt them into stone so that they would be able to live on even after they’ve died. He’s saddened by the short life that he has and that he wouldn’t be able to live forever. What makes Michelangelo’s words resonate is that fact that humans are mortal and this is another piece of the puzzle of the argument of the artist or the poet. Unknowingly Michelangelo answered the question of who is better the poet or the artist the answer was neither it was in the art that they created nor the words that they wrote because the argument isn’t valid once the person is dead what would live on is what they contributed to the world.

            The superiority of art over poetry and poet over the artist as well as the argument over which would reign supreme over the other during the Renaissance is something that defined the period. The artist believed in their art, Leonardo da Vinci would go on to paint some of the most renowned paintings as well as defining art and nature by what is man-made and what is made from the hand of god. The poet or better known as a playwright, William Shakespeare used his characters in his plays to answer the debate. What made Shakespeare different over Da Vinci in the form of art is that he used what he studied and used it as a way to show that man was attempting to be god in changing nature itself. This shows that during this time science was becoming a prominent part of society just as Da Vinci’s drawings and studies showed the word the human body. The Renaissance gave way to new discoveries in both the outside world but also the human body. Lastly Michelangelo’s views of the world and the mortality of man as well as how art would live on showed that the Renaissance expanded the meaning of art as a whole, as he had written, sculpted, and painted himself into eternity. The artist, the poet, and the renaissance men of this time were reawakening the world to what was once lost and in the process created a debate about which form was above the other, but by doing so they were also able to use their abilities to create something stronger and that was a way for them to live on forever.

Works Cited

 Wiesner, Merry E. The Renaissance and Reformation: A History in Documents. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.