Good painting is the kind that looks like sculpture

Good painting is the kind that looks like sculpture

Michelangelo Buonarroti, the renowned Italian artist of the High Renaissance, is often credited with revolutionizing the world of art with his unique approach to painting and sculpture. One of his most famous quotes, “Good painting is the kind that looks like sculpture,” perfectly encapsulates his belief in the interconnectedness of these two art forms.

Michelangelo was a master of both painting and sculpture, and his work seamlessly blended the two disciplines. His paintings, such as the iconic frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, are known for their incredible attention to detail and three-dimensional quality. The figures in his paintings appear to leap off the canvas, as if they were carved from stone rather than painted with brush and pigment.

This sculptural quality in Michelangelo’s paintings can be attributed to his background as a sculptor. Before he became a painter, Michelangelo trained under the renowned sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti and honed his skills in the art of carving marble. This experience gave him a unique perspective on form, volume, and space, which he brought to his paintings with great success.

In his paintings, Michelangelo employed techniques borrowed from sculpture, such as chiaroscuro (the use of light and shadow to create the illusion of depth) and foreshortening (the distortion of perspective to create a sense of three-dimensionality). These techniques, combined with his meticulous attention to anatomical accuracy, allowed him to create figures that appeared lifelike and dynamic, much like his sculptures.

One of the best examples of Michelangelo’s belief that “good painting is the kind that looks like sculpture” can be seen in his masterpiece, the statue of David. This iconic sculpture, carved from a single block of marble, is a testament to Michelangelo’s ability to capture the human form with incredible precision and realism. The figure of David is so lifelike and dynamic that it almost seems to be in motion, as if frozen in the midst of a dramatic moment.