Portraits and Writings Reveal Michelangelo as Ugly and Unclean
Portraits and Writings Reveal Michelangelo as Ugly and Unclean
The series of extremely rare modern portraits and writings, presented on the show in Florence, showed that one of the greatest artists of western civilization, Michelangelo Buonarroti, was an ugly and unclean man. picked by maxriter 1 month ago
tags Florence Michelangelo portrait
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17
 bingo
1 month ago
Ok.
Still an outstanding talent
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8
 stinkobi...
1 month ago
ugly and unclean! Imagine. An artist who is a free spirit. Hogwash.
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16
 hypersap...
1 month ago
Yeah, DaVinci basically thought he was a punk.
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 BernardB...
1 month ago
I assume during when he was alive, being unclean was probably pretty normal or is that just a stereotype?
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17
 bingo
1 month ago
« BernardBlack : I assume during when he was alive, being unclean was probably pretty normal or is that just a stereotype?
I think so too
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quote #6
8
 palmiere...
4 weeks ago
« BernardBlack:I assume during when he was alive, being unclean was probably pretty normal or is that just a stereotype?
Somewhat a myth, yes. People washed occasionally, not just everyday like we do. It’s easily explained when you consider common knowledge dictated water was a source of disease and should be used with extreme caution (actually true at the time, no water treatment facilities back then and the rivers by the big urban centers were basically dumps for anything and everything). Plus, there were probably not many places you could get water if you lived in a big city, as indoor plumbing wasn’t standard and carrying water from a public fountain to your home wasn’t very practical… essentially people washed their clothes and changed them often (obviously, those with servants to do the washing did this regularly) but they didn’t wash their bodies.
I saw a documentary once in which they explained Michelangelo’s lack of hygiene was mostly his father's doing. He was told from a very young age he shouldn't bathe, that he should be deeply pious and avoid women, as they were the devil's instruments and a sure way to eternal damnation. Being celibate was the sure way to gain entrance to Paradise. This also explains why he was so good depicting male bodies but not so good with the female figure; he probably never saw a naked woman in his life (notice he sculpted women who basically looked like guys with silicone implants, very muscular and big boned).
DaVinci, although rumored to be gay, at least took the trouble to know the female form, attending and even performing autopsies on female bodies himself (and commenting on how truly disgusting and repulsive it was to disembowel a dead body) so he could truly know what he was painting, even if such acts were forbidden by the church.
Then again, DaVinci never struck me as someone who took religion too seriously, focusing his interest in science and Nature's bio-solutions to problems like flight and differences in animal anatomy. Maybe this was one of the reasons they didn’t like each other so much, this difference of belief.
Also, it’s said Michelangelo was anything but humble and took any criticism made to his work with contempt and a bad attitude.
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