NationStates Jolt Archive

Havinvg recently read Vasari's The Lives of the Artists I am inspired to see what you guys and ladies think to be the greatest artist. The Mona Lisa is regarded as the world's greatest painting and yet it's painter Leonardo Da Vinci can only be credited with certainty with 4 works of art (Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, The Battle of Anghiari and Adoration of the Magi). Although he almost certainly did more, his slowness and habit of leaving his works unfinished (due to his intellectual interest in other fields such as astronomy, philosophy, engineering and mathematics) were infamous. So is the creator of 'the world's greatest painting the world's greatest ever artist? I would argue not. What about Leonardo's great rival Michelangelo, flamboyant, temperamental but brilliant? My favourite Raphael (not the Turtle) was famed not only for his brilliance in art but also for his devotion and humility if he was rather to devoted to young ladies before dying at the age of 37. How about Giotto? A landmark in the history of art for in the 14th Century he broke with the Italian tradition of copying Byzantine styles and developed the style that would be taken further by the aforementioned artists. What about Holbein and Rubens, the great court artists of 16th and 17th Century northern Europe, particulalrly England? Then there are the spaniards Goya and Picasso, both of whom with different styles, but with one thing in common; both have created masterpieces showing the true horror of war.
Or perhaps you believe that none of these deserve the title and someone else does in which case, feel free to specify.

Ambrogio Bondone Giotto (1267-1337):
http://www.christusrex.org/www1/francis/

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519):
http://www.mos.org/leonardo/

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564):
http://www.michelangelo.com/buon/bio-index2.html

Raphael (1483-1520):
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/raphael/

Hans Holbein (1497-1543):
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/holbein/

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640):
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/rubens/

Francisco de Goya (1746-1828):
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/goya/

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973):
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/picasso_pablo.html

Havinvg recently read Vasari's The Lives of the Artists I am inspired to see what you guys and ladies think to be the greatest artist. The Mona Lisa is regarded as the world's greatest painting

Who regards it as the greatest? The most famous yes, probably the most overrated too, but greatest?

Read The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone. It's a great biographical novel about Michelangelo, told from the artists' perspective.

Who regards it as the greatest? The most famous yes, probably the most overrated too, but greatest?

Read The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone. It's a great biographical novel about Michelangelo, told from the artists' perspective.

A recent poll described it by 85% as the greatest painting ever.

Maichaelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio