While
studying Machiavelli and Michelangelo, I was able to get an understanding of
their ideas of Virtue. Machiavelli was a little bit clearer on his ideas
whereas you had to read into Michelangelo’s artwork to understand his meaning. From
my understanding though, I believe Machiavelli and Michelangelo had their own
different thoughts about virtue.
In
The Prince, Machiavelli is giving Lorenzo
de’ Medici advice on being a prince. In this, he discusses the qualities one
would need to rule without being hated. Machiavelli states, “The prince should
try to avoid anything which makes him hateful or contemptible” (pg. 49). Machiavelli’s
point here is that whether you are choosing virtue or vice, it must help your
state and it must not make them hate you. Machiavelli’s idea of what virtue is,
is something that receives praises from others. So, he is saying that sometimes
you must do things as a prince that your state will not like but in the end,
they will be grateful to you. His advice though is to avoid the vices that will
make your state hate you and that sometimes choosing virtue will bring on hate
as well. Machiavelli states, “For if you look at matters carefully, you will
see that something resembling virtue, if you follow it, may be your ruin, while
something else resembling vice will lead, if you follow it, to your security
and well-being” (pg. 43). This shows
Machiavelli’s belief that sometimes it is better to choose vice instead of
virtue. He hints that a man cannot always be perfectly virtuous and that sometimes
he must act on some bad characteristics for the good of his state. His comments
lead you to believe that vices are only bad when they endanger the state but
when they are helping the state they are fine. What I get from Machiavelli’s The Prince is that a prince must be
concerned with the end and not the means. Machiavelli points out that a prince
must be manly. He must be courageous and tough and not worry about being giving
and compassionate. For if he is too kind it will allow the people to walk all
over him. I understand that Machiavelli isn’t too concerned with the idea of
virtue. He believes that a prince should not worry about receiving praise but
rather about protecting his people. This shows that he believes the essence of
being a man is about doing what you need to do to protect and stay in charge
whether it is frowned upon or not.
On
the other hand, Michelangelo has a very peaceful and calm feel in his artwork.
Michelangelo shows that the essence of being a man is being created in God’s
image and likeness. His artwork is all about praising the creator of man and
showing the beauty of man. Pope John Paul II stated, “With great daring he
even transferred this visible and corporal beauty to the Creator himself.” The
word corporal means of the body, so this is saying that Michelangelo’s art is
in dedication to God and that man’s corporal beauty is only due to God. Michelangelo’s
art centers very closely around corporal beauty and around God. This leads me
to believe that Michelangelo’s idea of virtue is to be true to what God gave
us. This view is unlike Machaivelli because Michelangelo does value giving and
compassion as you can see in The Creation of Adam which shows God giving Adam
life. You can also see it in The Sistine Chapel where some of the artwork
depicts Christ giving His life. Finally, you can see in Michelangelo’s David
statue that Michelangelo believes in caring for the people on a more personal
level and that he cares more about the means than the end. You see this due to
the symbolic meaning of David, which is the ideal Renaissance man- a speaker of
words, doer of deeds, a king, shepherd, poet, and a lover. Michelangelo isn’t
concerned with the idea of being tough or even winning over his people.
Michelangelo cares about living the life our Creator would want us to live.
As you can see, Michelangelo and
Machiavelli have very different understandings of virtue and the essence of
man. While Machiavelli believes virtue is just something that receives praise from
others and isn’t as important as being tough and in control of your state,
Michelangelo believes virtue is about praising our Creator for our corporal
beauty and being giving and caring for those around us.
No comments:
Post a Comment