NAVIGATION
ALL ARTISTS
The
Holy Family with Saint John (Doni Tondo) 1506 by Michelangelo Buonarroti,
a painting made for Agnolo Doni is the only painting on wood which can
be historically attributed to Michelangelo.The unique round frame called
a tondo is decorated with the coat of arms of the Strozzi family (the
family of the patron's wife Maddalena) and was designed by Michelangelo.
This painting was to foment controversy upon its presentation to the Doni
family not only for its somber and unique treatment of the holy family
(normally Joseph would not be included in such a painting) but for the
inclusion of nudes in the background. Such uncoventional details like
the satyr-like St. John the Baptist in the middle-ground caused minor
uproar. The artist himself considered such criticisms small minded as
the imagery used in the painting symbolized the transition from the pagan
age to the Christian age with the birth of Jesus. Michelangelo used both
tempera and oil on this panel and achieved its unique color by using the
oils in the same way as the tempera. Oils during the Renaissance were
painted on with successive thin glazes from the highlights down into the
shadows, in the Doni Tondo Michelangelo painted in the opposite fashion
- which was the technique of tempera painting. This method of oil painting
is known as "cangianti" and is typical of Michelangelo's work
as he was trained to paint using tempera. In all of Michelangelo's paintings,
whether oil, tempera, or fresco, the figures are rendered in a heavy,
solid, sculptural fashion. It was only with reservation or coersion that
Michelangelo undertook painting - he wished only to sculpt and felt that
anything else was a distraction from his true calling. When this painting
was cleaned in the 20th century under magnification, art conservationists
were shocked to discover that they could detect no brushstrokes on the
painting not so much as a single stray hair from a paint brush, so skillful
was its excecution.