The Renaissance: Florence Leads the Way - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 104

Figure 7.4. Da Vinci's Work, “The Vitruvian Man”
Towering in their accomplishments were Michelangelo Buonarrotti (1475-1564) and
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). Michelangelo is a sculptor without peers. His Pieta is the
face of a beautiful, sorrowing mother cradling a dead son in her arms. His David “expresses
vibrant power harmoniously contained.” [93] And his Tombs of the Medici in Florence por-
tray Giuliano and Lorenzo de Medici in calm, majestic death, while beneath them are al-
legorical images of Night and Day, Dusk and Dawn, that express anguish and sorrow at the
death of those “whose light has been stolen from us.” [94] In Rome, Michelangelo's paint-