West Virginia University
The influence of humanism on the handwriting of Michelangelo Buonarroti
Abstract
dc:description.abstractThe handwriting of Michelangelo Buonarroti underwent a distinct and permanent change between 1497 and 1502. The handwriting of his early letters of 1496 and 1497 is merchantescha, the gothic cursive mercantile script which he would have learned at school. The later handwriting is cancellarescha, a humanistic cursive. It is present in letters, contracts, memoranda, records of accounts, and in annotations on drawings. Both scripts as written by Michelangelo are analyzed paleographically and are compared to examples from instructional writing books of the period. The impossibility of evolution from one script to the other is demonstrated through analysis of the scripts and a review of the history of book hands. The alteration must therefore have been the result of a conscious decision by the artist to modify his handwriting. The decision was made as a result of the influence of Humanism and, to a lesser extent, Neoplatonism.
Degree
thesis:*- Name thesis:degree_name
- MA
- Level thesis:degree_level
- Thesis
- Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
- Art History
- Year dc:date.available
- 2005
Author and committee
dc:creator, dc:contributor.*- Author dc:creator
-
- Tallaksen, Robert J.
- Contributors dc:contributor
-
- Janet E. Snyder.
- J. Bernard Schultz
- Robert R. Hopson
Subjects
dc:subject × 1Identifiers
dc:identifier.*- Identifier
- https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/852
- OAI identifier oai:identifier
- oai:researchrepository.wvu.edu:etd-1855