Was michaelangelo Catholic

Answer 1

Yes he was, he made many beautiful religious arts. (See links)

Everyone was Catholic when he was alive, but his philosophy was Neo Platonic and it shows in his art. This is really true in the Sistine Chapel with man and God hands touching. This was against the Church teaching that only the Church could communicate with God. He left the church out and had man and God together. One reason his art is religious is that is who had the money to pay for his work. He lived very poorly but still needed to go where the money was and it was in religious art.

ANSWER:

Perhaps Michaelangelo's integrity and genuine faith in God deserves to be defended. Michaelangelo was no secularist -- no mere Neo-Platonist. He was a genuinely religious man who loved God and his Catholic Faith.

1. Michaelangelo was born in 1475 and died in 1564. The Protestant Reformation was in full bloom. Michaelangelo remained a Catholic by choice.

1a. Michealangelo painted the equisitely detailed Sistine Chapel out of love for Our Lord and his Catholic Faith. The Sistine Chapel was Michaelangelo's life's work and it took him decades of long tedious hours -- in physical pain laying upside down on scaffolding -- to complete this most exquisite work. No one creates something this magnificant for mere money.

2. The Piata is similarly exquisite. Michaelangelo captured the agony of the Blessed Mother as she held her dead son in her arms. The Piata, too, was painstakingly carved by Michaelangelo with love and devotion for his Blessed Mother and his Lord and Savior.

3. Michaelangelo's Catholic Faith is overwhelmingly evident in both the Sistine Chapel & the Piata. We can know his faith was genuine because the passion and attention to detail with which he painted/sculpted derives, clearly, from . . .his love for & devotion to his subject matter.

4. So exquisite are Michaelangelo's religious works of art that it is almost certain that he prayed, frequently, as he lay alone, up high, with God on that scaffolding and painted each figure and each cloud gracing every inch of the Sistine Chapel. I imagine that as he painted, in physical pain, that he offered up his pain in communion with Our Lord's suffering and as an offering to Our Lord that he might paint with Almighty God's guidance. As a Catholic, I can totally see Michaelangelo painting in just this very Catholic way. I can see Michaelangelo praying, again, as he painstakingly carved the beautiful Piata. These are exquisite and timeless works of art precisely because of the LOVE and devotion that the artist clearly had for his subject matter.

5. Michaelangelo painted himself into the Sistine Chapel -- once as a young man and once as an old man. Michaelangelo very likely saw & defined himself in terms of the Biblical account of man's relationship with God spanning the ages -- from the beginning (Creation) to the end (Revelations).

6. Plato & Aristotle are not incompatible with Christianity/Catholicism. Both Augustine & Aquinas recognized that truth (in various degrees) has been revealed by God in all ages. These great men of God wisely recognized and incorporated those ancient Truths ("the wheat") into the full deposit of the Catholic Faith; and, they also discarded the errors (weeds) in Platonic & Aristotelian thought. This is known as Natural Law -- the Laws of Nature that can be discerned/known by all because all were infused (by God) with a basic understanding of The Natural Law.

7. It is, at best, a mistake to presume that Michealangelo's philosophy was Neo-Plantonic and thus not Catholic and to use as proof of that assessment: the image of man touching the finger of God. Obviously, if that famous image was truly in violation of Catholic theology, then the pope would have made Michaelangelo change it, right? Thus, this famous Sistine Chapel image (among many) is actually definitive proof that the Catholic Church does not now, nor has She ever, taught that communication between man & God must occur exclusively via the Catholic Church as an intermediary. And, now we know -- the pope did not make Michaelangelo change that image because that image did, in fact, reflect authentic Catholic theological teaching re: man's relationship with God.

8. It is absolutely Catholic teaching/theology -- and from the beginning to the present -- that one must have a personal relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ in order to know Him, love Him and serve Him in this life so that we may be happy with Him in the next life. In fact, ALL Catholic Saints are saints ONLY because they demonstrated that they did have a very pure personal, self-sacrificing and obedient LOVE for Our Lord. Ya can't be recognized as a Catholic Saint unless you have attained that deep and very personal level of union with Our Lord.

9. While Wikipedia is a useful and valuable resource, it is not truly authoritative and trustworthy because anyone can edit Wikipedia.

Let's not make Michaelangelo less than he was. Let's recognize him and honor him as the great and devoted man of God that he truly was. Michaelangelo was no mere Neo-Platanist! He did not choose his subject matter merely for money. His heart and soul are evident in every brush stroke and in every carve of the knife. It is highly insulting to Michaelangelo to describe him as anything other than the devout and faithful Catholic that his religious masterpieces show him to be.

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Please note: Not everyone was everyone was Catholic when Michelangelo was alive. There were many other faiths in the world then as now. And yes he was Catholic.

However, it is not insulting to suggest he was influenced by the Reformation. Being a Catholic and a humanist were not mutually exclusive. He was a man of his times, interested in many things. This did not detract from his faith. Neo-Platonism had a strong and lasting influence on Renaissance artists, including Michelangelo.

Answer 2

Michelangelo was influenced by the Neo Platonic thinking of the time and this is reflected in his Sistine art. The fact that man touches the hand of God is purely Neo Platonic thinking. The Catholic church at that time taught that man couldn't communicate directly with God, but needed the church to reach God. What he painted reflected the new thinking taken from the writings of Plato that had just been rediscovered.

Answer 3

Catholic