What it means to be creative - Part 3: You're always creating your next masterpiece
Merriam-Webster describes a Masterpiece as:
a work done with extraordinary skill especially : a supreme
intellectual or artistic achievement
a piece of work presented to a medieval guild as evidence of
qualification for the rank of master
Guilds played essential roles in towns as they attempted to maintain standards. They were prevalent during the Middle Ages, a period that began with the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 AD and lasted about 1,000 years until about 1450 AD.
The Guild supported its members if they became sick. But first, you worked your way to earn these benefits. Before qualifying to join a guild, you began as an apprentice and studied under someone who had previously been through the process and successfully achieved the level of a master craftsman. Once completing your study, you become a journeyman. You may have even heard this term used to refer to someone with a life-long history within a field, someone who is competent, and skilled, but still, find themselves on a path to reaching the highest level. Finally, to be elected to become a master craftsman, you were required to produce a sum of money and a masterpiece.
You might even say that this masterpiece's purpose is close to what we call a portfolio today. Artisans of the time used a single piece of work to show a range of skills and proficiency within them, while we gather a collection of projects to do the same for potential clients or employers. This work is often considered to be the journeyman's most excellent work of their career, as it can be for us as designers.
The end of the Middle Ages gave way to the Renaissance. A new period that saw significant advancements in science, learning become important, and the world of art was flourishing with innovations.
The Renaissance also gave us some of my personal favorites like Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel and Raphael’s School of Athens. Two well-known artists of the time. But as we’ve just learned, these artists endured a long journey to achieving a level of success. They not only created incredible pieces of art, but they also studied and mastered their craft just like artisans before them. Their work was the result of achieving proficiency in their craft.
I had the opportunity to visit Vatican City during a trip to Italy and learn more about the Sistine Chapel and School of Athens. While Michelangelo and Raphael had a long feud, I learned that the two men had a lot more in common.
Michelangelo spent his life studying the human anatomy. When he wasn’t working on a commission, he was sketching and trying new techniques to learn how to illustrate the human body within his work better. With every painting, Michelangelo tried to improve on how he interpreted the muscles and proportions of the body. He has many pieces that are considered to be a masterpiece, but what impressed me most was his body of work as a whole and how it illustrates his learnings of the human anatomy.
The Sistine Chapel ceiling is a perfect example of this. The mural is formed by a series of nine panels, each telling a different story from the Book of Genesis. But there are a couple of things you may not notice right away unless you know to look for them.
The first is that each panel is adorned with angels around the corners. The secret is that each of those angels was modeled after the Belvedere Torso, a fragmented marvel statue of a man without a head or limbs which was located in one of the many gardens at the Vatican. It was widely known at the time that Michelangelo admired this statue and often used it while practicing his sketching. So it was no surprise that when it came time to paint the angels on the Sistine Chapel, he sat around the statue and drew it multiple times from different angles and used that to help paint them in their various positions.
The other thing you may not notice is that the amount of detail used to portray the people in each story changed as he made his way from panel to panel. Michelangelo spent the most amount of time on the first panel he painted, adding as much detail as possible and being very literal with his interpretation of the people within it. But as he made progress, he spent less and less time on each subsequent panel. He not only completed them in a shorter amount of time, but he also included less detail in each one. By the end, his brush strokes became soft and wistful, opting for a more abstract style. What he was learning was how to accurately depict people with subtle impressions rather than the sometimes overly exaggerated forms of his previous work. The change in style is visible when you glance across the ceiling, but the quality and accuracy of the people depicted in each one remains constant.
The focal point of the School of Athens by Raphael is Plato and Aristotle walking down the center of the fresco. Plato is pointing up to signify his philosophy in the ethereal–that which can not be seen. He’s wearing purple which represents the ether and red to serve fire, both of which do not have weight. While Socrates is standing next to him pointing down representing his philosophy of focusing on the present and that which is here and now, he wears blue and brown to serve as water and earth. The two are surrounded by some of the greatest minds, philosophers, mathematicians, and his rival, Michelangelo.
But what about their feud?
The two artists were working on their respective pieces in the Vatican at the same time just a few doors away from each other. At the time, Raphael refused to see Michelangelo and what he was working on until he was nearly done. He had heard the comments around the Vatican about Michelangelo's work and finally decided that he would go and see for himself what everyone was talking about.
When he finally did, Raphael was so impressed with what he saw that he went back to his completed mural, and added one more thing. He painted in a version of Michelangelo sitting on the steps amongst the other greats. It's known that Raphael painted him after the fact because he was not a part of the plan in any of the original sketches for the mural.
Have you ever wished you could finally muster up the courage to create that idea you have? Or perhaps you’re taking classes or teaching yourself something new in hopes that one day you’ll finally be qualified to create it.
With so many great men and woman in history, it can be difficult to imagine ever creating something as great ourselves. But our urge as creators is still there nonetheless. Calling and pushing us to do the work of our life.
While these may be fascinating stories, notice that in both cases, the artist studied under a teacher, and later continued their education on their own. Each of them worked from sketches and planned out the meaning behind every detail of significance in their work. Their masterpieces weren’t the result of luck, which means that you too can create a masterpiece.
Creativity and skill don’t come through some outside force. It’s not a fleeting thought that comes to mind like a bolt of lightning. And it's not an enlightened view of our world that only a creative genius can unlock once in a generation. It takes work, dedication, and patience. Most of all, it requires belief in yourself.
Every great artist began by learning and developed their skill over time. They devoted themselves to their craft and focused on what they wanted to achieve, eliminating distractions that would impede them from doing their work. It is only through intentional action that they improved upon each project, making each one better than the last, inching closer to a piece that would be worthy of calling their masterpiece: one that could show their skill set and proficiency within them.
Some artists, or designers, go a lifetime waiting to be ready and never get a chance to create their masterpiece. But I would urge you to see that each project is your masterpiece — an opportunity to devote yourself to a piece of work that can showcase proficiency in your skills. And when your deadline arrives, and it's time to go on to the next one, then it too will be your masterpiece with each one being better than the last.
The next time you sit down to create remember, you’re always creating your next masterpiece.
