Michelangelo for Kids

eHow article Using Projects to Teach Kids Michelangelo Several craft ideas for kids, including a soap sculpture.

At my blog, here's an idea. Have the kids lie on the floor and color on the bottom of the desk or table, on paper taped to the underside of the desk or table.

The Vatican Museum's Sistine Chapel This one has clickable links for several of the panels, with each clickable link able to be enlarged.

When Pope Julius II asked Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel, or more likely demanded it, he was asking a huge undertaking of the artist and of the man. Not only was the ceiling of the chapel 68 feet (20.70 meters) off the ground, but it was a huge expanse of area to paint in the then-popular fresco style. Added to these already complex problems was the basic truth that Michelangelo, while a great sculptor had relatively little work experience at that time in the painting medium. Most of his work had been completed in marble--as sculptures. Painting was and is a very different task than sculpting and there was some concern among the other artists of the day that Michelangelo may not be up for the task of painting that amount of landscape. Even painters often were cowed by painting ceilings because of the angles at which the images had to be portrayed. It required complex mathematical and complex artistic knowledge.

Michelangelo was admittedly reluctant to take the commission. Pope Julius II, was however, a man that was hard to resist. Michelangelo finally capitulated and painted the ceiling. Once he started, he was able to complete the ceiling in 4 years. He built a scaffolding to get himself close to the ceiling, had assistants raise and lower the needed soft plaster required to execute fresco style paintings. A new section of plaster had to be laid each day before painting could begin.

At the completion of his task, Michelangelo had made 343 figures on the ceiling.

Online Art Game Inside Art A student gets sucked into a painting at a museum and learns a lot about different paintings before getting out.

National Gallery of Art: Adventures with Art Activities and Projects has several interactive games and activities. If you scroll to the very bottom of the page, there is a place to look at art. You can zoom in for a closer view. Cool.

Artsology.com has several really interesting art games for children.

Delphes Sylphide Coloring Page is a close up from the Sistine Chapel.

Madonna and Child Coloring BookThis is a great online coloring book with a page from Michelangelo's Holy Family. There are also pages by Raphael, Correggio, Titian, da Vinci, and Paolo Veronese.