livius drusus
01-07-2007, 06:45 AM
If anyone was indentured by the sculpting of the slave series it was Michelangelo himself. Originally commissioned in 1505 for the tomb of Pope Julius II, the slaves fell by the wayside when the plans became a far more pedestrian affair thanks to a rather surly Medici pope taking over after Julius was reduced to naught but a few wisps of black smoke over the Vatican.
Since the tomb planning went through a variety of changes over the decades from its commissioning in 1505 (http://www.mcah.columbia.edu/dbcourses/arthum/medium/920632614849_044.jpg), to what is charitably referred to as its reconstruction in 1513 (http://www.mcah.columbia.edu/dbcourses/arthum/medium/920632614849_043.jpg), to its rather anticlimactic completion in 1547 (http://www.mcah.columbia.edu/dbcourses/arthum/medium/920632614849_052.jpg), Michelangelo worked on the slaves in fits and starts, ultimately coming close to finishing only 2 out of the originally planned 16, and leaving 4 others in various stages of completion. The 2 nearly finished ones are in the Louvre, while the unfinished ones line the hallway leading to Michelangelo's David in the Galleria in Florence.
The slaves mark a real turning point in Renaissance sculpture, the revival of the Hellenistic sense of form and movement. The late 15th century had seen some extraordinary realistic sculpture inspired by the works of Greece and Rome, a marked departure from the flat, stylized conventions of even the late Medieval period (Nicola Pisano, Fortitude (http://www.mcah.columbia.edu/dbcourses/rosand/medium/pisano_n_pisa1_081602.jpg)), but even so, most of the statuary was still posed and static (Donatello, Judith and Holofernes (http://www.mcah.columbia.edu/dbcourses/beck/large/donatel_janson63_96_013003.jpg)).
Compared to his contemporaries, Michelangelo's figures exploded out of the marble.
http://www.freethought-forum.com/images/Slaves/Laocoon.jpg The Laocoon Group (Greek, 1st century BCE) had been unearthed in 1506 in Rome and was displayed in the Vatican. Michelangelo was profoundly affected by this masterpiece of captured movement. The two slaves in the Louvre, the Rebellious Slave and the Dying Slave, twist in counterpoint to each other much like Laocoon's sons.
(Recent scholarship hypothesizes that the Laocoon group may actually have been sculpted by Michelangelo himself and then pawned off as an antiquity. See this fascinating article (http://70.47.124.114/node/454) for arguments for and against the forgery hypothesis.)
Michelangelo said that he didn’t sculpt figures into marble: he liberated them out of it. He quarried his own marble in Carrara, seeing the figures in the living rock before driving in the first nail that would split it off the rockface. The unfinished slaves are deeply compelling examples of how Michelangelo chipped away the marble enclosure, gradually exposing more and more the sculpture trapped inside.
http://www.freethought-forum.com/livius/rebslave.jpg [b]The Rebellious Slave struggles to twist out of his chains, pushing himself hard off his right leg like the son on Laocoon’s left struggles against the serpent constricting him. The sculpture is rough hewn, his facial features and hair unpolished and bold.
http://www.freethought-forum.com/livius/dyingslave.jpg [b]The Dying Slave, on the other hand, is polished to a high gloss, delicately featured and almost dreamy as he reclines in a glowing kind of resignation, his head thrown back, one arm raised, one on his chest, legs slightly bent similar to the son on Laocoon’s right, whose vain struggle against the serpent is almost over.
http://www.freethought-forum.com/livius/atlas.jpegFirst, my favorite [b]Atlas (AKA the Prisoner)
That massive square rock overhanging, pushing his body down gives the sense of the weight that bowed body is being made to carry. Even though they have yet to be carved, a strained neck and head bent down in front of his hands are somehow discernible as they lift the burden just behind the surface of the marble block.
http://www.freethought-forum.com/livius/beardedslave.jpg[b]The Bearded Slave
His arm is incomplete and some detail in his lowered hand and feet is missing, but he’s almost free. The clear straps tying him to his perpetual burden stand out against the rough figure.
http://www.freethought-forum.com/livius/youthslave.jpg
[b]The Young Slave
You can see the beginnings of his face peeking under his raised arm, but like many youths, his primary sex characteristics need work.
http://www.freethought-forum.com/livius/awakeslave.jpg[b]The Awakening Slave
The figure just beginning to emerge from the stone. I don’t know if they call him Awakening because he’s stretching and arching his back or because he’s finally rising from the darkness of his four-poster solid marble bed, but I find the nascent movement deeply compelling.
[BREAK=On Finishing]Obviously Michelangelo didn’t plan to leave the slaves unfinished. They would have adorned the first level of Julius’ tomb, representing the things of the earth or the arts, both enslaved and sustained by its noble patrons. He stopped working on them in 1523 when the were eliminated from the plans, and only returned to tomb at all in 1542 to sculpt the Rachel (http://www.mcah.columbia.edu/dbcourses/beck/medium/michel_ph70_pl035_013003.jpg) and Leah (http://www.mcah.columbia.edu/dbcourses/beck/medium/michel_ph70_pl034_013003.jpg) pair and finally in 1547 finished the Moses (http://www.mcah.columbia.edu/dbcourses/arthum/medium/920632614849_060.jpg) he had begun when first commissioned 42 years earlier.
What never fails to stun me is how the meaning and symbolism are just as clear in the unfinished works as they are in the complete ones. In some cases I can’t imagine how they would be improved by having been finished. The realization that sometimes “completion” can sometimes be nothing more than an over-indulgent fantasy is deeply soothing to me, which is why, no matter how much I fear I have left unsaid, I am stopping at the end of this sentence and posting this slave of mine now.
Since the tomb planning went through a variety of changes over the decades from its commissioning in 1505 (http://www.mcah.columbia.edu/dbcourses/arthum/medium/920632614849_044.jpg), to what is charitably referred to as its reconstruction in 1513 (http://www.mcah.columbia.edu/dbcourses/arthum/medium/920632614849_043.jpg), to its rather anticlimactic completion in 1547 (http://www.mcah.columbia.edu/dbcourses/arthum/medium/920632614849_052.jpg), Michelangelo worked on the slaves in fits and starts, ultimately coming close to finishing only 2 out of the originally planned 16, and leaving 4 others in various stages of completion. The 2 nearly finished ones are in the Louvre, while the unfinished ones line the hallway leading to Michelangelo's David in the Galleria in Florence.
The slaves mark a real turning point in Renaissance sculpture, the revival of the Hellenistic sense of form and movement. The late 15th century had seen some extraordinary realistic sculpture inspired by the works of Greece and Rome, a marked departure from the flat, stylized conventions of even the late Medieval period (Nicola Pisano, Fortitude (http://www.mcah.columbia.edu/dbcourses/rosand/medium/pisano_n_pisa1_081602.jpg)), but even so, most of the statuary was still posed and static (Donatello, Judith and Holofernes (http://www.mcah.columbia.edu/dbcourses/beck/large/donatel_janson63_96_013003.jpg)).
Compared to his contemporaries, Michelangelo's figures exploded out of the marble.
http://www.freethought-forum.com/images/Slaves/Laocoon.jpg The Laocoon Group (Greek, 1st century BCE) had been unearthed in 1506 in Rome and was displayed in the Vatican. Michelangelo was profoundly affected by this masterpiece of captured movement. The two slaves in the Louvre, the Rebellious Slave and the Dying Slave, twist in counterpoint to each other much like Laocoon's sons.
(Recent scholarship hypothesizes that the Laocoon group may actually have been sculpted by Michelangelo himself and then pawned off as an antiquity. See this fascinating article (http://70.47.124.114/node/454) for arguments for and against the forgery hypothesis.)
Michelangelo said that he didn’t sculpt figures into marble: he liberated them out of it. He quarried his own marble in Carrara, seeing the figures in the living rock before driving in the first nail that would split it off the rockface. The unfinished slaves are deeply compelling examples of how Michelangelo chipped away the marble enclosure, gradually exposing more and more the sculpture trapped inside.
http://www.freethought-forum.com/livius/rebslave.jpg [b]The Rebellious Slave struggles to twist out of his chains, pushing himself hard off his right leg like the son on Laocoon’s left struggles against the serpent constricting him. The sculpture is rough hewn, his facial features and hair unpolished and bold.
http://www.freethought-forum.com/livius/dyingslave.jpg [b]The Dying Slave, on the other hand, is polished to a high gloss, delicately featured and almost dreamy as he reclines in a glowing kind of resignation, his head thrown back, one arm raised, one on his chest, legs slightly bent similar to the son on Laocoon’s right, whose vain struggle against the serpent is almost over.
http://www.freethought-forum.com/livius/atlas.jpegFirst, my favorite [b]Atlas (AKA the Prisoner)
That massive square rock overhanging, pushing his body down gives the sense of the weight that bowed body is being made to carry. Even though they have yet to be carved, a strained neck and head bent down in front of his hands are somehow discernible as they lift the burden just behind the surface of the marble block.
http://www.freethought-forum.com/livius/beardedslave.jpg[b]The Bearded Slave
His arm is incomplete and some detail in his lowered hand and feet is missing, but he’s almost free. The clear straps tying him to his perpetual burden stand out against the rough figure.
http://www.freethought-forum.com/livius/youthslave.jpg
[b]The Young Slave
You can see the beginnings of his face peeking under his raised arm, but like many youths, his primary sex characteristics need work.
http://www.freethought-forum.com/livius/awakeslave.jpg[b]The Awakening Slave
The figure just beginning to emerge from the stone. I don’t know if they call him Awakening because he’s stretching and arching his back or because he’s finally rising from the darkness of his four-poster solid marble bed, but I find the nascent movement deeply compelling.
[BREAK=On Finishing]Obviously Michelangelo didn’t plan to leave the slaves unfinished. They would have adorned the first level of Julius’ tomb, representing the things of the earth or the arts, both enslaved and sustained by its noble patrons. He stopped working on them in 1523 when the were eliminated from the plans, and only returned to tomb at all in 1542 to sculpt the Rachel (http://www.mcah.columbia.edu/dbcourses/beck/medium/michel_ph70_pl035_013003.jpg) and Leah (http://www.mcah.columbia.edu/dbcourses/beck/medium/michel_ph70_pl034_013003.jpg) pair and finally in 1547 finished the Moses (http://www.mcah.columbia.edu/dbcourses/arthum/medium/920632614849_060.jpg) he had begun when first commissioned 42 years earlier.
What never fails to stun me is how the meaning and symbolism are just as clear in the unfinished works as they are in the complete ones. In some cases I can’t imagine how they would be improved by having been finished. The realization that sometimes “completion” can sometimes be nothing more than an over-indulgent fantasy is deeply soothing to me, which is why, no matter how much I fear I have left unsaid, I am stopping at the end of this sentence and posting this slave of mine now.