S

[sienamystic]

Let’s look at some of the work of that undeniable Maestro of Marble, Signore Michelangelo Buonaroti. Impatient, jealous, quarrelsome, and with dubious standards of personal hygiene, Michelangelo stands, chisel and hammer in hand, as one of the great titans of art. He was a sculptor and painter, an engineer and an architect, as well as a poet. He feuded with Leonardo da Vinci, sassed off to the Pope, and was not very complimentary to his fellow artists. He was also a profound student of humanity, and this instinctive sympathy and ability to depict emotion through the figure of the human body is what sets him apart. A titan himself, his work frequently featured titanic figures, muscular and imposing. But some of them represent not success, but failure: thanks to an interfering Pope Julius II, who wanted things done on his own terms, the project that was to be Michelangelo’s crowning glory, the tomb project for Julius II, was never to be completed as originally envisioned.

is for Michelangelo's Slaves



Julius II, the Pope who demanded to be depicted with a sword, rather than a book, had comissioned Michelangelo in 1505 to execute a colossal tomb. Roughly forty figures were planned. From 1505 to 1545, Michelangelo worked on and off on the project, completing the Moses, Rachel, Leah, and beginning work on the Slave figures, of which there were to be twenty, all in variouis attitudes. Little things interrupted him - things like painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling and wall, the death of Julius II and the election of Leo X, several architectural comissions, the Medici tombs, and the renegotiation and resigning of several contracts to finish the tomb, usually with a budget so tight it squeaked.

You can see the final tomb for Julius II here. It is still a fabulous monument, with Michelangelo's Moses anchoring the center with great and terrible authority. But it's a long way from the massive sculptural project that Michelangelo dreamed of, which instead became his bitter albatross which he dubbed the "tragedy of the tomb." It left him with two finished Slave statues, the Dying Slave and the Bound Slave.


(Mr. Swoony is Dying, Mr. Derek Zoolander is Bound.)

These guys, in keeping with the entire theme of Slaves for a tomb project, may reflect an idea of the human soul itself being enslaved or imprisoned by the body (the alternate title for these works is the Prisoners). Gardner quotes Marsilo Ficino, an Italian philosopher of the time, as saying that with the imprisoned soul slumbering, our actions are "the dreams of sleepers and the ravings of madmen," and with these two as an example it's possible to guess what the other slaves might have looked like. Surely they would have shown in attitudes of either revolt or submission, either vigorously resisting imprisonment or exhaustedly submitting after a long struggle.

It also left him with four unfinished slave sculptures, two of which I photographed in Florence:





In a lot of ways, and no doubt much to the chagrin of Michelangelo were he to hear me, I'm far more fond of the unfinished sculptures than the finished ones. Not only do they give us great insight into the technical aspects of his skill - we see how he approached the block, and his poems about cutting away the marble to free the figure trapped inside now begin to make sense. The figures seem to swim inside the marble, sometimes breaking free of it, sometimes being subsumed. I'm not the only one to be interested by these dramatic, unfinished works - Rodin saw great potential in them and understood that were they to be completed, they might have actually been far less interesting. Other unfinished works of Michelangelo, namely the Rondanini Pieta and the St. Matthew share this poignant, struggling quality.

Michelangelo never stopped yearning to return to sculpture, no matter how lauded his massive, backbreaking, and brilliant Sistine Chapel ceiling was. Sculpture was how he defined himself, what he loved in his very marrow, ever since he was a baby and, he said, imbibed his love of marble along with the milk from his wetnurse who was from a quarry town, why he competed so strenously with Leonardo Da Vinci, who thought sculpture was a rough art for rough men, and certainly no profession for a gentleman. It's through sculptures like the unfinished slaves, as well as his poetry, that the more intimate side of Michelangelo emerges, his usual growl tamed to something softer and more personal.

What file's incessant bite
left this old hide so shrunken, frayed away,
my poor sick soul? When is it due, the day
that sloughs it off, and heaven receives you, where
in primal joy and light
you lived, unvexed by the perilous flesh you wear?
Though I change hide and hair
with little life ahead,
no way to change behavior long engrained,
cramping me all the more as years go by.
I'm envious, Love, I swear
(why hide it?) of the dead,
a panicky muddle-head,
my soul in terror of its sensual tie.
Lord, as the last hours fly,
stretch out in mercy your two arms; make me
less what I've been, more what you'd have me be.
Michelangelo, Poem 161 to Vittoria Colonna.

Comments

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

The figures seem to swim inside the marble, sometimes breaking free of it, sometimes being subsumed.

Oh good. I thought it was just me being a pohilistine when I preferred the unfinished statues. ANd I think you've perfectly captured just why I like them.

[apis-mellifera.livejournal.com]

(Mr. Swoony is Dying, Mr. Derek Zoolander is Bound.)

Made me snort most in a most unladylike fashion.

I like the unfinished ones--it's like the figures are stuggling to be free of some sort of prison--very evocative. Humanity emerging from a formless void.

[(Anonymous)]

I saw the unfinished ones in Florence also, and they made a very strong impression on me. They are very haunting - I much prefer them to the finished pieces.

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

I like a lot of Michelangelo's sculpture, even the David, which actually has an impact when seen in person despite the fact that it's been reproduced a gajillion times and you would think you would be more jaded. But Donatello, Verrochio, and other sculptors of the era are the ones that make me weak in the knees.