Having trouble attaching images this morning. So, Im putting up the text of todays lesson and will add images later. #4. The divine Michelangelo. Michelangelo lived from 1475 to 1564, dying at 88 years of age. And he packed it full of masterpieces. Raphael opening stole from him. Many of Rodins sculptures are taken from lesser known Michelangelo works. And he invented the idea of a truly three-dimensional pose. (see the study for Sistine Chapel) Before Michelangelo, poses leaned left and right, twisted forward and back, but never fully tilted in of out of the picture plane. Pose design was trapped by the engineering paradigm of sculpture. As a sculptor, if I leaned the top of the sculpture way off axis from the supporting base the thing will break off. Since Renaissance art was schooled by Classical sculptures, the painters of that time never thought to ignore a rule based on purely structural concerns, a rule that had nothing to do with them . . . . . . not until Michelangelo, that is. He broke the rule in both painting and sculpture. Bright fellow. And then, there were his distortions. He built currents and torsions into his muscle forms like never before. Under his hand, canons of proportions were mere whims to be played with. Notice how the legs are over small and the upper torso over big in the Sketch for the Battle of Cascina. It feel like that body is shouldering into us. Notice how the base leg in the Study of Adam is mammoth in scale, an earthen landscape that locks him down, while the torso on its left side is bound by, contour, form, and shadow shape into a tortured attempt to rise up. Notice how, in Michelangelo, the forms are in service to a greater theme. Notice how it is all about the IDEA, not the rendering. In great art the subject matter is always an excuse for some deeper dialogue. That is what makes it great art to begin with. Notice! Go out and look and learn from the masters. They are always delighted to talk to you if youll listen. Steve Huston
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 14:11:50 +0000
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