Comparison of Two Davids
"The greatest artist has no conception which a single block of marble does not potentially contain within its mass, but only a hand obedient to the mind can penetrate to this image." Michelangelo describes in the above quote what it is like to carve a likeness of a person out of a large block of marble. As we know from seeing his work, he did an excellent job with this task. Bernini did just as fine a job on his, but in a much different way as you will see in the following pages.Michelangelo was born on March 6, 1475, in Caprese, Italy, a tiny village, owned by the nearby city-state of Florence. His father was the mayor. He attended school in Florence, but he was preoccupied by art. When he was 13, his father agreed to apprentice him to some well-known painters in Florence. Michelangelo was unsatisfied with these artists, because they would not teach him their artistic secrets. He went to work under another sculptor hired by Lorenzo de Medici.When Michelangelo was 21, he went to Rome, where he was commissioned to carve a group of marble statues showing the Virgin Mary supporting the dead Christ on her knees. His sculpture was called Madonna Della Pieta, and it made Michelangel
Instead of presenting us with the winner of the battle, with the giant's head at his feet and a sword in his hand like Donatello did many years before, he portrays David right before the battle begins. "One fact of Bernini's great genius should be pointed out. New York: Time-Life Books, 1966. New York: Rizzloi International Publications, Inc, 1987. The space in front of the statue becomes a part of the concept" ("238David"). The David, consequently, marks a real break in Bernini's life. It would become a symbol of this city, "a city willing to take on all comers in defense of its liberty" (Coughlan 91). He is placed in perfect contrapusto; in the same manner the Greeks represented their heroes (Heusinger 17). When his people asked him to fight Goliath, he was forced to throw down his music for a short time and pick up the armor of a warrior. For the first time Michelangelo is able to embody in the quality of a single human body all the passionate drama of a man's inner nature.
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Acceptance Essays
