Comparison of Michelangelo’s and Bernini’s 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 Mich
New York: Riverside Book Co, 1989. Michelangelo chose the moment just before the start of the battle. Almost all statues, which preceded his, stood self contained, insulated, and apart from the spectator. He took a completely different view of the subject, as you will soon see. The flat planes joining at determined angles underlie all the construction of the David, not only in the squared-off masses of the features but throughout the knotty, bony, sinewy, half- developed, and unprecedentedly beautiful torso and legs. David’s body expresses the great physical strain he is under, and his face expresses his determination and concentration (“David”). He has actively involved the viewer in the sculpture itself, like we have seen before in Hellenistic sculpture. It is perfect in form, as is was meant to be, which makes the viewer believe that this is just a boy, even though he is seventeen feet tall. Bernini also became famous in his own time for his rendition of David. Once the statue was completed, a committee of citizens and artists convened to decide where the statue should be placed. Michelangelo: The Complete Sculpture.
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