Michelangelo's Pieta

One of the major movements and topics of art is Religion. Artists used their art to teach stories, both of what will happen if you are good and if you are bad, and in some cases, just told stories from the bible. A story from the bible that everyone seems to know is that of the crucifixion of Christ. The moment of this story that was popular to depict was that when Jesus’ body is taken down from the cross and is placed in his mother’s lap. This particular image has been expressed by many different artists over time, and is always known as the “Pieta.” The image of Mother Mary holding her dead, frail son has been sculpted and painted many times, but the most recognized sculpted image is that by Michelangelo. This marble statue from the Renaissance is now in St. Peter’s Basilica, and was once a monument for French cardinal Jean de Billheres’ funeral, and was commissioned by Cardinal Billheres in 1498. It was moved from the Chapel of Santa Peronilla  to St. Peters the year after Cardinal Billhere’s funeral.

When looking at Michelangelo’s Pieta, the time period is evident in both the emotional expression of the piece and the stylistic qualities of the piece.  Even though artists of the time were borderline obsessed with anatomy and portraying accuracy in their work, they did tend to get proportions off and their work ended up looking wonderful, but after studying it you could see that hands, feet, legs would be overly large if the subject was real. For example, we can see that if Mary stood up, she would easily be feet taller than Jesus. However, the piece does still display the strive for anatomical perfection in Jesus’ body and the Renaissance ideal for the classical, Roman and Greek beauty. The piece does display the common triangular structure from the period, with Jesus and the drapery of Mary’s clothing being the base of the pyramid and Mary’s head being the vanishing point.

Although this moment of the story is a very sad one, and the elderly mother of Christ is in great despair over her deceased son, Michelangelo did not portray the figures in such a way. He presented Mary as a young woman, and Jesus has next to no evidence of the violence he endured. I feel like he did this to be sure to portray the feeling and a message of the human sacrifice that was made by the Son of God and to make an easier emotional connection to see Jesus in a more humanly, lifelike and less gruesome manner.

Did you know?...

Did you know that this is one of the only pieces of work signed by Michelangelo? When this piece was made, many artists were beginning to get greedy and started taking credit for some work that was not theirs. In the time, people where talking about the Pieta after it had been revealed and in place at the Santa Petronilla Chapel and how Cristoforo Solari had done such a wonderful job. After Michelangelo had heard this, he went back to the sculpture and carved “Michelangelo Buonarroti, Florentine, made this” on a sash that crosses Mary’s chest.

Did you know that Jesus at one point has his foot broken off? In 1972, a mentally deranged man walked into the chapel and attacked the statue with a hammer. Many pieces flew off, including Mary’s nose and Jesus’ foot. Needless to say, the sculpture now sits in a bullet proof glass case.

Did you know that along with there being other interpretations of this scene, there are also numerous replicas of this exact interpretation? One of the first was made in 1964 to make sure that the original would be able to make the trek to New York for the World’s Fair. There are over 15 different replicas that are in numerous different churches and chapels all over the world.

Week 10: Dark Arts

I have really enjoyed learning about art and the history of art this quarter. I feel that the time period we just finished learning about is such an important time in history because it is such a time of transition for the art world, moving out of pieces of work having solely to do with religion to pieces both having so much meaning in them and having no meaning what so ever. I think that the techniques and styles developed in the Baroque and Rococo periods are some that are easily some of the techniques and styles still seen in work of artists of today. One of the genres I have really enjoyed learning about is the horror pieces from the Romantic era. I find these interesting because they have some of the characteristics of the Romantic era, with the detail and the emotional drama and the way that the art seems to be a scene from a dream. I find these pieces interesting because I, myself have been in a “dark state of mind” for a while now, and have had trouble making that apparent in my art, and then not liking the way my own art has turned out because if my inability to convey my dark emotions in my artwork. I really like that artists like Goya were able to portray their dark emotions and nightmares in a way that is elegant and meaningful for any viewer.

Some of these pieces are not about the inner turmoil of the artist, however. For example, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters by Francisco Goya is a piece that was in response to the government during the Inquisition and its aftermath. This piece is Goya’s way of saying that when you ignore reason, it becomes a sleeping monster; that at any moment it could jump up and eat you whole.  This piece shows a man sleeping, reperesnting reason, and is being haunted by and picked on by demonic bats, owls, and a cat. All these things represent different stereotypical “educational” and things of wisdom. For example, some art historians have said that the owls represent the stereotype of mindless stupidity, instead of the more common wisdom. The bats are to show the evil, blood sucking demons of the society, which at the time linked to the people with the most education and “wisdom.”

John Henry Fuseli’s The Nightmare is another piece that shows a dream like scene gone wrong. His work is more based off of his study of the human mind, and how it reacts to certain situations. He spent many years studying the works of Dante, Shakespeare, and Homer, who themselves spent a significant amount of time producing works that had the capability to warp the dark twisty corners of the human mind. In The Nightmare, Fuseli shows a woman who is in the process of being possessed by an evil spirit. She is sprawled across the frame, with her head and arms thrown back in an uncomfortable but vulnerable position. The evil spirit sits on her pelvic area, where he will feed and fornicate with her helpless body. Fuseli places a wild horse with lit eyes peaking into the room through the curtains to convey more fear of the unknown, and the fear of the evil unknown spirit.

I feel that even though these pieces aren’t stated to be about the artist’s own inner turmoil, Goya’s piece is said to be a self portrait, so there has to be some sort of way of him saying that he is fighting some demons as well as participating in the fight against the government. I also feel that as an artist, your feelings do tend to come out on the canvas, whether you know it is or not.