Michelangelo
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In 1504, Michelangelo completed his massive statue known as the David. This work, which is located in Florence, stands more than fourteen feet high. It is a powerful work, and it was responsible for establishing Michelangelo's fame as an artist. The David shows Michelangelo's knowledge of anatomy, as well as his skill in handling such artistic attributes as balance and proportion. In addition, the marble sculpture conveys an image of the human body which is almost superhuman. In this way, the David encompasses the idea of divinity within the human being. This idea was representative of the values which were developing during the Renaissance period. After centuries of Church domination in human affairs, the Renaissance marked a return to the humanistic values of the ancient world. A study of Michelangelo's life and career reveals that the artist's personality was centered around these Renaissance values. The David, in turn, is one of the finest expressions of this personality. In order to understand Michelangelo's personality, it will be helpful to trace his early life and influences. Michelangelo Buonarroti was born in the Italian town of Caprese in 1475. His father was a government employee; however, he was raised by a nursemaid who was the wife of a stone mason. Growing up in the family of a stone mason gave Michelangelo an early love for the art of sculpture. As he commented later in his life: "With my wet-nurse's milk, I sucked in the hammer and chisels I
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ty was almost always infused with a glorification of the human body. In this way, Michelangelo was representative of the Renaissance age and its efforts to merge spirituality with humanism.
These aspects of Michelangelo's personality are clearly seen in his early masterpiece, the David. The David is a massive sculpture, standing more than fourteen feet high. It is carved out of a single block of marble, and it has been described as "the largest marble statue to be carved in Italy since the end of the Roman Empire" (Gowing, 1983, p. 447). The subject matter for the statue is simply a nude man holding a sling across his shoulder. However, the colossal size of the work makes it superhuman in scope. Over fourteen feet in height, the David is "more than twice lifesized" (Andrews, Hunisak and Turner, 1988, p. 966). Although the work simply depicts a nude man, its size turns it into a humanistic statement regarding the divine nature of the human being. This statement is enhanced by the perfect representation of human anatomy which is seen in the David, and by the artistic balance which Michelangelo utilized in creating the statue.
The marble block which was used for the carving of the David had lain unused in a quarry for decade
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Approximate Word count = 3205
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)
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