Renaissance was an efflorescence driven primarily by man's
enhanced awareness .While at one level, it turned his inner focus
to the beauty and harmony in the human form, at another, it
analyzed man's perception of distance and space within the matrix
of time, material and techniques. The resultant rebirth imparted a
touch of genius in every art form- especially in sculpture.
The Renaissance influence concretized in sculpture in myriad ways.
Anatomy and drapery ceased to be symbolic-it had to be formed
through observation and assimilation of classical forms. Geometric
shapes permeated the balanced, closed compositions and you discover
that triangles, circles and triangles form the basic grid. A
harmony of space resembling the eye of vision is also apparent that
led to portrayal of realistic space simulating three dimensions.
The experimentation (as all art is in its initial stages) proved
successful and sustainable due to its powerful patronage by the
Papacy and the Church who had no better way of glorifying
themselves. The increasingly opulent churches became dependent on
the master sculptors to populate the spaces with masterpieces that
even today make you wonder whether they will blink!
Michelangelo's David (Galleria
dell'Accademia, Florence)
His David was much more than he one who fought and won over Goliath
.It is imbued with the over powering strength, determination and
power of the ordinary person who can conquer all. Michelangelo
worshiped the male nude as the ultimate form and used torsion
(twisting the body in one direction) or contraposto (twisting the
body in contradictory directions) to bring out their musculature.
You will be entranced by the perfect Renaissance nude a masterpiece
of sculpture that became a symbolic of the power of ideas and the
Renaissance.Lorenzo Ghiberti's Gates of
Paradise
In 1401, young Ghiberti won the honor to craft the doors of
Florence's Baptistery. Completed over a period of fifty-one years,
it sent the Gothic format into an ethereal orbit of three
dimensions .It was the defining moment of Renaissance reality that
invented space and added a new dimension. The great master
Michelangelo himself was wonderstruck and declared them to be "so
beautiful they would grace the entrance to Paradise."Pisano Pulpits (Duomo, Siena; Sant'Andrea, Pistoia;
Baptistery and Duomo, Pisa)
Father Nicola and son Giovanni, first invented and then refined the
Gothic sculpture. While there once stood the largely symbolic and
stilted figures, the duo transfused a new life, a new emotional
language and volume to sculpture that transformed hard stone into
fluid grace. The figures are so arresting that you almost the eyes
to flutter!Luca Signorelli's Last Judgment
(Duomo, Orvieto)
Having recently emerged from years of restoration, Signorelli's
signature piece uses the separation of the blessed from the damned
as an excuse to display his mastery of the human nude. It had all
the elements that hallmarked the Renaissance sculptures. Every
muscle was etched, each fiber taut. Michelangelo studied this
seminal work before embarking on the subject in the Sistine
Chapel. |
