slides Visual Analysis (Sculpture) 27-10-2003
Slide 1: Michelangelo, David. Florence, Accademia
Slide 2: Giambologna, Mercury. Florence, Bargel lo (search Google for image)
Slide 3: Nicola Pisano, Charity. Pisa Bapt Pulpit
Slide 4: Andrea Pisano, Annunciate. Pisa, Museo Civico
Slide 5: Tino di Camaino, Councillor. Pisa, Mus dell'O. (search Google for image)
Slide 6: Donatello, David Florence, Bargello
Slide 7: Bernini, David. Rome, Villa Borghese
It was Cardinal Scipione Borghese who commissioned the statue of David, confronting the giant Goliath and armed only with a sling, executed between 1623 and 1624 by twenty - five - year - old Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The youth 's tense facial expression is modelled on Bernini himself as he struggle with his tools to work the hard marble. The oversize cuirass leant to David by King Saul before the encounter lies on the ground with the harp David will play after his victory, which is decorated with an eagle 's head, a symbolic reference to the Borghese family.
The number of points of view the sculptor intended to present to the spectator is still a matter of conjecture. The right side shows David 's movements, his stride is almost a leap as he aims his sling; seen from the front the pose is frozen, just one second before the fatal shot, and seen diagonally there is a rhytmic balance between movement and pose.
Slide 8: Michelangelo, David, detail, torso
Slide 9: Donatello, St Mark. Florence, Orsanmichele
Donatello
St. Mark
1411-13
Marble
Height 236 cm
Orsanmichele, Florence
Donatello Saint Mark 1411. jpg
Slide 10: Matisse, Slave. London, Tate (search Google for image)
Slide 11: Giambologna, Astronomy. Florence, Palazzo Vecchio
The beautiful young woman depicted in this statuette is an allegory of astronomy as can be deduced from her attributes: prisma, armillary sphere, straight edge, ruler, plumb and drawing compass. Because of these attributes the sculpture in old inventories was listed as Venus Urania. It marks the culmination of Giambologna ’s efforts to form the perfect nude. The beauty of its spiral composition demands appreciation from an infinite number of viewing positions. The statue was executed in 1573, and it was at about the same time that the artist created his Apollo sculpture for Francesco de’ Medici ’s studiolo. The figure of Astronomy is its compositional counterpart.
Giambologna Astronomy. jpg
Slide 12: Donatello, Magdalen. Florence, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo (search Google for image)
Slide 13: Bernini, Magdalen. Siena Duomo, Chigi Chapel (search Google for image)
Slide 14: Nicola Pisano, Presentation. Pisa Bapt Pulpit
Slide 15: Donatello, Feast of Herod. Siena Bapt, font
Slide 16: Donatello, Ascension. London, V&A (search Google for image)
Slide 17: Donatello, Deposition. Florence, S. Lorenzo
Slide 18: Nicola Pisano, Adoration, Pisa Bapt Pulpit
Slide 19: Donatello, Miracle of Misers Heart Padua Santo
Slide 20: Desiderio da Settignano, St Jerome. Washington DC
Desiderio da Settignano
Florentine, 1428 / 1430 - 1464
Saint Jerome in the Desert, 1461
marble, 42.7 x 54.8 cm (16 3 / 4 x 21 1/2 in.)
Widener Collection
Slide 21: Donatello, Limbo I Resurrection. Florence, S. Lorenzo
Donatello Donato de' Bardi detto Donatello, Ressurrezione - (Firenze 1386 - 1466)
Donatello Resurrection
From the wide horizons of his vision in the Padua reliefs, embracing the most vast and complex natural and architectural settings along with the dramatic nucleus of the scene, it now seems that the old sculptor narrows his aim to individual episodes, connecting them, however, within a framework articulated in structure by a scenographic realism of extraordinary objectivity. Christ rises laboriously from the sleep of death, a heart - rending figure who towers over the setting of the sacred scene: a power higher than himself draws him from death into life, amidst the lifeless sleep of the soldiers and the now remote - and I would almost say buried - elegance of the weapons and pagan devices (Castelfranco).
Slide 22: Donatello, Resurrection, detail. (search Google for image)