Figurative Scuplture, Essay Example

Introduction

There are many books of art history but many fail to portray the continuum of figurative art throughout the past century. Many people do not even know what the American Renaissance is all about. “The works of Rodin in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s are often ignored and artist turn to the world of abstraction art as though it was the only type of art created in history. Prior to the 1900’s the age of the American Renaissance began to blossom with the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893 where sculptors, Architects and Artisans worked simultaneously together to create very inspiring works of art.” [1](Keroplan, M. 2008).  Frederick MacMonnies was one of the famous sculptors who had their chance to exhibit such beautiful sculptures at this exhibition in Chicago.  St. Gauden’s refers to these great contributors as “the greatest collection since the 15^th century”.  Gauden’s was the Chief Consultant for sculptural design. The sculptures for this exposition were created for five month duration and were to be destroyed after the exhibition. Buildings and fountain sculptures were composed of a ‘concrete/plaster/hemp mixture’ painted over with Lead (Pb) paint to preserve the works for the five month temporary exhibition. Wood lathing was applied to the framework that bolted the steel structure of the buildings. Many of the sculptors were students of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France.

The Renaissance, as a classic or Italian movement, made itself felt slowly in Germany. The Germans were sluggish in their appreciation of formal beauty. They emphasized inward significance, sentiment, and reality, and at first regarded beauty of form as superficial. As a naturalistic movement, however, the fifteenth century signified for Germany, as it did for Italy, a return to nature and a revival of sculpture. [2](Renaissance Sculpture, 1896).

Michelangelo’s Work on Sculpture’s

Michelangelo was the leader of Italian sculpture in the Italian High Renaissance and provided a significant amount of influence of the western art for years. Around the 1500 Michelangelo returned to Florence and began to work on what was called the masterpiece of his sculptures, the Statute of David. He was later commissioned by the Pope to paint the fresco of the Sistine Chapel. To date there are many replicas of this work of art. His other works include the Statue of Julius that was made for the Tomb of Julius II. “Michelangelo’s sculpture “The Risen Christ” reserves a very interesting history. It has natural life-sized, H – 205 cm, made of marble, and was carved in 1520 (Harris 36) or 1521(Vichy 112). “It is now located at Santa Maria Spore Minerva (Catholic Church), Rome, Italy.”⁰¹

It was built 1514, two years after work on the Sistine Chapel was completed, and that Michelangelo carried out this sculpture. His friend Metello Vari ordered this work”[3](Comments on Michelangelo’s Works).  Michelangelo’s earliest sculpture was a stone relief executed when he was about 17, in its composition echoes the Roman sarcophagi of the Medici collection and in its subject, the Battle of the Centaurs, a Latin poem a court poet read to him. The Last Judgement, his designs for St Peter’s Basilica, and several other works were many of his amazing accomplishments in the art of sculpture. In less than two years Michelangelo carved from a single slab of marble, one of the most magnificent sculptures ever created. His interpretation of the Pieta was far different than ones previously created by other artists. Michelangelo decided to create a youthful, serene and celestial Virgin Mary instead of a broken hearted and somewhat older woman.[4](Statute Store).

Michelangelo is also known for his creation of LaPieta’ in (1499). It is a true Rennaisance depiction of in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City in Rome, Italy. He followed this theme in several of his future art sculptures. This statute was made for the funeral of Cardinal of France Jean de Billheres who at the time of his death was a Representative of Rome. The structure is pyramidal, and the vertex coincides with Mary’s head. The Madonna, his creation is a representation being his work being very young and impressionable. One is that her youth symbolizes her incorruptible purity, as Michelangelo himself said to his biographer and fellow sculptor Ascanio Condivi.

Donatello’s Work Sculpture’s

Donatello probably did not return to Florence before 1405, since the earliest works in that city that can be traced to his chisel are two small statues of prophets for the north door of the cathedral, for which he received payment in November 1406 and in the beginning of 1408. “In the latter year, he was entrusted with the important commissions for the marble David (not to be confused with his later bronze version), now at the Bargello, and for the colossal seated figure of Saint John the Evangelist, which until 1588 occupied a niche of the old cathedral facade, and is now placed in a dark chapel of the Duomo.”[5](All About Renaissance Faires). He was equally at home in low relief and figures in the round, in wood as well as marble and bronze with him, in Florence, the art of sculpture was born anew. His figures ranged from the martial St.George to Mary Magdeline “consumed by fastings and abstinence. In the 1440s, Donatello designed and, with his assistants, executed an imposing high altar complex for the great Paduan pilgrimage church of S. Antonio, a building also known simply as the Santo. The significance of Donatello’s project lies not only in its intrinsic technical and artistic merits, but also in its location and the types of beholders who would have encountered it. Due to the presence of the tomb of Saint Anthony (died 1231). [6](Johnson, Gearldine 2009).

Donatello was known for his superb master of the art of sculpture during the Renaissance era. His accomplishments were of marble and bronze, and had an extensive knowledge of ancient sculpture. “Donatello also developed his own style of relief known as schiacciato (“flattened out”). This technique involved extremely shallow carving and utilized light and shadow to create the full pictorial scene.” [7](Snell, M., 2009).

Cellini’s Work Sculpture’s

Benevento Celleni, metalworker and sculptor, born in Florence, where his family, originally landowners in the Val d’Ambra, had for three generations been settled. “The most distinguished of these is the bronze group of “Perseus holding the head of Medusa”, a work (first suggested by Duke Cosimo I de Medici) now in the Loggia dei Lanzi at Florence, full of the fire of genius and the grandeur of a terrible beauty, one of the most typical and unforgettable monuments of the Italian Renaissance.”[8] (Benvenuto Celleni).  Cellini had a very strong, but strange, impression on the Italian High Renaissance.

His first works in Rome were a silvier casket, silver candlesticks and a valse for the bishop of Salamanca, which won him the approval of Pope Clement VII. Another celebrated work from Rome is the gold medallion of “Leda and the Swan” executed for the Gonfaloniere Gabbriello Cesarino, and which is now in the Vienna museum. He also took up the flute again, and was appointed one of the pope’s court musicians.  Known as a Florentine sculptor, goldsmith, and writer, one of the most important ‘mannerist artists’ and, because of the lively account of himself and his period in his autobiography, one of the most picturesque figures of the Renaissance. “As a goldsmith, he made a Saltcellar for Francis 1 of France. Other works of art that Cellini created are the silver figures of Jupiter, Juno, Vulcan and Mars. Cellini strongly influenced the painting and sculpting at Fontainbleau School, and he set high technical standards for the sculptors that followed him.”[9](Adam & Luke, 2009).

“Cellini, while employed at the papal mint at Rome during the papacy of Clement VII and later of Paul III, executed the dies of several coins and medals, some of which still survive at this now defunct mint. The important works which have perished include the uncompleted chalice intended for Clement VII; gold cover for a prayer-book as a gift from Pope Paul III to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.” [10](Rennaisance-Fairres 2009).

Conclusion

Michelangelo, Donatello and Benvenuto Cellini all were infamous sculptors in their time. They all used different forms of art sculpture to depict their feeling of art in relation to expressionism. Donatello was probably the most humblest of all the sculptures through his shallow beginning. As with any starving artist true wealth comes normally after death of an artist when art lovers realize the true wealth of an artist’s works. Each artist had his own personal style yet they each managed to portray art through sculpture at one point in life. This is probably the beginning of an artist’s expression of his true abilities and talents.

Works Cited

Keroplan, M. (2008) American Figurative Sculpture Retrieved 31 August 2009 from, http://www.keropiansculpture.com/writings.html.

Renaissance Sculpture Renaissance Sculpture in Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and England Retrieved 31 August 2009 from, http://www.oldandsold.com/articles08/sculpture-23.shtml.

Comments on Michelangelo’s Works 02 February 2009. 31 August 2009. < http://www.webartigos.com/articles/22868/1/comments-on-michelangelos-work-1475-1564-sculpture-the-risen-christ-florenceitaly—renaissance-period——and-antonio-francisco-lisboas-work-1738-1814—–sculpture-the-christ-of-flagellation-ouro-pretobrazil–baroque-period/pagina1.html>.

Statute Store The Pieta by Michelangelo 23 July 2009. 31 August 2009. < http://www.statue.com/michelangelo-pieta.html>.

All About Rennaisance Fairees23 March 2009. 31 August 2009 < http://www.all-about-renaissance-faires.com/ren_artists/donatello/donatello.htm>.

Johnson, Geraldine Approaching the Altar; Donatello’s Sculpture in the Santo 22 Septemeber 1999. 21 August 2009 < http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-57815614.html>.

Snell, M. (2009) Medieval History:  Donatello Retrieved 31 August 2009 from, http://historymedren.about.com/od/dwho/p/who_donatello.htm.

Bennvenuto Cellini 23 June 2005. 21 August 2009. < http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/benvenuto-cellini/works.html.

Adam & Luke (2009) Benevento Cellini Retrieved 31 August 2009 from, http://www.yesnet.yk.ca/schools/projects/renaissance/cellini.html.

Renaissance Fairres Cellini, Benevento Retrieved 31 August 2009 from, http://www.all-about-renaissance-faires.com/ren_artists/cellini/cellini.htm.

[1] Keroplan, M. (2008) American Figurative Sculpture Retrieved 31 August 2009 from, http://www.keropiansculpture.com/writings.html.

[2] Renaissance Sculpture Renaissance Sculpture in Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and England Retrieved 31 August 2009 from, http://www.oldandsold.com/articles08/sculpture-23.shtml.

[3] Comments on Michelangelo’s Works 02 February 2009. 31 August 2009. < http://www.webartigos.com/articles/22868/1/comments-on-michelangelos-work-1475-1564-sculpture-the-risen-christ-florenceitaly—renaissance-period——and-antonio-francisco-lisboas-work-1738-1814—–sculpture-the-christ-of-flagellation-ouro-pretobrazil–baroque-period/pagina1.html>.

[4] Statute Store The Pieta by Michelangelo 23 July 2009. 31 August 2009. < http://www.statue.com/michelangelo-pieta.html>.

[5] All About Rennaisance Fairees23 March 2009. 31 August 2009 < http://www.all-about-renaissance-faires.com/ren_artists/donatello/donatello.htm>.

[6] Johnson, Geraldine Approaching the Altar; Donatello’s Sculpture in the Santo 22 Septemeber 1999. 21 August 2009 < http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-57815614.html>.

[7] Snell, M. (2009) Medieval History:  Donatello Retrieved 31 August 2009 from, http://historymedren.about.com/od/dwho/p/who_donatello.htm.

[8] Benevento Cellini 23 June 2005. 21 August 2009. < http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/benvenuto-cellini/works.html.

[9] Adam & Luke (2009) Benevento Cellini Retrieved 31 August 2009 from, http://www.yesnet.yk.ca/schools/projects/renaissance/cellini.html.

[10] Renaissance Fairres Cellini, Benevento Retrieved 31 August 2009 from, http://www.all-about-renaissance-faires.com/ren_artists/cellini/cellini.htm.