Baroque and Mannerist Sculpture in Italy

As I begin to save to travel abroad this summer I reflect on my brief stay in Florence last summer.  I truly regret having e-coli, but not my rainy day lost when I turned the corner to encounter the David in the Piazza della Signoria.  The Piazza would become a pass thru and a stopping point over the next 10 days until my departure to marvel at the works left in large part due to the Medici family.

David, 1504, Michelangelo, Piazza della Signora, Photo Taken May 2011

Menelaus Supporting the Body of Patroclus, Roman Sculpture, Piazza della Signora, Photo Taken May 2011

Perseus with the Head of Medusa, Cellini, 1554, Piazza della Signora, Photo Taken May 2011

Rape of Polyxena, Pio Fedi, 1892, Piazza della Signora, Photo taken May 2011 (for anyone not familiar with the term, rape during this time meant kidnap)

Lion of the Loggia dei Lanzi, Medici Lions, Photo taken May 2011

Hercules and the Centaur, Giambologna, 1600, Piazza della Signora, Photo taken May 2011

I look forward to the adventures in Europe this summer without e-coli (fingers crossed)......

Confined by the Excess

The Vatican Pieta, 1499, Michelangelo, Saint Peter's Basilica, Vatican City

 'The best of artists can no concept find

that is not in a single block of stone,

confined by the excess; to that alone

attains the hand obedient to the mind.

  Noble and gracious lady, most divine,

the evil that I flee and good I crave

thus hide in you; but, that I may not live,

my art proves contrary to my design.

  Not love then, nor your beauty or disdain,

your harshness or fortune or my fate

or destiny is guilty of my pain,

  if in your heart at once you carry both mercy and death, and if my lowly wit,

burning, draws from it nothing else but death.'

~ Michelangelo

Photo from May 2011, David (Reproduction), Michelangelo, Piazza della Signoria, Firenze, Italy

Michelangelo wrote many letters, sonnets, and poems and this one in particular he utilized sculpture as his metaphor and shows the plurality in all things. Michelangelo it is said used art theory to make poetry.

Buonarroti, M. (2007). Poems and letters (michelangelo). Penguin Classics.