Michelangelo | La Cappella Sistina | The Last Judgment, 1535-1541

November 16, 2016, 2:24 pm

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The mighty composition, painted by Michelangelo between 1536 and 1541, is centred around the dominant figure of Christ, captured in the moment preceding that when the verdict of the Last Judgement is uttered (Matthew 25:31-46). His calm imperious gesture seems to both command attention and placate the surrounding agitation. It starts a wide slow rotary movement in which all the figures are involved.

Excluded are the two upper lunettes with groups of angels bearing in flight the symbols of the Passion (on the left the Cross, the nails and the crown of thorns; on the right the column of the scourging, the stairs and the spear with the sponge soaked in vinegar). Next to Christ is the Virgin, who turns her head in a gesture of resignation: in fact she can no longer intervene in the decision, but only await the result of the Judgement. The Saints and the Elect, arranged around Christ and the Virgin, also anxiously await the verdict.

Some of them can be easily recognized: St Peter with the two keys, St Laurence with the gridiron, St Bartholomew with his own skin which is usually recognized as being a self-portrait of Michelangelo, St Catherine of Alexandria with the cogwheel and St Sebastian kneeling holding the arrows. In the centre of the lower section are the angels of the Apocalypse who are wakening the dead to the sound of long trumpets. On the left the risen recover their bodies as they ascend towards heaven (Resurrection of the flesh), on the right angels and devils fight over making the damned fall down to hell.

Finally, at the bottom Charon with his oars, together with his devils, makes the damned get out of his boat to lead them before the infernal judge Minos, whose body is wrapped in the coils of the serpent. The reference in this part to the Inferno of Dante Alighieri's Divina Commedia is clear. As well as praise, the Last Judgement also caused violent reactions among the contemporaries.

For example the Master of Ceremonies Biagio da Cesena said that "it was most dishonest in such an honoured place to have painted so many nude figures who so dishonestly show their shame and that it was not a work for a Chapel of the Pope but for stoves and taverns" (G. Vasari, Le Vite). The controversies, that continued for years, led in 1564 to the decision by the Congregation of the Council of Trent to have some of the figures of the Judgement that were considered "obscene" covered.

The task of painting the covering drapery, the so-called "braghe" (pants) was given to Daniele da Volterra, since then known as the "braghettone". Daniele's "braghe" were only the first and in fact others were added in the following centuries. | © Vatican Museums

Il Giudizio Universaleè la composizione situata sulla parete retrostante l'altare della Cappella Sistina e fu progettata e realizzata da Michelangelo fra il 1533-1541. La sua collocazione fu frutto della specifica volontà del primo committente, papa Clemente VII, che però, giunse solo a vederne il modello compositivo: l'esecuzione in affresco del dipinto ebbe luogo sotto Paolo III e iniziò nel 1536 dopo una lunga e tormentata fase preparatoria.

Sulla parete, per rendere la superficie inclinata, fu applicato uno strato di mattoni di spessore maggiore in alto e minore in basso. L'inclinazione della parete serviva sia per migliorare la visibilità che per evitare il deposito delle polveri. L'affresco della parete del Giudizio Universale si presenta come un'unica grande architettura costituita da più parti tra loro collegate.

Le figure, raggruppate in singole formazioni plastiche, nuotano isolate in disperata solitudine nella tremenda infinità del vuoto.

In alto ci sono gli angeli che recano i simboli della passione, sotto, al centro, Cristo Giudice con Maria Vergine circondati dai beati e dai santi.

Nella fascia più in basso, nella parte centrale ci sono gli angeli con le trombe del Giudizio e ai lati i giusti che salgono verso il cielo e i dannati ricacciati agli inferi.

La resurrezione dei corpi e i dannati condotti all'inferno sono invece i protagonisti della fascia inferiore.

Nel 1564, un anno dopo la chiusura del concilio di trento, la Controriforma si abbatté fatalmente sul Giudizio Universale e i suoi scandalosi nudi. Il compito di censurare le nudità delle figure coprendole con le famose "braghe" fu affidata a Daniele da Volterra, da allora detto il Braghettone. Su quante figure sia intervenuto Daniele da Volterra non è chiaro: suo fu il rifacimento integrale di San Biagio, a cui modificò in particolare la posizione del capo voltandolo verso il Cristo Giudice, e quello parziale di Santa Caterina, che fu pudicamente ricoperta con una veste verde, conservando della versione originale la testa, le braccia e la ruota del martirio.

Il Dio di Michelangelo è un Dio d’amore ma anche di giustizia, come ci mostra nell’affresco del Giudizio Universale.

Il Giudizio Universale, quindi, è stato visto dalla critica come la manifestazione della sua solitaria lotta contro le forze della materia e del male.

Le figure si raggruppano in una sorta di moto rotatorio e si accrescono secondo un andamento ascensionale manifestando tutte le gerarchie divine.

Il corpo umano diventa il momento principale per ogni espressione, ma al tempo stesso si sottrae ai canoni estetici tipici della perfezione formale del classicismo rinascimentale.

Al centro è raffigurato Cristo circondato dai santi e con la madre al suo fianco.

Gesù è raffigurato con il braccio destro alzato in un gesto collerico di dannazione mentre con la mano sinistra chiama gentilmente a sé i beati.

La Madonna sotto il suo braccio, raggomitolata, e impaurita, raccolta in un manto blu, degno della tradizione, spettatrice di quel tumulto di movimento, di quel vortice di carne e spirito. Ella è l'avvocata nostra, colei che aiuta prima ancora che noi si domandi, così Dante la figura e così probabilmente l'ha pensata dipingendola Michelangiolo, ella è rimpicciolita dalla, o nella, potenza del figlio. Rappresenta l'aspetto dolce del divino che non smette di mostrarsi neanche nell'ultimo drammatico istante.

Sopra il Cristo Giudice, nelle due zone semicircolari, alcuni angeli portano gli strumenti della passione di Cristo: la croce sulla quale fu crocefisso, la corona di spine, i dadi con cui giocarono le guardie, la colonna della Flagellazione, la spugna con cui era stato abbeverato.

Nella lunetta di sinistra la croce è sorretta dall'Arcangelo Gabriele.

Da notare come tutti gli angeli che recano i simboli della passione di Cristo sono apteri, ovvero senza ali.

A causa del Giudizio Universale ci fu una pesante disputa tra il Cardinale Carafa e Michelangelo: quest'ultimo venne accusato di immoralità e intollerabile oscenità, perchè aveva dipinto delle figure nude, con i genitali in evidenza, nella più importante chiesa della cristianità. Una campagna di censura (nota come "campagna delle foglie di fico") venne organizzata da Carafa e Monsignor Sernini (ambasciatore di Mantova) per coprire le oscenità degli affreschi. Santa Caterina e San Biagio sono le due figure ritoccate da Daniele da Volterra con tecnica di rifacimento in affresco.

L'incarico di Michelangelo era di dipingere solo le 12 figure degli apostoli, ma a lavoro finito, nel Giudizio Universale sono presenti più di 3.000 personaggi.

I bozzetti sono un documento molto prezioso e curioso. Michelangelo usò modelli maschili, anche per le donne, poiché le modelle erano più rare e costose. Nella parte a sinistra del Cristo si possono riconoscere Sant’Andrea, girato di spalle, con la sua croce in mano e San Giovanni Battista, possente nella sua corporatura, potrebbe rappresentare Adamo.

Al centro dell'affresco ci sono un gruppo di angeli intenti a soffiare il loro trionfo, nel tentativo di svegliare i defunti dal lungo sonno.

In basso, alla sinistra del Cristo, è raffigurato San Bartolomeo. Sulla pelle che tiene in mano vi è un autoritratto di Michelangelo.

Si racconta che come reazione alle critiche del suo lavoro da parte di Biagio da Cesena, Maestro di Cerimonie del Papa, Michelangelo raffigurò i suoi tratti nella figura di Minosse, giudice degli inferi. Biagio da Cesena si lamentò di questo con il Papa, ma il pontefice rispose che la sua giurisdizione non si poteva applicare all'inferno e così la raffigurazione rimase. Secondo altri studiosi, invece, il personaggio ritratto in forme caricaturali nel Minosse sarebbe Pierluigi Farnese, figlio di papa Paolo III, noto a Roma per la sua immoralità e spregiudicatezza e per aver stuprato il giovane vescovo Cosimo Gheri causandone la morte.

In basso a destra ci sono i dannati che cercano in tutti i modi di rimanere agrappati alla terra per non scendere nelle viscere infernali, ma i tentavi sono vani, in quanto le creature diaboliche li trascinano con violenza verso di loro, precipitando come massi pesanti, così pesanti forse per il numero e la gravità dei peccati commessi. Emerge la figura di Caronte, il mitico traghettatore, presente nell’Eneide di Virgilio e nella Divina Commedia di Dante, nell'atto di spingere le anime dei peccatori fuori dalla barca verso l’Inferno per abbandonarli al loro drammatico destino. | © Vatican Museums

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Winslow Homer | Summer Night / Notte d'estate, 1890 | Art in Detail

November 17, 2016, 12:54 pm

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Winslow Homer started his career as a graphic reporter during the American Civil War, before going on to paint scenes of army life and the rural world with the Naturalist precision which then prevailed in American painting. After a stay in Paris, Homer used an Impressionist palette for a while then developed a personal style midway between Realism and Symbolism.

Summer Night perfectly expresses this synthesis and may be considered one of the first masterpieces of American art still in search of its identity.

This nocturnal scene by the sea transcends observed reality through a keen sense of poetry and mystery. The light and shade effects blur shapes, while the ghostly silhouettes of two women dance on the shore. Although it may well have been influenced by Courbet's Waves, the lyricism tinged with mysticism expressed by Homer helped develop a feeling for nature that is peculiarly American. | © Musée d'Orsay

Winslow Homer esordisce come cronista-disegnatore durante la guerra di Secessione, prima di dipingere scene che descrivono la vita quotidiana dell'esercito e del mondo rurale con la precisione naturalista che caratterizzava all'epoca la pittura americana.

Dopo un soggiorno parigino, Homer adotta per un periodo di tempo la tavolozza impressionista per poi trovare, in un secondo momento, il suo stile definitivo, in bilico tra realismo e simbolismo. Notte d'estate esprime perfettamente questa sintesi e può, per questo motivo, essere considerata uno dei primi capolavori di un'arte americana ancora in cerca d'identità.

Questo notturno ambientato in riva all'oceano trascende l'osservazione della realtà con un sentimento acuto della poesia e del mistero. Il chiaroscuro tinge di incertezza le forme, mentre le figure fantomatiche di due donne danzano sulla riva.

Se in questo caso è possibile e verosimile fare appello al ricordo delle Onde di Courbet, il lirismo tinto di misticismo che Homer esprime contribuisce alla creazione di un sentimento della natura tipicamente americano. | © Musée d'Orsay

Pablo Picasso | Cubist / Surrealist painter

November 18, 2016, 1:30 pm

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The artistic genius of Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) has impacted the development of modern and contemporary art with unparalleled magnitude.

His prolific output includes over 20,000 paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures, ceramics, theater sets and costumes that convey myriad intellectual, political, social and amorous messages.

His creative styles transcend realism and Abstraction, Cubism, Neoclassicism, Surrealism and Expressionism.

Born in Malaga, Spain, in 1881, Picasso studied art briefly in Madrid in 1897, then in Barcelona in 1899, where he became closely associated with a group of modernist poets, writers, and artists who gathered at the café Els Quatre Gats (The Four Cats), including the Catalan Carlos Casagemas (1880-1901).

Living intermittently in Paris and Spain until 1904, his work during these years suggests feelings of desolation and darkness inspired in part by the suicide of his friend Casagemas. Picasso’s paintings from late 1901 to about the middle of 1904, referred to as his Blue Period, depict themes of poverty, loneliness, and despair.

In The Blind Man’s Meal from 1903, he uses a dismal range of blues to sensitively render a lonely figure encumbered by his condition as he holds a crust of bread in one hand and awkwardly grasps for a pitcher with the other. The elongated, corkscrew bodies of El Greco (1541-1614) inspire the man’s distorted features.

Picasso moved to Paris in 1904 and settled in the artist quarter Bateau-Lavoir, where he lived among bohemian poets and writers such as Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) and Max Jacob (1876-1944).

In At the Lapin Agile from 1905, Picasso directs his attention toward more pleasant themes such as carnival performers, harlequins, and clowns.

In this painting, he uses his own image for the harlequin figure and abandons the daunting blues in favor of vivid hues, red for example, to celebrate the lives of circus performers (categorically labeled his Rose Period). In Paris, he found dedicated patrons in American siblings Gertrude (1874-1946) and Leo (1872-1947) Stein, whose Saturday evening salons in their home at 27, rue des Fleurus was an incubator for modern artistic and intellectual thought.

At the Steins he met other artists living and working in the city -generally referred to as the “School of Paris” -such as Henri Matisse (1869-1954).
Painted in 1906, Gertrude Stein records Picasso’s early stylistic experiments with primitivism influenced by a new fascination with pre-Roman Iberian sculpture and African and Oceanic art.

Concentrating on intuition rather than strict observation, and unsatisfied with the features of Stein’s face, Picasso reworked her image into a masklike manifestation stimulated by primitivism. The influence of African and Oceanic art is explicit in his masterpiece Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907; Museum of Modern Art, New York), a painting that signals the nascent stages of Cubism.

Here the figure arrangement recalls Cézanne’s compositions of bathers while stylistically it is influenced by primitivism, evident by the angular planes and well-defined contours that create an overall sculptural solidity in the figures.

The basic principles of Analytic Cubism (1910-12), with its fragmentation of three-dimensional forms on a two-dimensional picture plane, are embodied in Still Life with a Bottle of Rum, painted in 1911.
The techniques of Analytic Cubism were developed by Picasso and the French artist Georges Braque (1882-1963), who met in 1907. Picasso’s Bottle and Wine Glass on a Table of 1912 is an early example of Synthetic Cubism (1912-13), a papier collé in which he pasted newsprint and colored paper onto canvas. Picasso and Braque also included tactile components such as cloth in their Synthetic Cubist works, and sometimes used trompe-l’oeil effects to create the illusion of real objects and textures, such as the grain of wood.

After World War I (1914-18), Picasso reverted to traditional styles, experimenting less with Cubism.

In the early 1920s, he devised a unique variant of classicism using mythological images such as centaurs, minotaurs, nymphs, and fauns inspired by the classical world of Italy.

Within this renewed expression, referred to as his Neoclassical Period, he created pictures dedicated to motherhood inspired by the birth of his son Paulo in 1921 (his first of four children by three women). Woman in White of 1923 shows a woman clothed in a classic, toga-like, white dress resting calmly in a contemplative pose with tousled hair, eliciting a tender lyricism and calming spirit of maternity.

Toward the end of the 1920s, Picasso drew on Surrealist imagery and techniques to make pictures of morphed and distorted figures. In Nude Standing by the Sea of 1929, Picasso’s figure recounts the classical pose of a standing nude with her arms upraised, but her body is swollen and monstrously rearranged.

By the early 1930s, Picasso had turned to harmonious colors and sinuous contours that evoke an overall biomorphic sensuality. He painted scenes of women with drooping heads and striking voluptuousness with a renewed sense of optimism and liberty, probably inspired by his affair with a young woman (one of Picasso’s numerous mistresses) named Marie-Thérèse Walter (1909-1977). Girl Reading at a Table from 1934 uses these expressive qualities of bold colors and gentle curves to portray Marie-Thérèse seated at an oversized table, emphasizing her youth and innocence.

Although still living in France in the 1930s, Picasso was deeply distraught over the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936. He reacted with a powerfully emotive series of pictures, such as The Dream and Lie of Franco, that culminated in the enormous mural Guernica (1937; Reina Sofía National Museum, Madrid), painted in a grisaille palette of gray tones. This painting, Picasso’s contribution to the Spanish Pavilion in the 1937 Exposition Universelle in Paris, is a complex work of horrifying proportion with layers of antiwar symbolism protesting the fascist coup led by Generalissimo Francisco Franco.

From the late 1940s through the ’60s, Picasso’s creative energy never waned. Living in the south of France, he continued to paint, make ceramics, and experiment with printmaking.

His international fame increased with large exhibitions in London, Venice, and Paris, as well as retrospectives in Tokyo in 1951, and Lyon, Rome, Milan, and São Paulo in 1953.

A retrospective in New York at the Museum of Modern Art in 1957 garnered a massive amount of attention, with over 100,000 visitors during the first month. 

This exhibition solidified Picasso’s prominence as museums and private collectors in America, Europe, and Japan vied to acquire his works.

In Faun and Starry Night (1970.305) from 1955, Picasso returned to the mythological themes explored in early pictures. Again, incorporating life experience into his painting, he evokes his infatuation with a new love, a young woman named Jacqueline Roque (1927-1986), who became his second wife in 1961 when the artist was seventy-nine years old. In this painting, Picasso symbolizes himself as a faun, calmly and coolly gazing with mature confidence and wisdom at a nymph who blows her instrument to the stars. The picture embraces his spellbound love for Jacqueline.

Even into his eighties and nineties, Picasso produced an enormous number of works and reaped the financial benefits of his success, amassing a personal fortune and a superb collection of his own art, as well as work by other artists.

He died in 1973, leaving an artistic legacy that continues to resonate today throughout the world. | James Voorhies - Department of European Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Picasso ⟨-àso⟩ (propr. Ruiz y Picasso), Pablo - Pittore e scultore (Malaga 1881 - Mougins, Alpi Marittime, 1973). Tra i protagonisti assoluti dell'arte del Novecento, ha rappresentato uno snodo cruciale tra la tradizione ottocentesca e l'arte contemporanea.

• Vita e opere

Figlio di José Ruiz, professore di disegno e conservatore del museo di Malaga, Picasso (dal 1901 firmerà con il cognome della madre) inizia giovanissimo a disegnare; quando la famiglia si trasferisce a Barcellona (1895), partecipa alla vita intellettuale della città, aperta a tutte le correnti d'avanguardia, lavora con frenesia sperimentando varie tecniche, disegna scene dal vero, ritratti di amici.

Nell'ottobre del 1900 si reca per la prima volta a Parigi e s'interessa prevalentemente all'arte di Steinlen, Toulouse-Lautrec, Vuillard. Negli anni seguenti Picasso torna a Parigi e infine nel 1904 vi si stabilisce (la lascerà soltanto per brevi periodi).

Tra il 1901-1904 le sue opere, che ripropongono nei temi espressioni dolenti di tragiche condizioni umane e sociali, sono caratterizzate da un disegno stilizzato e pungente, da una intonazione monocroma blu che definisce duramente i volumi (periodo blu).

Dal 1904 acrobati, suonatori ambulanti, arlecchini popolano le sue tele e i suoi disegni, con note di tenera malinconia, mentre il blu è sostituito da tonalità grigio-rosa (periodo rosa).

Il Ritratto di Gertrude Stein (1906, New York, Metropolitan Museum) prelude nella semplificazione e nella saldezza delle forme ai dipinti più direttamente influenzati dall'arte negra, di cui Picasso sente acutamente il fascino.

Le Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907, New York, Museum of modern art) nella redazione definitiva (dopo tre versioni e numerosi studi) sono al centro di una ricerca ossessiva di tutte le possibilità espressive della figura umana nella scomposizione dei volumi e nel trattamento schematico dei piani (l'opera, mostrata solo a pochi amici, verrà riprodotta nel 1925 ne La révolution surréaliste e presentata nell'Esposizione universale di Parigi del 1937).

Da queste premesse e da una nuova e approfondita conoscenza dell'opera di Cézanne nasce il cubismo. In una ricerca, che si svolge parallela a quella di Braque, Picasso analizza gli elementi volumetrici delle immagini mediante la loro scomposizione geometrica in piani sovrapposti e giustapposti, in un ritmo complesso che porta al superamento della tradizionale impostazione fondo-immagine.

Con la presentazione simultanea delle varie facce dell'immagine, andando oltre la visione tridimensionale, realizza sul piano la quarta dimensione (le forme divengono simboli spazio-temporali) e contestualmente elabora anche le sue esperienze in scultura (Testa femminile, bronzo, 1909, Parigi, Musée Picasso).

Dall'analisi e sezionamento dell'oggetto che conduce alla scoperta di forme, costituenti gli elementi formali della composizione (cubismo analitico), Braque e Picasso giungono alla scoperta del processo che, gradualmente, conferisce un significato oggettivo a composizioni di elementi puramente pittorici (cubismo sintetico); in questo processo grande importanza ha l'invenzione del papier collé e del collage.

Nel 1915 Picasso ritorna alla rappresentazione oggettiva, dapprima ricalcando, soprattutto nei disegni, la via del rigoroso classicismo di Ingres, poi tentando di realizzare una nuova monumentalità in una serie di figure "colossali"; ma ben presto si rifà, specialmente nelle nature morte, alla scomposizione di tipo cubista.

Contro la corrente classicistica, che domina in tutta Europa, Picasso insorge con un quadro di Danzatrici (1925, Londra, Tate Gallery), nel quale la scomposizione cubista si trasforma in una vera e propria deflagrazione formale. Benché Picasso non abbia esplicitamente aderito al surrealismo, le opere di questo periodo, in cui la deformazione giunge spesso a una voluta mostruosità, sono considerate surrealiste; solo nel periodo detto delle ossa (1928-29) si ha una vera e propria visione surrealista.

Ma l'istinto formale, plastico dell'artista riprende il sopravvento sulla poetica del surrealismo: con un gruppo importante di sculture (1930-34; busti, nudi femminili, animali, costruzioni metalliche), nascono dipinti d'alto valore espressivo, nei quali la deformazione diventa apostrofe morale, simbolo delle deformazioni interiori dell'uomo moderno.

Durante la guerra civile spagnola Picasso vive con forte impegno il dramma del suo paese; per un breve periodo è direttore del Prado. La spietata denuncia degli orrori del fascismo e della guerra che impronta le violente acqueforti che illustrano il poemetto Sueño y mentira de Franco, raggiunge i toni più alti del dramma in Guernica (ora nel Museo Reína Sofia), espressione dello sdegno più intenso dopo il bombardamento tedesco della cittadina, risolta in una ridotta gamma cromatica di bianchi e di neri: costretta l'azione nello spazio di una stanza, dalle macerie, lacerati brandelli della coscienza, affiora il toro, simbolo della violenza e della brutalità. L'opera, la cui denuncia va oltre l'episodio contingente che l'ha originata, esposta nel padiglione spagnolo dell'Esposizione Universale di Parigi del 1937, suscitò profonda commozione e consensi. Simboli d'orrore sono anche i Minotauri e le Tauromachie, come poi, durante la seconda guerra mondiale, le donne mostruosamente deformi e le nature morte.

Dopo la guerra, è un nuovo periodo di distensione; iscritto al Partito comunista francese dal 1944, Picasso partecipa a varî congressi della pace ed esegue l'affiche con la colomba per quello di Parigi del 1949.

Dal 1947 soggiorna a Vallauris, dove si dedica prevalentemente alla ceramica, poi a Cannes e dal 1961 si stabilisce a Mougins. Pur senza abbandonare la scomposizione violenta della forma, Picasso sa piegarla a esprimere affetti familiari, limpidi sentimenti umani; con maggiore serenità ricerca nei miti classici e nell'antichissima tecnica della ceramica il senso profondo dell'anima mediterranea. La sua tecnica prodigiosa, la sua dirompente forza creativa, il suo pathos ardente giungono a espressioni quasi idilliche come nel grande pannello La Pace, o di alto senso morale come in quello La Guerra (entrambi del 1952-54, Vallauris, Musée national Pablo Picasso). Tra le sue ultime opere si ricordano una serie di variazioni su Las Meninas di Velázquez (1957, Barcellona, Museo Picasso) e su Le déjeuner sur l'herbe di Manet (1961) e un grande murale per la sede dell'UNESCO a Parigi (1958).

Nel 1963 fu aperto a Barcellona il Museo Picasso, con dipinti, sculture e opere grafiche picassiane donate da J. Sabartés. Nel 1970 Picasso, in memoria dello stesso Sabartés, donò alla città di Barcellona circa mille opere tra dipinti, disegni e incisioni. A Parigi, nel Musée Picasso (aperto nel 1985) è stata raccolta la vastissima collezione di opere che Picasso ha lasciato alla Francia. | © Treccani

Pablo Picasso | Il Guernica, 1937 | Art in Detail

November 18, 2016, 4:00 pm

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• Artist: Pablo Picasso
• Date: 1937 (May 1st-June 4th, Paris)
• Medium: Oil on canvas
• Dimensions: 349 cm × 776 cm (137.4 in × 305.5 in)
• Location: Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
• Entry date:  1992 
• On display in: Room 206.06

Observations: The government of the Spanish Republic acquired the mural "Guernica" from Picasso in 1937.
When World War II broke out, the artist decided that the painting should remain in the custody of New York's Museum of Modern Art for safekeeping until the conflict ended.
In 1958 Picasso extended the loan of the painting to MoMA for an indefinite period, until such time that democracy had been restored in Spain. The work finally returned to this country in 1981.

An accurate depiction of a cruel, dramatic situation, Guernica was created to be part of the Spanish Pavilion at the International Exposition in Paris in 1937.
Pablo Picasso’s motivation for painting the scene in this great work was the news of the German aerial bombing of the Basque town whose name the piece bears, which the artist had seen in the dramatic photographs published in various periodicals, including the French newspaper L'Humanité.

Despite that, neither the studies nor the finished picture contain a single allusion to a specific event, constituting instead a generic plea against the barbarity and terror of war. The huge picture is conceived as a giant poster, testimony to the horror that the Spanish Civil War was causing and a forewarning of what was to come in the Second World War.

The muted colours, the intensity of each and every one of the motifs and the way they are articulated are all essential to the extreme tragedy of the scene, which would become the emblem for all the devastating tragedies of modern society.

Guernica has attracted a number of controversial interpretations, doubtless due in part to the deliberate use in the painting of only greyish tones.

Analysing the iconography in the painting, one Guernica scholar, Anthony Blunt, divides the protagonists of the pyramidal composition into two groups, the first of which is made up of three animals; the bull, the wounded horse and the winged bird that can just be made out in the background on the left.

The second group is made up of the human beings, consisting of a dead soldier and a number of women: the one on the upper right, holding a lamp and leaning through a window, the mother on the left, wailing as she holds her dead child, the one rushing in from the right and finally the one who is crying out to the heavens, her arms raised as a house burns down behind her.

At this point it should be remembered that two years earlier, in 1935, Picasso had done the etching Minotauromaquia, a synthetic work condensing into a single image all the symbols of his cycle dedicated to the mythological creature, which stands as Guernica’s most direct relative.

Incidents in Picasso’s private life and the political events afflicting Europe between the wars fused together in the motifs the painter was using at the time, resulting both in Guernica itself and all the studies and ‘postscripts’, regarded as among the most representative works of art of the 20th century. | Paloma Esteban Leal © Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía - Madrid, Spain

Nella Parigi del 1940, occupata dai nazisti ed in visita allo studio di Picasso, l'ambasciatore tedesco Otto Abetz, alla visione del Guernica, chiede a Picasso:

- "È lei che ha fatto questo orrore, maestro?"
Pablo Picasso rispose: - "No, è opera vostra!".

Guernica è il titolo del famoso dipinto-reportage di Pablo Picasso. Un murale ad olio su tela, composto da tre colori: blu, bianco e nero, alto 349.3 cm e largo 776.6 cm, il Guernica, venne realizzato nello studio di Picasso, in rue des Grand-Augustins sulla Rive Gauche a Parigi.

Il fatto storico
Il 26 aprile del 1937, i bombardieri tedeschi inviati in Spagna dal governo nazista insieme ad alcuni bombardieri italiani e protetti dagli aerei da caccia italiani inviati da Mussolini, sganciano sulla piccola cittadina basca di Guernica, tremila bombe, una ogni due abitanti. La città è rasa al suolo ed incendiata.

Dopo il bombardamento, Picasso venne messo al corrente di ciò che era successo nel suo paese d'origine. A quel tempo, stava lavorando su un murale per il Salone di Parigi che si teneva nell'estate del 1937, commissionatogli dal governo repubblicano spagnolo. Disertò la sua idea iniziale ed il 1° maggio 1937, ebbe inizio il Guernica.

Già in corso d'opera, Picasso dichiarava pubblicamente: - "Nelle immagini che sto dipingendo e che chiamerò Guernica esprimo il mio orrore per la casta militare che sta precipitando la Spagna in un oceano di sofferenza e di morte. La pittura non è fatta per decorare appartamenti, è uno strumento di guerra contro la brutalità e l'oscurantismo".

La esposizione al Salone di Parigi raccolse poca attenzione, ma dopo un breve tour in tutto il mondo, il Guernica diventò molto famoso ed acclamato ma soprattutto, contribuì a portare l'attenzione del mondo verso la guerra civile spagnola.

Ormai, il murale ha guadagnato uno status monumentale, diventando un ricordo perpetuo delle tragedie della guerra, un simbolo contro la guerra e l'incarnazione della pace.

Quasi un reportage fotografico, il Guernica mostra le tragedie della guerra e le sofferenze che infligge ai singoli, soprattutto ai civili innocenti. Gli episodi dell'opera si svolgono al buio, nella piazza cittadina circondata da edifici in fiamme:

• Donna in fuga, il cavallo ferito - significano l'umanità sofferente.
• Guerriero caduto - immagine classica dei caduti spagnoli repubblicani.
• Il fiore - simbolo di rigenerazione e di speranza, come l'albero di 600 anni.
• La luce elettrica - significato del sole.
• La donna con la lampada - la luce che vince le tenebre.
• A destra l'edificio in fiamme con la donna che cade - forse anche bruciando, in posizione sofferente come Maria Maddalena.
• A sinistra la donna piangente con bambino morto - originariamente su una scala, come per Cristo deposto dalla croce. | © 2013 Zana Bihiku

Andy Warhol | Goethe, 1982

November 19, 2016, 8:14 am

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"Finché rimaniamo generici chiunque può imitarci, mentre il nostro particolare non può imitarlo nessuno, perché gli altri non lo hanno vissuto".
- Johann Wolfgang Goethe -

"As long as we remain generic anyone can imitate, while our particular can not imitate anyone, because others have not lived".
- Johann Wolfgang Goethe -

In 1962, Andy Warhol began reproducing press photos of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley using the silkscreen technique. The portrait silkscreens recur throughout Warhol’s oeuvre with “VIPs” from all walks of life – music, art, politics, business, sports and even the world of merchandise (Campbell’s Soup, BMW, Mercedes).

Warhol referred to his studio as a “factory”, since he carried out the serial production of his works there with the help of a large staff. In doing so, he was openly rejecting classical artistic qualities such as originality, authenticity and uniqueness. Taking images already well-known on account of their multiple reproduction in the media, he defamiliarised them with flashy colours and demonstrative flattening. 

When we view Warhol’s portraits, we find ourselves wondering who made these images so prominent – and why. Warhol saw the world’s most famous portrait of Goethe by Tischbein when he visited the Städel and – as the quintessence of German culture – it immediately gained entry into the pop artist’s cosmos. For one of Warhol’s tenets was likewise true for the poet-prince of Weimar Classicism: fame in and of itself can be a message in its own right. | © Andy Warhol

Elen Zelin /Элен Зелин | Abstract Figurative painter

November 19, 2016, 4:09 pm

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Ukrainian-born painter Elen Zelin /Элен Зелин was born in Odessa, one of the main cultural centers of the coasts of the Black Sea and the former Soviet Union.
From an early age she studied the basic principles of Visual Art at Odessa Art School. In 1978 she graduated from Odessa Pedagogical University, majoring in Fine Art and Graphics.
Since 1989 worked in Greece. Her works are found in many galleries and private collections.
She is an active member of the Fine Arts Chamber of Greece. Since 2011 lives and creates her unique Art in New York.

Exhibitions:
2013

• Artexpo NYC;
• 25 CPW Gallery - International Art Festival;
• Juried Fashion Drawing Session. Hosted by T and C;
• One of Prized Winning Entry Drawings-

2014

• Artexpo NYC (Booth 439);
• The Highline Loft Gallery, Chelsea, NYC;
• BWAC - Out Of Order.

2015

• MoRA Museum, Jersey City, NY
• Expressions I - Gateway Art Center NYC + Arts on the Hudson

Igor Goncharov / Игорь Гончаров, 1959 | Figurative painter

November 20, 2016, 11:35 am

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Russian artistИгорь Гончаров graduated from Sverdlovsk Institute of Architecture in 1984. Since 1991, he has successfully held his solo exhibitions in Moscow, Vienna, Amsterdam, New York and other cities around the world.

He currently lives and works in Siberian environmental settlement "Dwelling of Dawn" Krasnoyarsk Krai (foothills of Sayan).

Igor Goncharov founded an art gallery in Chelyabinsk, aiming to bring together the best works of contemporary artists. He publishes catalog "E.RA" ( Epoch of Dawn) by contemporary Russian artists, photographers, graphic artists.

In February 1997, in New York Igor participated in the staging of Jean Cocteau’s "The Human Voice", where with actress Elena Antonenko and musician Sergey Letov, in a creative duo, they performed on stage the symbiosis of music, painting and acting, which by virtue of their originality became event in the cultural life of the Russian diaspora.

Since September 2005, participates in the traveling exhibitions "The spiritual path and Art", which took place in 15 cities of Russia and Europe - St. Petersburg (in the exhibition hall of the Union of Artists), Sofia (at American University), Riga (in the building of Academy of Sciences).

And then - Tallinn, Kiev, Kishinev, Klaipeda, Krasnodar, Voronezh, Almaty, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Moscow and Kharkov.

In March 2008, in Moscow in Expocentre "Arena", the Second Moscow International Art Festival "Traditions and Modernity" 650 artists from 25 countries presented their creative residents and guests. Igor Goncharov won in the in the category "fresh look".

Paintings of Goncharov demonstrate the brilliant skill of relief smear, can change the color and appearance depending on the lighting.

They combine the freshness of French Impressionism and elegance of Russian Silver Age. Painter himself has long ceased to convince all that he - though new, but still a realist, and prefers to avoid discussions on the identification of artistic method of his works.

Douglas Girard, 1969 | Figurative Landscape painter

November 21, 2016, 7:56 am

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"...It is as if the artist has created his own mythology. It is a very romantic, evocative painting, technically well balanced and very strong, formally" - Lucinda Barnes, curator of the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art commenting on the painting "Journey".

Douglas Girard: The results are in for the Art Renewal Center’s 2014/2015 Salon! 2500 paintings were submitted from around the world by 1050 artists. 31% were chosen as finalists. I had not one but two paintings selected by an esteemed panel of judges for the Imaginative Realism Category. My paintings “Awakening” and “Procession” will be included in the 11th International 2014-2015 ARC Salon Catalog. I am quite honored to be included in this group of very talented artists!

Growing up in Africa I spent many hours studying pictures of Europe, Canada and Alaska in the National Geographic magazine. The grasslands and rolling hills of Africa never inspired me as did the mountains of the northern continents.

I longed to be in northern forests looking out across a vista dominated by towering mountain peaks. These distant places of my imagination became symbols for me of a bygone era when mankind lived as one with nature in a time free of the clutter and distractions of our age.

My studies of mythology has increased my love for these faraway places I yearned for as a child. The ancient cultures considered hidden lakes, shady forests, pools of water and high mountain peaks as mystical places where they could feel closer to their gods. It was these places that I really wanted to get closer to.

For time in memorial mankind must have stood in awe of nature at these places and been touched by the same spiritual feeling that I feel. This is the fountainhead of my inspiration.

I finally moved to Alaska in 1993, and it was here that I found landscapes that truly inspired me. In the mountains of the Chugach and Talkeetna ranges, I found those cathedrals of stillness I had dreamed about. Feeling the cool wind on my face while standing on the shores of hidden mountain lakes surrounded by jagged mountain peaks, a great sense of awe overcame me. Here at last my soul was in harmony with nature.

My paintings are a synthesis of Alaska mountain lakes, the Italian landscape, dance and elements of the sacred sites that I have painted in Europe.

I have been painting since I was thirteen years old. I was accepted into the Pretoria School for Art, Ballet, Drama and Music in South Africa where I won many awards and competitions.

I have been interviewed by NBC TV, reviewed in the Anchorage Daily news and won many awards for my paintings.

My paintings are in many national and international collections.

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Tyson Snow, 1977 | Figurative Sculptor /painter | Public Art

November 21, 2016, 9:52 am

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Award winning artist Tyson Snow has always had a passion for fine art and a desire for an outlet where he could create work that was powerful, personal and beautiful. Tyson has worked tirelessly to improve that idea and has since found the pathway to success.

Tyson has focused on fine art for more than 10 years.

He started showing his work in 2004 in The Marshall Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ. He had near instant success which brought a growing public interest in his work. He has been selected and featured as a finalist for the “Cover Art Competition” in the American Artist Magazine (drawing issue).

He was also featured in the American Art Collector Magazine a number of times, as well as other publications and newspapers.

Tyson’s work has primarily consisted of black and white work; complex drawings created in reverse with white pencil over black substrate.

These are mostly formal type portraits of tribal peoples that Snow visits in his travels between Northern Namibia and South Africa. Renowned for his delicate figurative renderings in white on black, his reputation for nuanced pen-and-ink interpretations of old world architecture are also well deserved.

Due to a compelling desire to create in different mediums, Snow began sculpting in clay/casting in bronze and painting in oils. His ability has allowed him to find early successes in both of those mediums.

Tyson has been accepted into several museum and juried art exhibitions were he has been the recipient of 1st place ribbons, merit awards and purchase awards for his sculpture, paintings and drawings. He has also been selected as a semi-finalist and winner of several public works bronze monuments.

Education:

• Associates degree: Industrial Design Technology;
• Art Institute of Pittsburgh;
• SCC: Foundry work and fine art painting;
• MCC: Photoshop, Illustrator and Quark;
• Private workshop: One week private apprenticeship with William Whitaker 2009;
• Scottsdale Artist School; Workshop, Eugene Daub, Figure in bas relief, 2010;
• Scottsdale Artist School; Workshop, John Coleman, Figure in clay, 2011.

Representation:

• The Meyer Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Honors and Experience:

• US Coast Guard; Oil painting, Inaugural exhibition and permanent collection 2014;
• US Coast Guard; 2x life size bust of  D. Munro, Coast Guard Headquarters D.C. 2013;
• PHX Fire Training Academy; Terrazzo floor in Dispatch Center, Budget;  2012-13;
• Finalist for NC State University monument(s), Budget; $105,000, Coaches Corner, 2012;
• US Coast Guard; Bust of Douglas Munro installed aboard the USS Munroe, 2010;
• Fire Training Academy Monument, Budget: $315,000, City of  Phoenix, AZ, 2010-12;
• Jacob Hamblin Memorial, Budget: $200,000, Kanab, UT 2009-10;
• Finalist for a Public Safety Memorial, Budget: $2,000,000, Richmond, VA 2009-10;
• Selected for the artist registry preferred sculptors list, Atlanta, GA 2009-10;
• 7 bronze busts for public Monument, Budget: $70,000 Santa Clara, UT 2008;
• Freelance designer for Crazy Shirts , Hawaii, 2007 to present;
• Photo Study Tours: South Africa and Namibia, 2000, 2002, 2006 and 2007;
• Designs for Disney Design Group, Orlando, Florida 2003;
• PBS Magic Woods Productions as head illustrator, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 2001-2003.

Publications/Awards:

• Sculpture Review Magazine, "Educating a New Generation of Figurative Sculptors", 2012;
• Merit Award; SMA, UT: 88th Annual Spring Salon 2012;
• 1st Place in sculpture category; Scottsdale Artist School; Best and Brightest Juried Ex. 2012;
• Southwest Artist Magazine; Sculpture and article featured in July's issue 2011;
• Awarded a scholarship through the Joe Beeler Foundation for excellence in sculpture 2011;
• 1st Place and Purchase Award; Scottsdale Artist School; Best and Brightest Juried Ex. 2011;
• Merit Award; SMA, UT: 25th Annual Spiritual and Religious Exhibition 2010;
• Featured in Scottsdale's First Annual Drawing Event booklet  2009/2010;
• Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine, Featured in October's issue 2009;
• American Art Collector, Featured in October's issue, 2009;
• Ensign Magazine (distributed world wide), featured in Septembers issue 2009;
• American Art Collector, mentioned in January's issue, 2009;
• American Artist Magazine, (Drawing edition) Cover art competition, winter 2007;

James R. Eads, 1989 | Surrealist Illustrator | The New-Age Van Gogh

November 22, 2016, 10:21 am

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James R. Eads was born in Los Angeles, he went to college at Skidmore in upstate New York and then lived in Brooklyn for a few years before relocating to Los Angeles. He lives and works at the Brewery Arts in Los Angeles. His studio is open to the public during the bi-annual artwalks.

Despite his modern method, it’s easy to see traces of past painters and movements in his pieces. Van Gogh is an obvious inspiration, though there are nuances of numerous other impressionist artists’ styles in each and every piece.

The swirls, colours, and short brush strokes in James R. Eads’ illustrations might seem familiar. Ghostly spirals in a rainbow palette imitate the textured work of Van Gogh, an artist who Eads is greatly inspired by. But where Van Gogh crafts surreal landscapes and still-life scenes with his brushstrokes, Eads’ figures and fairytale backdrops offer a connection between human life and the natural world.

In one piece we see the silhouettes of two bodies clinging together in a plume of bright colours. Behind them, the impenetrable black night is both suffocating and vibrant, lit up only with small sparks that resemble stars.

In another piece, a row boat languishes out on calm waters painted in peaceful blue and green hues. In the background, the moon sits above a swirling, uniformed mass which could either be crashing waves lurking on the horizon or the swell of low-slung clouds.

Whilst Eads scenes are familiar to the viewers’ eye, they are also alien, picking out aspects that juxtapose the otherwise meditative surroundings. For example, in one piece we are presented with a forest that has been cast in shadows in the dark, but through the handful of trees we catch a glimpse of a burning pink sky filled with heated yellow swirls.

The surreal effect of the thick brushstrokes and abundance of colour immediately makes Eads pieces seem like old impressionist paintings, but in fact each scene has been carefully crafted using Photoshop. 

“I stick to Photoshop, I prefer the natural aspects and the fluidity of the tools it offers and I think it is the most closely related I can get to traditional drawing and painting on the computer”, Eads says.

However, the process begins much the same as any other artist (including, most likely, Van Gogh) with a sketch. 

Eads is eager to point out how much work goes into one piece. 

“For me, it goes through hours and hours of changes and rarely ever looks like the first sketch” - he says, though there’s always a remnant of the original idea visible somewhere in the piece, just like the sparks of colour that pepper his work.

James R. Eads è nato a Los Angeles nel 1989, ha studiato a New York ed è poi tornato a Los Angeles a vivere e lavorare: oggi lavora alla Brewery Art Colony, un’area di sedici acri divenuta nel 1903 un punto di riferimento per artisti provenienti da tutto il mondo in cui, oltre a studi di pittura, di scultura, di fotografia, di disegno industriale e di architettura, si trovano ristoranti e gallerie d’arte.

Tocchi sottili ed eleganza delle forme caratterizzano lo stile di questo artista poliedrico che nutre una profonda passione per l’arte e il design e non esita a far riferimento a Van Gogh quando parla del suo modo di utilizzare i colori.

Eads si descrive come un artista multidisciplinare, appassionato sia di arte che di design e nelle sue illustrazioni descrive il rapporto tra uomo e natura, con immagini che mirano a trasmettere movimento e dinamicità.

Con uno stile dal tratteggio grezzo riesce a creare delle illustrazioni molto originali e di forte impatto emotivo volte a trasmettere movimento e dinamismo, mettendo in risalto il vincolo indissolubile tra noi e il mondo naturale.

Il suo stile organico, che trae ispirazione dalle forme della natura, rimanda all’opera di Vincent Van Gogh. Illustrazioni emozionanti, che ritraggono sovente cieli vorticosi e spazi selvatici, vengono penetrati profondamente dall’artista, manifestando così il suo amore incondizionato nei confronti di una terra che percepisce come madre e amica.

James R. Eads, 1989 | Surrealist Illustrator | After Van Gogh

November 22, 2016, 1:03 pm

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Los Angeles-based illustrator James R. Eads primarily works in acrylic and on a Wacom tablet to create high quality screenprints and giclee prints that imitate traditional painting and printmaking.

For biographical notes -in english and italian- and other works by Eads see James R. Eads, 1989 | Surrealist Illustrator | The New-Age Van Gogh.

James R. Eads and Chris McDaniel | Illusions in gif

November 22, 2016, 3:22 pm

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The result of a collaboration of artist James R Eads and animator Chris McDaniel, Illusions, is a rare example of visionary art being translated beautifully between two mediums.

Two artists - one painter and one animator - have collaborated on a series of digital Gif works that seem to suck viewers into their computer screens. colorful and vibrant illustrations by James R. Eads have been brought to life Chris McDaniel, known as "the glitch". These looped sequences see Van Gogh -like strokes swirl and coil into seemingly living, breathing compositions, expressing vivid motifs soured from the sky, stars, universe and beyond.

Illusionsè il risultato della collaborazione tra il pittore surrealista James R Eads e l'animatore Chris McDaniel, un raro esempio di arte visionaria.

Chris McDaniel - pseudonimo di “The Glitch“ e noto animatore digitale - rimase profondamente colpito dalle tele di Eads e contatta l’autore domandagli di poter animare alcuni suoi lavori.

Eads non riesce a trattenere la curiosità nel vedere il risultato delle sue immagini fisse trasformate in Gif ed acconsente immediatamente.

L’effetto Gif trasforma i suoi magici lavori in illustrazioni vorticose e ipnotiche particolarmente affascinanti che esaltano ancor più i colori vivaci usati dall'artista e accompagnano noi osservatori in un mondo magico in grado di donarci sensazioni di pace e di serenità.

David FeBland, 1949 | Expressionist Cityscape painter

November 22, 2016, 5:30 pm

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David FeBland is an internationally recognized American /British artist known for contemporary figurative oil paintings and expressionist urban landscapes.
He has presented 52 solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group exhibitions and art fairs in the US, Europe and Asia.

David FeBland was born in London, UK and has received degrees from The University of Virginia, USA and The University of Manchester, UK. A self-taught artist, FeBland pursued careers in Landscape Architecture and Communication Design as well as hosting jazz radio programs before turning his attention to painting in the mid-1980’s. Since 1984, he has bicycled through 55 countries around the world, often using his observations as inspiration for his painting.

FeBland’s work considers issues of privacy, conflict and isolation in contemporary urban life, employing a colorist’s eye and a strong sense of formal compositional structure.

He describes the interaction between man and his physical universe through a series of invented truths, a sleight of the facts as it were, inspired by observations of everyday life throughout the world. His paintings, drawing upon experiences over a wide range of geographical locations, are driven by a conviction that certain behavioral responses to ones environment are universal.

Critics describe his paintings as such: “These images are disarmingly involving. His ability to instill strongly emotive elements into his work also hints at the more graphic work of Ben Shahn and Diego Rivera.

It suggests an evolution of socially conscious realism that both Ashcan artists and Shahn flirted with, a very modern response to the Soviet socialist movement that embraces its more expressive elements…. {this is} a quality that gives the movies of Spike Lee their poignancy, and it’s a spirit that FeBland’s works achieve better than his contemporaries”.

An internationally recognized artist, FeBland shows extensively throughout Europe, the UK and the US, where he is represented by galleries in Los Angeles, New York, London, Frankfurt and Berlin.

He has participated in over 70 solo and group shows and has been reviewed or featured in Art in America, The New York Times, American Artist Magazine, PBS Television, New American Paintings, The Spectator (UK), and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Germany). He is represented at many art fairs worldwide.

FeBland has held a number of academic posts, most recently as Adjunct Professor of Architectural Drawing at City University of New York.

His work is held in many corporate collections including American Express, ATandT, Chase Bank, Citibank, IBM, Esprit, Exxon-Mobil, Wassall USA, Inc. and Roland-Berger, GMBH, and he is included in the permanent collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

His solo museum shows include The Museum of the Southwest (Texas) and the upcoming Kunstverein Weinheim (Germany). A documentary film of his work and methodology will be produced early in 2016 by The Artist’s Archive Productions.

Awards

1998

• First Prize, 34th Irene Leach Memorial Exhibition, Chrysler Musuem of Art;
• Second Prize, Tri-State Juried Exhibition, Katonah Museum.

1997

• Mary Vann Hunter Award for Painting, Silvermine Artists Guild, Ann. NE USA Exhibit;
• Eileen L. McCarthy Award, The Salmagundi Club, 20th Annual Open Show;
• Winner, Open Studios 1997 Northeastern Competition;
• Honorable Mention, Art Calandar Magazine, Thunder and Lightning Juried Exhibition;
• Honorable Mention, Fraser Gallery International Competition;
• Academic Artists Association Endowment for Oil Painting;
• Leo Brooks Memorial Award, National Art League;
• Rhinelander Telecommunications Award, Nicolet College.

1996

• Joseph S. Isador Memorial Medal for Figurative Composition, Nat’l Academy Museum;
• RSVP National Self-Portrait Competition;
• The Visual Club of New York, Award of Excellence.

David FeBland, artista Americano - Britanico, è nato a Londra e si è diplomato prima presso l’Università della Virginia, negli Stati Uniti e poi presso l’Università di Manchester, in Inghilterra.

Artista completamente autodidatta, FeBland aveva iniziato una carriera in Architettura del Paesaggio e Communication Design, e conduceva  programmi radiofonici di jazz, finché, alla metà degli anni Ottanta, ha deciso di diventare un pittore a tempo pieno.

Ha presentato 52 mostre personali e partecipato a numerose mostre collettive e fiere d'arte in Stati Uniti, in Europa e in Asia.

Il lavoro di FeBland è esposto in numerosi musei ed è rappresentato in collezioni d'arte molto importanti, come ad esempio il Museo della Città di new York, la Chase Manhattan Bank Corporation e la Leo Burnett Corporation.

Il lavoro di FeBland è stato recensito in numerose pubblicazioni tra cui: The New York Times, Art in America, New American Paintings, The Spectator e Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

August Macke | Expressionist painter

November 23, 2016, 9:00 am

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August Macke, (born January 3, 1887, Meschede, Germany-died September 26, 1914, Perthes-les-Hurlus, France) German painter who was a leader of Der Blaue Reiter (“The Blue Rider”), an influential group of Expressionist artists.

Macke studied at the Düsseldorf Academy from 1904-1906. During his first trip to Paris in 1907 he was profoundly influenced by the work of the Impressionist painters, and he began to emulate their style, painting portraits in subtly dappled colours.

Later that year, he studied in Berlin with the German painter Lovis Corinth, who was a leading proponent of Impressionist painting in Germany. Macke made frequent trips to Paris between 1907-1912, absorbing various artistic influences which he ultimately combined into a very personal style.

Macke discovered the work of Henri Matisse and the other Fauve artists while visiting Paris in 1909; this convinced Macke to use brighter, less-naturalistic colours, applied in broad brushstrokes. The same year, he met the young Expressionist painter Franz Marc in Munich, Germany, and the two began to work closely, developing a more abstract and colourful style.

In 1911 Macke joined Der Blaue Reiter, which had been founded by Marc and Wassily Kandinsky. Macke avoided the often violent style of his fellow Expressionists, and he preferred human subjects to the animals that Marc and Kandinsky portrayed.

In Three Girls in a Barque (1911), Macke combined the many styles he had recently discovered: the figures are rendered in flat colours and graceful lines reminiscent of Matisse, while the background is sweeping and abstract, with bright patches of colour that are distinctly in the manner of Kandinsky. In this and other paintings, Macke attempted to combine the tradition of contemporary French painting-its attention to colour and form-with the strong sentiment of German art.

In 1912 Macke met the French painter Robert Delaunay, who worked in a colourful Cubist-influenced style called Orphism. Subsequently, Macke introduced a Cubist analysis of form into his own paintings. Throughout the evolution of his style, Macke generally remained faithful to Impressionist subject matter, portraying contemporary scenes of urban leisure.

In 1914 Macke traveled with the Swiss painter Paul Klee to Tunis, Tunisia, where Macke painted a series of works that place the subject upon a grid of various pure colours. The emphasis on colour in these paintings, which are some of his most widely admired works, demonstrate the effect that Delaunay’s Orphic Cubism had upon him. Macke was killed in action in World War I. | © Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

August Macke with his wife Elisabeth and son Walther in 1911

August Macke (Meschede, 3 gennaio 1887 - Perthes-lès-Hurlus, 26 settembre 1914) è stato un pittore Tedesco, uno degli esponenti principali del movimento espressionista tedesco Der Blaue Reiter (Il cavaliere blu).

Macke visse durante un periodo particolarmente innovativo per l'arte tedesca che vide lo sviluppo dei principali movimenti espressionisti tedeschi nonché l'arrivo dei successivi movimenti di avanguardia che si stavano formando nel resto d'Europa. Come un vero artista del suo tempo, Macke sapeva come integrare nei suoi quadri gli elementi dell'avanguardia che più lo interessavano.

Macke nacque a Meschede in Germania. Suo padre, August Friedrich Hermann Macke (1845-1904), era un imprenditore edile e sua madre, Maria Florentine, nata Adolph (1848-1922), proveniva da una famiglia contadina della regione tedesca del Sauerland.

La famiglia visse nella Brüsseler Strasse fino a che August compì 13 anni. Macke trascorse la maggior parte della sua vita creativa a Bonn, ad eccezione di alcuni periodi passati sul lago Thun in Svizzera e di diversi viaggi a Parigi, Italia, Paesi Bassi e Tunisia.

A Parigi, dove si recò per la prima volta nel 1907, Macke vide l'opera degli impressionisti. Poco dopo mosse a Berlino, dove passò qualche mese nello studio di Lovis Corinth. Il suo stile si formò alla maniera dell'impressionismo francese e del post-impressionismo, e più avanti attraversò un periodo fauve.

Nel 1909 sposò Elizabeth Gerhardt. Nel 1910, grazie all'amicizia con Franz Marc, Macke incontrò Kandinsky e per un breve lasso di tempo condivise l'estetica non-oggettuale e gli interessi mistici e simbolici del gruppo Der Blaue Reiter.

L'incontro con Robert Delaunay, avvenuto nel 1912 a Parigi, rappresentò per Macke una sorta di rivelazione. Il cubismo cromatico di Delaunay, che Apollinaire aveva definito orfismo, influenzò la produzione artistica di Macke da lì in avanti.
Le sue Vetrine possono essere considerate un'interpretazione personale delle Finestre di Delaunay, combinate con la simultaneità di immagini che si trovano nel futurismo italiano. L'atmosfera esotica della Tunisia, dove Macke si recò nel 1914 con Paul Klee e Louis Moilliet, fu fondamentale per la creazione dell'approccio luminista del suo periodo finale durante il quale produsse una serie di opere ora considerate dei capolavori.

La breve carriera di Macke fu interrotta bruscamente dalla sua prematura scomparsa al fronte della Prima guerra mondiale nel settembre del 1914. | Wiki

August Macke | Expressionist painter | Part. 1

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August Macke (1887-1914) was one of the leading members of the German Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider).

For biographical notes -in english and italian- and other works by Macke, see August Macke | Expressionist painter.

At a 1997, Christie's auction, Macke's The Couple at a Garden Table, 1914, was sold for £2 million. Market in Tunis (1914) sold for £2.86 million ($4.1 million) in 2000. Consigned by th↫+e estate of Ernst Beyeler, the artist’s In the Bazar (1914) was auctioned for £3.96 million - then four and a half times the high estimate - at Christie's in 2011.

August Macke with his wife Elisabeth, 1908

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Canadian Artists | Sitemap

November 23, 2016, 3:13 pm

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Lyne Lafontaine, 1959 | Symbolist /Fantasy painter

James Wiens | Abstract painter

List of Canadian Artists and artistic movements definition

Clarence Gagnon | En plein air painter

J.T. Winik | Figurative painter

Ernest Lawson | Impressionist painter

John Burden, 1943

James Wilson Morrice | Post-Impressionist painter

Marchella Piery | Palette Knife painting

Pauline Gagnon, 1955 | Enigmatic eyes

Janet Hill | Fashion painter

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Janet Hill, Canadian painter, discovered her passion for painting as a teenager. Janet’s work is both elegant, yet whimsical, often with an underlying narrative that instantly captures the imagination. Her painting style evokes a sense of nostalgia, timeless beauty, mystery, humour and comfort.

Janet earned an Honors degree in Fine Art from Queens University in Kingston Ontario, where she specialized in oil painting. Following graduation she spent several years working in fields unrelated to art, however, deeply missing her creative life and taking a leap of faith she decided to return to painting full time and has never looked back.

Her work is displayed in private collections throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Some of Janet’s corporate clients include Tiffany Co., Hallmark UK, and Harper Collins. Her work has also been featured in Matchbook Magazine, Design Sponge, This Is Glamorous, The Neo-Traditionalist, and Oh Joy! Janet lives in the beautiful city of Stratford, Ontario, Canada. She paints in a small in-house studio where she lives with her husband John, and their cat and dog.

Cesare Augusto Detti | Genre painter

November 24, 2016, 1:30 pm

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A painter from Spoleto who moved to Paris during the Belle Epoque, Cesare Augusto Detti (1847-1914) was an Italian artist, best known for his historical genre paintings in the nineteenth century.

Some of his works are included in the collections of the Uffizi and Galleria Borghese of Rome.

Augusto Detti, painter of portraits, scenes usually in costume, and historical subjects, was capable of intriguing a refined, erudite audience with his works. In the 1870s he moved to Paris, where he participated at many Salons and was continuously successful. His works can be seen today in important museums in Italy, as well as collections in America and France.

Nato a Spoleto nel 1847, Cesare Augusto Detti (1847-1914) si trasferisce a Roma nel 1862 e segue all’Accademia di San Luca le lezioni di Francesco Podesti e Francesco Coghetti (che Detti poteva avere conosciuto anche a Spoleto in occasione della realizzazione del sipario del teatro).
Finita l’Accademia nel 1865, Detti apre uno studio in via Margotta e, frequentando gli ambienti romani, incontra alcuni artisti che contribuiranno a determinare il suo stile maturo: Mariano Fortuny e la colonia degli artisti spagnoli con il loro virtuosismo pittorico e il brillante colorismo. Presente alle esposizioni nazionali del 1873 a Roma e del 1872 e 1877 a Napoli, Detti incontra nella città partenopea il famoso mercante d’arte Adolphe Goupil che lo invita a Parigi.
Presente al Salon parigino del 1877, si trasferisce definitivamente a Parigi nel 1880 come pittore già affermato che frequenta Boldini e in contatto con la cultura pittorica di successo del periodo (Meissonier, Gèrome). Incoraggiato da Goupil, che continua ad interessarsi alla sua arte, conosce Ignacio Leon Y Escosura e ne condivide l’amore per l’antiquariato e gli stili del passato. Diventerà anche cognato di Escosura, sposando la sorella della moglie, Emilie Marcy.

L'attenzione del mercante A. Goupil contribuì al suo successo e allargò la notorietà del pittore anche al mercato inglese e americano.

Fu presente alle mostre di Parigi (1889, Temps heureux, L’Aurore, Trois bons amis, Un mariage; 1890, Le tricheur), a Milano (1906, Ballo dell'Opéra-Paris, Raggio di sole, Preghiere della sera); la sua ricchissima produzione fu improntata a quel gusto pasticheur con cui l’artista combinò virtuosismi neofiamminghi (Il Duca di Guisa, teatro Nuovo, Spoleto) e leziose citazioni da esempi inglesi e francesi del Settecento (La passeggiata in villa, Le signorine Detti e il Ritratto di signora col cagnolino, tutti alla Pinacoteca Comunale di Spoleto), guardando anche a J. L. E. Meissonier e in parte a Fortuny.

Michelangelo | David, 1501-1504

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David is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture created between 1501-1504 by Michelangelo.

It is a 5.17-metre (17.0 ft)[a] marble statue of a standing male nude. The statue represents the Biblical hero David, a favoured subject in the art of Florence.

Originally commissioned as one of a series of statues of prophets to be positioned along the roofline of the east end of Florence Cathedral, the statue was placed instead in a public square, outside the Palazzo della Signoria, the seat of civic government in Florence, where it was unveiled on 8 September 1504.

Because of the nature of the hero it represented, the statue soon came to symbolize the defense of civil liberties embodied in the Republic of Florence, an independent city-state threatened on all sides by more powerful rival states and by the hegemony of the Medici family.

The eyes of David, with a warning glare, were turned towards Rome. The statue was moved to the Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence, in 1873, and later replaced at the original location by a replica.

• Commission

The history of the statue begins before Michelangelo's work on it from 1501-1504. Prior to Michelangelo's involvement, the Overseers of the Office of Works of Florence Cathedral, consisting mostly of members of the influential woolen cloth guild, the Arte della Lana, had plans to commission a series of twelve large Old Testament sculptures for the buttresses of the cathedral. In 1410 Donatello made the first of the statues, a figure of Joshua in terracotta.

A figure of Hercules, also in terracotta, was commissioned from the Florentine sculptor Agostino di Duccio in 1463 and was made perhaps under Donatello's direction. Eager to continue their project, in 1464, the Operai contracted Agostino to create a sculpture of David.

A block of marble was provided from a quarry in Carrara, a town in the Apuan Alps in northern Tuscany.

Agostino only got as far as beginning to shape the legs, feet and the torso, roughing out some drapery and probably gouging a hole between the legs.

His association with the project ceased, for reasons unknown, with the death of Donatello in 1466, and ten years later Antonio Rossellino was commissioned to take up where Agostino had left off.

Rossellino's contract was terminated soon thereafter, and the block of marble remained neglected for 25 years, all the while exposed to the elements in the yard of the cathedral workshop. This was of great concern to the Opera authorities, as such a large piece of marble not only was costly but represented a large amount of labour and difficulty in its transportation to Florence.

In 1500, an inventory of the cathedral workshops described the piece as "a certain figure of marble called David, badly blocked out and supine".

A year later, documents showed that the Operai were determined to find an artist who could take this large piece of marble and turn it into a finished work of art.

They ordered the block of stone, which they called The Giant, "raised on its feet" so that a master experienced in this kind of work might examine it and express an opinion. Though Leonardo da Vinci and others were consulted, it was Michelangelo, only 26 years old, who convinced the Operai that he deserved the commission.

On 16 August 1501, Michelangelo was given the official contract to undertake this challenging new task. He began carving the statue early in the morning on 13 September, a month after he was awarded the contract. He would work on the massive statue for more than two years.

• Placement

On 25 January 1504, when the sculpture was nearing completion, Florentine authorities had to acknowledge there would be little possibility of raising the more than 6-ton statue to the roof of the cathedral.

They convened a committee of 30 Florentine citizens that comprised many artists, including Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli, to decide on an appropriate site for David. While nine different locations for the statue were discussed, the majority of members seem to have been closely split between two sites.

One group, led by Giuliano da Sangallo and supported by da Vinci and Piero di Cosimo, among others, believed that, due to the imperfections in the marble, the sculpture should be placed under the roof of the Loggia dei Lanzi on Piazza della Signoria; the other group thought it should stand at the entrance to the Palazzo della Signoria, the city's town hall (now known as Palazzo Vecchio).

Another opinion, supported by Botticelli, was that the sculpture should be situated on or near the cathedral.

In June 1504, David was installed next to the entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio, replacing Donatello's bronze sculpture of Judith and Holofernes, which embodied a comparable theme of heroic resistance. It took four days to move the statue the half mile from Michelangelo's workshop into the Piazza della Signoria.

Later that summer the sling and tree-stump support were gilded, and the figure was given a gilded loin-garland.

• Later history

In 1873 the statue of David was removed from the piazza, to protect it from damage, and displayed in the Accademia Gallery, Florence, where it attracts many visitors. A replica was placed in the Piazza della Signoria in 1910.

In 1991, a man attacked the statue with a hammer he had concealed beneath his jacket; in the process of damaging the toes of the left foot, he was restrained.

On 12 November 2010, a fiberglass replica of the David was installed on the roofline of Florence Cathedral, for one day only. Photographs of the installation reveal the statue the way the Operai who commissioned the work originally expected it to be seen.

In 2010, a dispute over the ownership of David arose when, based on a legal review of historical documents, the Italian Culture Ministry claimed ownership of the statue in opposition to the city of Florence, where it has always been located. Florence disputes the state claim.

• Interpretation

The pose of Michelangelo's David is unlike that of earlier Renaissance depictions of David.

The bronze statues by Donatello and Verrocchio represented the hero standing victorious over the head of Goliath, and the painter Andrea del Castagno had shown the boy in mid-swing, even as Goliath's head rested between his feet, but no earlier Florentine artist had omitted the giant altogether.

According to Helen Gardner and other scholars, David is depicted before his battle with Goliath. Instead of being shown victorious over a foe much larger than he, David looks tense and ready for combat.

The statue appears to show David after he has made the decision to fight Goliath but before the battle has actually taken place, a moment between conscious choice and action.

His brow is drawn, his neck tense and the veins bulge out of his lowered right hand. The twist of his body effectively conveys to the viewer the feeling that he is in motion, an impression heightened with contrapposto.

The statue is a Renaissance interpretation of a common ancient Greek theme of the standing heroic male nude. In the High Renaissance, contrapposto poses were thought of as a distinctive feature of antique sculpture.

This is typified in David, as the figure stands with one leg holding its full weight and the other leg forward. This classic pose causes the figure’s hips and shoulders to rest at opposing angles, giving a slight s-curve to the entire torso. The contrapposto is emphasised by the turn of the head to the left, and by the contrasting positions of the arms.

Michelangelo’s David has become one of the most recognized works of Renaissance sculpture, a symbol of strength and youthful beauty.

Just the colossal size of the statue impressed Michelangelo's contemporaries. Vasari described it as "certainly a miracle that of Michelangelo, to restore to life one who was dead", and then listed all of the largest and most grand of the ancient statues that he had ever seen, concluding that Michelangelo's work surpassed "all ancient and modern statues, whether Greek or Latin, that have ever existed".

The proportions of the David are atypical of Michelangelo's work; the figure has an unusually large head and hands (particularly apparent in the right hand). The small size of the genitals, though, is in line with his other works and with Renaissance conventions in general, perhaps referencing the ancient Greek ideal of pre-pubescent male nudity. These enlargements may be due to the fact that the statue was originally intended to be placed on the cathedral roofline, where the important parts of the sculpture may have been accentuated in order to be visible from below. The statue is unusually slender (front to back) in comparison to its height, which may be a result of the work done on the block before Michelangelo began carving it.

It is possible that the David was conceived as a political statue before Michelangelo began to work on it. Certainly David the giant-killer had long been seen as a political figure in Florence, and images of the Biblical hero already carried political implications there.

Donatello's bronze David, made for the Medici family, perhaps c. 1440, had been appropriated by the Signoria in 1494, when the Medici were exiled from Florence, and the statue was installed in the courtyard of the Palazzo della Signoria, where it stood for the Republican government of the city. 

By placing Michelangelo's statue in the same general location, the Florentine authorities ensured that David would be seen as a political parallel as well as an artistic response to that earlier work. These political overtones led to the statue being attacked twice in its early days. Protesters pelted it with stones the year it debuted, and, in 1527, an anti-Medici riot resulted in its left arm being broken into three pieces.

Commentators have noted the presence on David's penis of his foreskin, which is at odds with the Judaic practice of circumcision, but is consistent with the conventions of Renaissance art.

• Conservation

During World War II, David was entombed in brick to protect it from damage from airborne bombs.

In 1991 the foot of the statue was damaged by a man with a hammer. The samples obtained from that incident allowed scientists to determine that the marble used was obtained from the Fantiscritti quarries in Miseglia, the central of three small valleys in Carrara. The marble in question contains many microscopic holes that cause it to deteriorate faster than other marbles.

Because of the marble's degradation, from 2003-2004 the statue was given its first major cleaning since 1843. Some experts opposed the use of water to clean the statue, fearing further deterioration. Under the direction of Franca Falleti, senior restorers Monica Eichmann and Cinzia Parnigoni undertook the job of restoring the statue.

In 2008, plans were proposed to insulate the statue from the vibration of tourists' footsteps at Florence's Galleria dell'Accademia, to prevent damage to the marble.

• Replicas

David has stood on display at Florence's Galleria dell'Accademia since 1873. In addition to the full-sized replica occupying the spot of the original in front of the Palazzo Vecchio, a bronze version overlooks Florence from the Piazzale Michelangelo.

The plaster cast of David at the Victoria and Albert Museum has a detachable plaster fig leaf which is displayed nearby. Legend claims that the fig leaf was created in response to Queen Victoria's shock upon first viewing the statue's nudity, and was hung on the figure prior to royal visits, using two strategically placed hooks.
In 2010, the Italian government began a campaign to solidify its claim to the iconic marble statue.

David has been endlessly reproduced, in plaster and imitation marble fibreglass, signifying an attempt to lend an atmosphere of culture even in some unlikely settings such as beach resorts, gambling casinos and model railroads.

The cast hall behind the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts museum also has a Replica of Michelangelo's David. | © Wikipedia

Nel luglio del 1501 Michelangelo Buonarroti fu incaricato dall'Opera del Duomo di realizzare una statua raffigurante Davide e Golia, con l’obbligo di utilizzare un grande blocco di marmo che giaceva abbandonato presso la Bottega della Cattedrale e che era già stato sbozzato dallo scultore Agostino di Duccio circa 40 anni prima, nel tentativo di scolpire lo stesso soggetto.

Questa era una sfida per Michelangelo, che allora aveva 26 anni ed era appena tornato da Roma, dove aveva creato il suo primo capolavoro: la Pietà oggi conservata nella basilica di San Pietro al Vaticano.

La commissione, all'inizio religiosa e destinata ad essere collocata su uno degli sproni della cattedrale, venne presa in carico dal Governo della Repubblica di Firenze, dato che la figura di Davide poteva bene simboleggiare la virtù del buon governo e la difesa della patria. Sono questi gli anni in cui i Medici erano stati cacciati da Firenze e in cui Niccolò Machiavelli era segretario della seconda Cancelleria della Repubblica (odierno Ministero degli Esteri).

Dopo aver preparato il lavoro con molti disegni e piccoli modelli in cera, nel 1502 Michelangelo iniziò a scolpire il marmo, lavorando da solo, in piedi sopra un’impalcatura che circondava il grande blocco. Nel gennaio del 1504 la statua era finita ed era riuscita così magnifica e straordinaria che fu deciso di riunire una commissione, di cui faceva parte anche Leonardo da Vinci, per decidere dove collocarla.

Fu così che i fiorentini decisero di mettere il David di Michelangelo davanti al Palazzo della Signoria, dove venne inaugurato l’8 settembre 1504 e dove rimase fino al luglio del 1873.

La collocazione della statua in piazza della Signoria ne metteva in risalto il significato politico piuttosto che religioso, dato che lì Davide diventò il simbolo della libertà fiorentina contro i potenti nemici di quell'epoca. Davanti al palazzo del governo la statua di Davide rappresentava infatti la virtù e il coraggio di Firenze come la statua di un eroe greco, ritratto nella completa nudità e nella posizione classica del “contrapposto”, con gamba e braccio destri tesi e coi sinistri piegati, così da imprimere alla figura vita e movimento. Era questa davvero la rinascita della bellezza antica, ma con significato completamente attuale.

Secondo le testimonianze dei contemporanei, Michelangelo impiegò 18 mesi a scolpire il grande blocco di marmo, lavorando senza aiuti e nascosto dietro una chiusura di assi di legno, di modo che nessuno potesse vedere la statua prima che fosse finita.

Venne ben pagato, 400 ducati, ma soprattutto, con questo capolavoro, divenne celebre in tutta Italia e anche presso le corti d’Europa, e ancora oggi per questo è famoso in tutto il mondo. | © Uffizi.org

Michelangelo | Bacchus, 1496-1497

November 25, 2016, 2:38 pm

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Bacchus (1496-1497) is a marble sculpture by the Italian High Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect and poet Michelangelo. The statue is somewhat over life-size and depicts Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, in a reeling pose suggestive of drunkenness. Commissioned by Raffaele Riario, a high-ranking Cardinal and collector of antique sculpture, it was rejected by him and was bought instead by Jacopo Galli, Riario’s banker and a friend to Michelangelo. Along with the Pietà the Bacchus is one of only two surviving sculptures from the artist's first period in Rome.

Bacchus is depicted with rolling eyes, his staggering body almost teetering off the rocky outcrop on which he stands. Sitting behind him is a faun, who eats the bunch of grapes slipping out of Bacchus's left hand.

With its swollen breast and abdomen, the Bacchus figure suggested to Giorgio Vasari "both the slenderness of a young man and the fleshiness and roundness of a woman", and its androgynous quality has often been noted (although the testicles are swollen as well).

The inspiration for the work appears to be the description in Pliny the Elder's Natural History of a lost bronze sculpture by Praxiteles, depicting "Bacchus, Drunkenness and a satyr".

The sense of precariousness resulting from a high centre of gravity can be found in a number of later works by the artist, most notably the David and the figures on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

Bacchus wears a wreath of ivy leaves, as that plant was sacred to the god. (They are not, as is often supposed, vine leaves). In his right hand he holds a goblet of wine and in his left the skin of a tiger, an animal associated with the god "for its love of the grape" (according to Michelangelo's biographer Ascanio Condivi).

The hand holding the goblet was broken off and the penis chiseled away before Maarten van Heemskerck saw the sculpture in the 1530s. Only the goblet was restored, in the early 1550s.

The mutilation may have been to give the sculpture an illusion of greater antiquity, placed as it initially was among an antique torso and fragmentary Roman reliefs in Jacopo Galli's Roman garden.

Such a concession to 'classical' sensibilities did not, however, convince Percy Bysshe Shelley of the work's fidelity to "the spirit and meaning of Bacchus".

He wrote that "It looks drunken, brutal, and narrow-minded, and has an expression of dissoluteness the most revolting".

The art historian Johannes Wilde summarised responses to the sculpture thus: "in brief... it is not the image of a god".

The statue was commissioned for the garden of Cardinal Raffaele Riario who intended for it to complement his collection of classical sculptures.

It was rejected by Cardinal Riario and by 1506 found its way to the collection of Jacopo Galli, banker to both the cardinal and Michelangelo, who had a similar garden near the Palazzo della Cancelleria.

There it first appeared in a drawing by Maarten van Heemskerck, c. 1533-36.

The statue was bought for the Medici and transferred to Florence in 1572. | Source: © Wikipedia

Il Baccoè una scultura marmorea -h. 174 cm, 203 con la base -di Michelangelo Buonarroti, databile al 1496-1497 e conservata nel Museo nazionale del Bargello a Firenze.

L'opera, una delle pochissime di Michelangelo a soggetto profano, venne commissionata dal cardinale Raffaele Riario durante il primo soggiorno romano di Michelangelo, verso il 1496. Il Riario era stato oggetto della truffa del Cupido dormiente, spacciato per un reperto archeologico di scavo e, dopo aver scoperto l'inganno, andò su tutte le furie ma mandò anche un suo agente, Jacopo Galli, a cercare a Firenze l'autore del pezzo così magnificamente contraffatto.

Riuscì a risalire a Michelangelo che, probabilmente ignaro della truffa, venne comunque invitato a Roma a conoscere il cardinale. Una volta giunto, ebbe modo di vedere la ricchissima raccolta di antichità del Riario e gli fu commissionata una statua "all'antica", un Bacco appunto.

L'artista si mise presto al lavoro, completando l'opera in appena un anno, dal luglio del 1496 allo stesso mese del 1497, e dimostrando una veloce assimilazione degli stilemi della statuaria classica, realizzando un'opera a tutto tondo di dimensioni leggermente superiori al naturale, fino ad allora estranee alla sua opera.

Non si sa per quale ragione l'opera venne poi rifiutata dal cardinale (forse non desiderava più opere moderne nelle sue collezioni, infatti si sbarazzò anche del Cupido), venendo invece acquistato da Jacopo Galli, che lo sistemò nel cortile della sua abitazione, presso San Lorenzo in Damaso.

I biografi antichi di Michelangelo, Condivi e Vasari, tacciono sul rifiuto del cardinale riferendo la commissione direttamente al Galli, ma in realtà la reale vicenda dell'opera è testimoniata in una lettera inviata da Michelangelo a Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici.

Questo disegno del 1532-1535 di Maerten van Heemskerck mostra l'opera nel giardino mutila della mano destra, e così compare anche in una stampa di Cornelis Bos.

Nel 1571 o 1572 la statua venne acquistata da Francesco I de' Medici per 240 ducati, venendo trasportata a Firenze nel corso del XVII secolo. Venne destinata alle raccolte granducali (Uffizi), andando poi al Bargello col riordino delle collezioni di scultura verso il 1865.

• Descrizione

La statua evoca il mito pagano di Bacco, qui rappresentato come un "giovane dio ebbro", che barcolla sostenendo una coppa mentre dietro di lui un piccolo satiro, seduto su un tronco, approfitta furbescamente della sua ebbrezza per assaggiare l'uva che tiene con la sinistra.

Il dettaglio del satiro, che ha una funzione statica e invita lo spettatore ad allargare la visione frontale verso il lato, venne ampiamente lodata da tutti gli scultori del tempo, poiché il giovane sembra davvero mangiare dell'uva con grande realismo.

Il Bacco è reso in maniera naturalistica, come un fanciullo che incede con incertezza per via dell'ebbrezza, con un modellato fluido che evidenzia gli attributi di un'acerba virilità sensuale, e con effetti illusivi e tattili nel marmo che rendono l'opera in grado di gareggiare con i modelli della scultura ellenistica.

La posa a contrapposto è vivace e sciolta, il volto espressivo, la sensualità evidente. Nel complesso non hanno equivalenti nell'arte del tempo.

Sul capo porta una ghirlanda di pampini (foglie di vite) e di grappoli d'uva.

Sempre con la mano sinistra regge una pelle di tigre o di leopardo, animali cari a Bacco, che indica la liberazione dell'anima dalla umana condizione terrena. | © Wikipedia