Michelangelo and La Accademia
The Accademia is a
gallery in Florence that we visited for a second time during our sixth week here. The Accademia
is renowned for the David that was crafted at the hands of Michelangelo but
also has many of his other, albeit unfinished, works.
The David, you will
notice, is covered with wires to monitor the effect of movement around it as it
is fairly fragile. This is because it spent 300 years exposed to the elements
and in this time was struck by lightning and had his toe hammered off in the
1540’s. Although so carefully looked after because it is considered a
masterpiece, it does have its faults. For example, the legs are slightly out of
proportion and there is a crevice in his upper back where Michelangelo had
simply run out of marble.
Michelangelo was known to
work ‘into the stone’. Therefore, pushing the material back as he carved an
image out of it. He always began a sculpture from the edge of the stone (unlike
Donatello, who also did a portrayal of David during his career, who began his
work from the center of the stone). This can be seen from the unfinished pieces
from the 1503 commission in which Michelangelo was asked to sculpted the 12
disciples (one pictured below). This was never finished as he was bombarded with commissions
following the success of his David - he didn’t have enough time!
Another attribute
specific to Michelangelo was his ‘Infinito concept’. It does not mean
unfinished per se, but rather that you must complete the rest in your own mind
with your own experience. Evidence of this lies in the inscription of his
completed Pieta that reads ‘work in progress’.
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