So my parents went to Italy this summer (see their itinerary HERE) and my dad got inspired to do his own blog musings. His disclaimer is that he doesn’t know anything about art history so his posts are “from a Dummy” but, as an art historian, I am fact checking him as we go along. Enjoy! 🙂
JMF
Next time you see a sculpture think about it: The medium of stone is unique, unlike the medium of painting, once you screwed up you screwed it up. Someone took a rock, beat on it with a hammer and chisel and made it look like a living, breathing, human thing with muscle tone, veins, flowing fabric, and deep emotion. Wooooooaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!
As a side note, Michelangelo would sculpt freehand without a live model. He had a picture in his head and he helped that vision “escape the stone” in front of him.
One of my favorite states is a little statue in the Albin Polasek museum in Winter Park Florida, titled Man Carving his own Destiny. It shows the sculpture chiseling himself out of stone.
RJO
