May 24, 2024 - Classic Italy
Florence: Gallery Academic
While in Florence, we stayed at the Westin Excelsior, which was very nice. Pay no attention to all that scaffolding and covering.
We started the day with a Florence art-history Renaissance lecture in the hotel. It was excellent. And needed since I know almost nothing about art.
Giambologna's "Abduction of the Sabine Women".
Abduction of a Sabine Woman (or The Rape of the Sabine) is a large and complex marble statue by the Flemish sculptor and architect Giambologna (Johannes of Boulogne). It was completed between 1579 and 1583 for Cosimo I de' Medici.Giambologna achieved widespread fame in his lifetime, and this work is widely considered his masterpiece. It has been in the Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence, since August 1582.
It depicts three nude figures: an old man crouching at the end, a young man in the center who lifts a young woman above his head. The woman, who reaches her right hand outwards grasping for help, is in a life-threatening struggle to free herself from her captor. The old man appears to be defeated and in despair. Only half of his body is visible and from some angles this is evidently because the younger man's feet and knees are violently pushing and keeping him down. The three figures' heads are at opposites regardless of view point; in particular the old man seems always turned away from the younger woman, as he realises he has lost her to the aggressor, and thus his facial contortions are probably to be read as from shame. It is ostensibly based on the rape of the Sabine Women incident from the early history of Rome when the city contained relatively few women, leading to their men committing a raptio[a] of young women from nearby Sabina.
he Abduction of a Sabine Woman was made from a single block of white marble, which became the largest block ever transported to Florence. Giambologna wanted to create a composition with the figura serpentina (S-curve) and an upward snakelike spiral movement. It was conceived without a dominant viewpoint; that is, the work gives a different view depending on which angle it is seen from.
This is the original plaster cast model. A bronze model believed created in 1579 is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Believe it or not, I had never heard of this statue before. I've never seen a picture of it (or if I had, it made no impression). I was totally unaware of it. As I said, I know almost nothing about art. But right away I recognized that this was a masterpiece. Much more worthy than the Mona Lisa, in my opinion. I now understood why the museum was so popular.
Per Rick Steves: "This museum houses Michelangelo's David, the consummate Renaissance statue of the buff, bliblical shepard boy ready to take on the giant. When you look into the eyes of this magnificent sculpture, you're looking into the eyes of Renaissance Man."
In 1501, the Florentine government commissioned a young Michelangelo Buonarroti to create a monumental statue for the Cathedral of Florence. The challenge? He had to work with a massive block of marble, nicknamed “The Giant,” which had been abandoned by two previous sculptors, Agostino Di Duccio and Antonio Rossellino.
This block had been excavated 40 years earlier and left exposed to the elements. Many considered it too flawed for a masterpiece, but 26-year-old Michelangelo saw potential where others saw problems. Enthusiastically accepting the challenge, he was determined to bring the biblical hero David to life from this imperfect stone.
For nearly three years, Michelangelo worked tirelessly on the statue. Unlike many sculptors who first created small models, Michelangelo began carving directly into the marble. He worked in relative secrecy, hidden behind wooden screens to shield his progress from prying eyes.
Michelangelo famously described the process as “seeing the angel in the marble and carving until I set him free,” but the reality was far from poetic. The creation of David demanded Herculean strength, meticulous precision, and almost infinite patience.
Initially commissioned as one of several sculptures to adorn Florence Cathedral’s roofline, David’s placement was reconsidered after its completion. Due to its exceptional artistic merit, influential figures, including the Signoria, Florence’s governing body, and prominent artists like Giorgio Vasari, chose a more public and symbolic location. The statue was placed in front of the Palazzo Vecchio in Piazza della Signoria, the heart of Florence and the seat of the city’s government. There, it served as a powerful representation of civic virtue and republican ideals.
When the statue was unveiled in 1504, it left the people of Florence awestruck. Michelangelo had transformed a discarded block of marble into a figure of such power and beauty that it defined an era.
For over two centuries, David stood as a guardian in Piazza della Signoria, a symbol of Florentine pride. In 1873, to preserve this irreplaceable treasure, the statue was moved indoors to the Accademia Gallery, where it could be protected from the elements and admired in controlled conditions.
Standing before the statue of David, one is immediately struck by its towering height of 17 feet. Despite its imposing stature, the statue has grace and delicacy. Every muscle, vein, and contour of David’s body is carved with astonishing accuracy.
The hands seem ready to flex, and the slight twist of the torso creates a sense of potential energy. This is as if David might step off his pedestal at any moment.
However, it’s not just the physical details that make the statue a masterpiece. David’s face, with its furrowed brow and intense gaze, captures a moment of deep concentration. He looks to his left, presumably eyeing his opponent, Goliath, with an expression that combines determination with uncertainty.
Unlike earlier sculptures of David that showed him triumphant after victory, Michelangelo chose to represent the moment before the battle.
Every element of the statue, from the barely visible sling over David’s left shoulder to the tree stump supporting his right leg, was carefully considered. Even the proportions, which may seem slightly off to the modern eye (with an oversized head and hands), were intentional. Michelangelo designed the statue to be viewed from below, adjusting the proportions to appear correct from that angle.
To fully appreciate the statue of David, we must understand the world in which it was created. In the early 16th century, Florence was a vibrant hub of artistic and intellectual activity, with the Renaissance in full swing and the city at its heart.
Florence at this time was a place of contradictions. It was a proud republic, fiercely protective of its independence, yet constantly threatened by more powerful states and internal factions. The city was deeply religious while embracing humanist ideals that celebrated human potential. It was a center of trade and banking, yet also a cradle of art and philosophy.
In many ways, the statue of David embodied the spirit of Renaissance Florence: classical in inspiration, innovative in execution, and imbued with civic pride and artistic genius. It stood as a testament to what humans could achieve as individuals and as a society.
One of the primary challenges in preserving the statue is its material. While prized for its beauty, Carrara marble is relatively soft and porous, making it susceptible to damage from pollution, vibration, and even oils from human hands.
The statue of David has undergone several major restorations throughout its history. One of the most significant occurred between 2003 and 2004, in preparation for the sculpture’s 500th anniversary. This restoration involved cleaning the statue using distilled water and cellulose pulp poultices, a gentle method that removed accumulated grime without damaging the marble.
The crowd goes wild over Michelangelo's David.
The David outside in front of the Palazzo Vecchio before 1873. Photo downloaded from Wikipedia.
Michelangelo’s Prisoners of the Accademia Gallery, in their unfinished state, allow us to understand Buonarroti’s sculptural technique, completely different from that of all the other artists: the usual procedure envisaged establishing the measurements and poses of the figure and progressively roughing out the stone until arriving at a sketch, or at a figure still surrounded by a surplus of material.
This surplus had to be removed cautiously, constantly verifying compliance with the initial design or model. On the other hand, Michelangelo worked to reach an almost finished state for some parts, while others were still enclosed in the block of stone as it had been quarried.
The superhuman ability to imagine the statue inside the stone, and to change the figures even during construction based on the parts already sculpted, was also accompanied by the completely original use of the tools: Michelangelo used the chisel and the harness up to the skin of the sculptures, whereas prudence instead advised everyone to rely on thin tools in order not to risk – with one wrong stroke – irreparably ruining the work.
This is the sculpture of San Matteo, commissioned from Michelangelo in 1503 – when the Master was working on the David – as the first of a series of twelve apostles destined for the Chapels of the Tribuna of the Florence Cathedral: the project remained unfinished as well as the statue, sculpted only in the front part.
The collection shows the whole process of making sculptures. You’ll find small test pieces following full-size models. Some works show Napoleon’s family members, telling us about Bartolini’s connection to French royalty. Others capture the faces of Russian nobles and British thinkers who made Florence their second home.
Among the most famous pieces is “Fiducia in Dio” (Trust in God), made in 1835. It shows a young woman kneeling in prayer, capturing natural beauty and deep feeling. This work indicates what made Bartolini special – his ability to make the stone look alive with emotion.
Today, the collection sits in a room with powder-blue walls that make the white plaster stand out. The space feels much like Bartolini’s old workshop in the San Frediano monastery.
These works survived Florence’s big flood in 1966 when the Arno River threatened much of the city’s art. Two art experts, Cecilie Hollberg and Carlo Sisi, recently fixed the gallery to show these pieces in their best light.
