During today’s class, there was an emphasis placed on Michelangelo and his works. One of the first things we talked about was his sculpture of David. This sculpture was originally going to be placed in a high up area and was meant to be looked up at which is why the head can look slightly disproportionate from a full on frontal view. However, it was due to its magnificence that it was instead placed in a spot of attention and replaced the statue of Judith. This switch itself was rather interesting because Michelangelo’s David and Judith were both depictions of triumph or success. The only difference was that David was about a man who defeated somebody in a straightforward manner while Judith was a woman that defeated a man through deception.
We also discussed Giambologna’s Rape of the Sabines which was an introduction to the idea of art for art’s sake. Giambologna wanted to prove that he was able to create life size sculptures so he decided to go the extra mile and create a sculpture that depicted three full size bodies of different types. He also placed them in an amazing composition that twisted up on top of each other. It was because this sculpture was made to prove his prowess that not much meaning went into the making of the sculpture and it was only after it got popular that it was given its meaning and name.