Between: michelangelo

Showing posts with label michelangelo. Show all posts

Tuesday, 3 December 2024

Artlyst: Michelangelo Leonardo Raphael At The Royal Academy Review

My latest exhibition review for Artlyst is on Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael: Florence, c.1504, at the Royal Academy of Arts:

'Ultimately, from the ‘Taddei Tondo’ through the Sala del Gran Consiglio commissions, this is an exhibition of unfinished yet hugely influential works. The exhibition includes an edition of Cicero’s letters annotated by Agostino Vespucci, a Florentine man of letters and scribe. Vespucci is struck by Cicero’s description of how the painter Apelles fully finished the head of Venus but left the rest of her body roughed out. In his margin note, he states that Leonardo did the same in all his paintings.

While works in this period can be left unfinished for a whole host of pragmatic reasons, from political upheavals to lack of time through competing commissions and to flaws in materials or the untimely death of the artist, there does also seem to be an appreciation of the aesthetic beauty of the un- or partly finished work. Given the amount of time required for the detailed realism of these artists, as shown by the sketches, preparatory drawings, and cartoons here, it is no surprise that, combined with the other factors noted, they left much unfinished. It is a true sign of their genius that their unfinished works could also be among their most influential.'

For more of my writing on the art of the Renaissance see here, here, here, here, here, and here.

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Peteris Vasks - Prayer (Lord, Open Our Eyes).

Wednesday, 9 June 2021

Artlyst - Rodin: Suffering And Conflict – Tate Modern

My latest review for Artlyst is of The Making of Rodin at Tate Modern:

'Rodin learnt from Michelangelo’s ability to show internal pain and suffering through the gestures of the whole body noting that, ‘It is Michelangelo who has freed me from academic sculpture.’ In describing the greatness of Michelangelo, it was experience of suffering that was emphasised: ‘Michelangelo was only the last and greatest of the Gothics. The turning in of the soul upon itself, suffering, a disgust with life, struggle against the chains of matter, such are the elements of his inspiration … he himself has been tortured by melancholy.’

Rodin also saw suffering and conflict as characteristic of modern art, saying, ‘Nothing is more moving than the maddened beast, dying from unfulfilled desire and asking in vain for grace to quell its passion.’ As Rachel Corbett notes in ‘You Must Change Your Life,’ her biography of Rodin and his secretary, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, to Rodin’ punishment was the condition of the living’ as his vision of Dante’s hell ‘mirrored the realities of life in Paris at the fin de siècle‘ because its inhabitants were ‘living in a nightmare of their own earthly passions.’

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

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This Picture - Death's Sweet Religion.

Friday, 8 February 2019

Review: Magic Realism: Art in Weimar Germany 1919-33

My latest review for Church Times is of Magic Realism: Art in Weimar Germany 1919-33 at Tate Modern.

Two of the artists included, Albert Birkle and Herbert Gurschner, were part of an under-recognised strand of artists at this time (including, in the UK, Eric Gill, David Jones, Winifred Knights, Stanley Spencer, and others) for whom religious iconography did retain spiritual significance, and who produced work that was both original and modern as a result. One of many interesting aspects to this exhibition, and the earlier linked “Aftermath” exhibition, is that the curators have recognised this and reflected it as part of the rich tapestry of modernism, instead of overlooking it on ideological grounds, as others have in the past.

This new recognition on the part of curators is also apparent in Bill Viola / Michelangelo: Life, Death, Rebirth at the RA which explores resonances in both artists’ treatment of the fundamental questions of life and its meaning. As Ben Quash pointed out today at a study day on Art & Theology, an exhibition that aims to journey through the cycle of life by taking us closer to the spiritual and emotional power of the art works is a relatively new development in curation.

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David Bowie - Where Are We Now?

Sunday, 13 January 2019

Artlyst - Bill Viola And The Art Of Contemplation

In my latest feature article for Artlyst I explore the extent to which Bill Viola’s works, which can be seen at the Royal Academy from 26 January alongside drawings by Michelangelo, reveal the essentially contemplative nature of art and of the viewing of art.

In the piece I explore Viola's use of slowness, stillness, silence and sacrament noting that prayer and meditation in religious traditions also use these same elements suggesting that there is potentially much fruitful exploration possible between the forms of contemplation found in the Arts and in religion:

'Viola has said that the form his interest in the spiritual side of things has taken has been, in a tranquil way, to merely look with great focus at the ordinary things around him that he found wondrous. His works ask us to do the same.'

My other Artlyst articles and interviews are:

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Paul Weller - The Soul Searchers.

Friday, 16 May 2014

Three Faiths Forum: Faith and Visual Art

Last night I was the Christian speaker at the East London Three Faiths Forum meeting on Faith and the Visual Arts. My fellow speakers were Abed Bhatti and Rabbi Nancy Morris. Abed spoke about his wide-ranging interests and practice as a Muslim who is an artist and academic. Nancy surveyed Jewish approaches to the arts from Bezalel to the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design.

This was my contribution to the discussions:

What is Christian Art? Well, we all know the answer to that! It is cathedrals, icons, the Sistine Chapel ceiling and stained glass. It is Chartres, Michelangelo, Rublev and Sir Christopher Wren. Iconic images, buildings and artists which suggest that Christian art is soaring architecture built to the glory of God combined with biblical stories created with glass or paint.

But do our stereotypes of Christian Art hold up when we examine them more closely? Let’s take a look. Some people answer the question ‘What is Christian Art’ by saying it is art made by Christians but, if that is the answer to the question, then there is much that we are ruling out.

Fernand Léger’s mural at Assy, Henri Matisse’s Chapel at Vence, and Le Corbusier’s Church at Ronchamp are some of the most interesting art works and architecture created for churches during the twentieth century and all were by artists who made no claim to be Christians. In fact, all these commissions came about because of an approach to commissioning art for churches which argued that Christian art could be revived by appealing to the independent masters of the time with churches commissioning the very best artists available, and not quibbling over the artists' beliefs. If all ‘Christian Art’ is art made by Christians then we rule all this out.

So, maybe, ‘Christian Art’ is art commissioned by the Church. Yet, again, this seems too limiting a definition.

For instance, Mark C. Taylor has noted that "From the beginning of modern art in Europe, its practitioners have relentlessly probed religious issues. Though not always immediately obvious, the questions religion raises lurk on or near the surface of even the most abstract canvases produced during the modern era.” Yet relatively little of that art was commissioned by and for the Church. He concludes that, “One of the most puzzling paradoxes of twentieth-century cultural interpretation is that, while theologians, philosophers of religion, and art critics deny or suppress the religious significance of the visual arts, many of the leading modern artists insist that their work cannot be understood apart from religious questions and spiritual issues."

Re-thinking again, is it art which uses Biblical/Church images, stories or themes? Once again, this is too narrow a definition which would not capture, for example, the images that the deeply Catholic Georges Rouault produced of prostitutes. William Dryness has described these as “painted as penetrating types of the misery of human existence” but with grace also seen, as “divine meaning is given to human life by the continuing passion of Jesus Christ.” Nor would we capture the semi-abstractions created by the Evangelical Christian Makoto Fujimura who uses semi-precious minerals in the Nihonga style to create paintings that tend to only hint at recognizable subjects.

So let’s take a different approach altogether. At the centre of Caravaggio's Supper at Emmaus and at the centre of the story it depicts is a very simple and ordinary action; breaking bread or tearing a loaf of bread into two pieces. Although it is a simple and ordinary thing to do, it becomes a very important act when Jesus does it because this is the moment when Jesus’ two disciples realise who he is. They suddenly realise that this stranger who they have been walking with and talking to for hours on the Emmaus Road is actually Jesus himself, risen from the dead. They are amazed and thrilled, shocked and surprised, and we can see that clearly on the faces and in the actions of the disciples as they are portrayed in this painting.

Something very simple and ordinary suddenly becomes full of meaning and significance. This simple, ordinary action opens their eyes so that they can suddenly see Jesus as he really is. That is art in action! Art captures or creates moments when ordinary things are seen as significant.

When our eyes are suddenly opened to see meaning and significance in something that we had previously thought of as simple and ordinary that is called an epiphany. Caravaggio’s painting is a picture of an epiphany occurring for the disciples on the Emmaus Road but it is also an epiphany itself because it brings the story to life in a way that helps us see it afresh, as though we were seeing it for the first time.

The disciples realise it is Jesus when the bread is broken because Jesus at the Last Supper made the breaking of bread and the drinking of wine (the Eucharist) into a sacrament. A sacrament is a visible sign of an inward grace and so it is something more than an epiphany. An epiphany is a realisation of significance, while a sacrament is a visual symbol of an inner change. For Christians the taking of bread and wine into our bodies symbolises the taking of Jesus into our lives. Art (or the visual) then can also symbolise inner change.

For Christians this understanding of epiphany and sacrament is based on the doctrine of the Incarnation; the belief that, in Jesus, God himself became a human being and lived in a particular culture and time. Jesus was and is the visible image of the invisible God.

This belief has two main implications for the visual arts which have been explained well by Rowan Williams. First, “God became truly human in Jesus … And if Jesus was indeed truly human, we can represent his human nature as with any other member of the human race.” When we do so “we’re not trying to show a humanity apart from divine life, but a humanity soaked through with divine life … We don’t depict just a slice of history when we depict Jesus; we show a life radiating the life and force of God.”

Second, “if we approach the whole matter in prayer and adoration, the image that is made becomes in turn something that in its own way radiates [the] light and force” of God. Visual images are “human actions that seek to be open to God’s action” and which “open a gateway for God.” Christian art is therefore characterised by epiphany and sacrament.

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James Macmillan - Kiss On Wood.

Saturday, 21 July 2012

Caravaggio: Sacred and Profane

Yesterday I heard Andrew Graham-Dixon speak at the Tokarska Gallery about the portrait of Caravaggio that he paints in his biography of the artist Caravaggio - A Life Sacred and Profane. Graham-Dixon gave a fascinating and entertaining two hour presentation of Caravaggio's life and work up until his escape from prison in Malta.

Among the most interesting aspects of the talk was Graham-Dixon's description of the cultural background in Milan from which Caravaggio came; Carlo Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, had argued that the High Renaissance art of Raphael and Michelangelo had led the Church astray and that Catholic art needed to engage with the poor masses by means of a popular realism which could grab the attention, through its drama, of those who saw it thereby aiding their meditation and prayer.

Graham-Dixon argued that Caravaggio's paintings invite a profane reading but, for those able to see, the symbolism of the paintings allows a sacred reading meaning that, in a sense, the painting judges you through your response to it. As a example, he discussed Bacchus noting that Bacchus, who is a pre-figuration of Christ, is holding out to us the wine which is his salvific blood and that the rotting fruit symbolises the sinfulness of our lives from which Christ will save us.

Caravaggio became caught in a battle between the realist and baroque styles; a debate over the extent to which the Counter-Reformation should engage with the poor masses as Borromeo had argued. The baroque was essentially based on fear of the masses by emphasising submission to the majesty and authority of the Church. By contrast Caravaggio indicated inclusion of the masses by depicting the poverty of Christ's disciples.

The two styles were set against each other in the Cerasi Chapel at Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome where Caravaggio's Crucifixion of St. Peter and Conversion of St. Paul frames the altarpiece, the Assumption of the Virgin by Annibale Carracci. The rear of the horse in the Conversion of St. Paul is positioned to point directly at the Carracci. Yet Caravaggio is, in his time, ultimately the loser in this battle - despite regularly defending his honour with physical acts of violence - as two major commissions he had been awarded (The Madonna of the Palafrenieri and The Death of the Virgin) were both rejected as a result of profane readings of his realism.

The tragedy of Caravaggio's life then accelerated as a direct result of these rejections with the profane aspects of his life dominating although redemption was regularly offered through the protection of the Colonna family, Franciscan spirituality which valued his realism, and the offer of a pardon from the Pope. Although there was insufficient time on the night to complete the story, in the summary of the book on his website, Graham-Dixon concludes: "Caravaggio had lived much of his life surrounded by poor and ordinary people. He painted for them and from their perspective. In the end he died and was buried among them, in an unmarked grave. He was 38 years old."

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Tom Jones - Bad As Me.

Friday, 17 February 2012

Clay as earth and flesh

The following comes from the latest ImageUpdate:

"The late sculptor Stephen de Staebler, whose work will be featured in a retrospective at de Young Museum in San Francisco through April 22, is the subject of a beautiful, substantial new monograph from the University of California Press ... de Staebler is ... an important bridge builder—a connector of different worlds. His art reflects the influence of both traditional figurative art and modern Abstract Expressionism. As Timothy Anglin Burgard says in his brilliant introductory essay, de Staebler’s art synthesized ancient Egyptian “frontality,” the figurative poignance of Michelangelo, and the modern angst of Giacometti. Indeed, Burgard’s essay is aptly entitled “Humanist Sculptor in an Existentialist Age.” As a boy, de Staebler fell in love with clay while playing in the rivers of his native Indiana. For him, clay was both earth and flesh—beautiful but fragile and evanescent. His sculptures (which also include works in bronze) dramatize the paradoxes of the flesh by giving us figures who have been eroded by time and suffering but who nonetheless radiate with dignity. From an early age, de Staebler experienced mortality and physical suffering in his family, so his work always resonates with a heartbreaking pathos that is not the least bit sentimental. While he often claimed to be outside formal religious institutions, de Staebler was deeply influenced by the Western heritage of Christian art. He wrote a thesis on St. Francis of Assisi—that most earthy of saints—and found endless mystery in the figure of the Virgin Mary and angels (though his angels are enigmatic and formidable, not cute)."

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Henryk Górecki - Concerto for piano and strings.