Bernini's_David

Bernini’s David Lacey G. Nicholas Art 101: Art Appreciation Professor Bianca Perkins February 20, 2011 Bernini’s David The representation of Bernini’s David was like no other. He made it of marble, but he made the marble look flexible. “Bernini’s sculpture is expansive and theatrical, and the element of time usually plays an important role in it” (Kleiner, 2010, p. 531). It differs from Donatello, Michelangelo, and Verrocchio, and mirrors the Counter-Reformation efforts of the Catholic Church. First, it differs from Donatello, Michelangelo, and Verrocchio because they depicted “David after his triumph over Goliath” (Kleiner, 2010, p. 531). However, “Bernini chose to depict the combat itself” (Kleiner, 2010, p. 531). “Bernini’s statue of David has a picture-like quality supported by photographic procedures that gives it life-like qualities” (Kenseth, 1981, p.192). Unlike his predecessors, “he aimed to catch the split-second of maximum action” (Kleiner, 2010, p.531). The bag of stones, at David’s left hip, suggest that the battle would be long and tough. “He also selected the most dramatic of an implied sequence of poses, so that the viewer has to think simultaneously of the continuum imparts a dynamic quality to the statue that conveys a bursting forth of the energy seen confined in Michelangelo’s figures” (Kleiner, 2010, p. 531). “Donatello, Michelangelo, and Verrocchio’s David could not stand alone; it had to be propped next to a wall” (Haitovsky, 1985, p.174). Additionally, Bernini’s David seems to be moving through time and through space. For example, "the sculpture cannot be inscribed in a cylinder or confined in a niche” (Kleiner, 2010, p. 531). The dynamic action demands space around it. It also directs attention beyond it to the unseen Goliath. As a viewer, we are tempted to duck. It is the anticipation of violent action that heightens this confrontation as David’s latent power is momentarily arrested. “Bernini’s sculpted figure moves out into the space that surrounds it” (Kleiner, 2010, p. 531). “Further, the expression of intense concentration on David’s face contrasts vividly with the classical visages of Donatello’s and Verrocchio’s David and is more emotionally charged even than Michelangelo’s” (Kleiner, 2010, pp. 531-532). The tension expressed in “David’s face augments the dramatic impact of Bernini’s sculpture” (Kleiner, 2010, p. 532). Finally, Bernini’s David mirrors the Counter-Reformation of the Catholic Church by serving vividly to counteract the natural perspective and bring the façade closer to the viewer. “By emphasizing the facade’s height in this manner, Bernini subtly and effectively compensating for its extensive width” (Kleiner, 2010, p. 530). “Thus, a Baroque transformation expanded the compact central designs of Bramante and Michelangelo into a dynamic complex of axially ordered elements that reach out and enclose spaces of vast dimensions” (Kleiner, 2010, p. 530). For example, “its sheer scale and theatrically, the completed Saint Peter’s fulfilled the desire of the Counter-Reformation Catholic Church to present an awe-inspiring, authoritative vision of itself” (Kleiner, 2010, p. 530). However, “Baroque art was recognized and rejected as the dangerously declamatory and self-celebratory instrument of the Counter-Reformation, of a living Catholic Church despised for both political and religious reasons” (Vance, 1985, p. 507). “It inherited a puritan deposition to tolerate art only in its most sober, spiritual, and humorless forms was repelled by the sensuality and fantasy of baroque design, abundantly evident in civic and secular works but even invading churches with its exuberant physicality” (Vance, 1985, p. 507). REFERENCE Haitovsky, D. (1985). The sources of the Young David by Andrea Del Castagno. Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, 29Bd. H1. Retrieved from: (www.jstor.org/stable/2763158). p. 174 Kenseth, J. (June, 1981). Bernini’s Borghese sculptures :Another View. The Art Bulletin. 63 (2).p. 192 Kleiner, F. S. (2010). Gardner’s Art through the Ages: The western perspectives. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. pp. 530-532 Vance, W. L. (Dec., 1985). The sidelong Glance: Victorian Americans and Baroque Rome. The New England Quarterly, 58 (4). Retrieved From: (www.jstor.org/stable/365559). p. 507