Patrick Bade
The High Renaissance: Michelangelo
Patrick Bade - The High Renaissance: Michelangelo
- Thank you, Judy, thank you. So we arrived tonight at the second of the three great masters of the High Renaissance, and that is Michelangelo Buonarroti. And this is his tomb, which is amazing because in the 16th century, to have such a magnificent tomb was a sign of enormous prestige. And I’ve mentioned in the last couple of lectures how in the Renaissance, the reputation and prestige of artists grew, that we know the names of the artists of 15th century. We know about them, we know details of their lives, but that rises to really a new level with these three great masters, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael. So Michelangelo was born in Florence, up into the minor aristocracy. The Buonarroti Family were quite a reputed family, and he was obviously incredibly gifted from an early age. And probably his earliest surviving work is this marble relief that you see on the left-hand side. He would have been about 15 or 16 when he made this. He was an apprentice in studio of Domenico Ghirlandaio. This is known as the “Madonna of the Stairs”, and it dates from about 1490. So it certainly looks forward, but it’s also looking back. And on the left side of the screen, you can see the Pisa “Madonna” that I talked about earlier by Masaccio. Masaccio by this time, well, Masaccio died in 1427, a couple of generations earlier, but he’s certainly somebody that Michelangelo is looking back to.
He’s looking earlier than the graceful, charming, Quattrocento’s Brunelleschi and Filippo Lippi to something more massive, more monumental. And we know that he was very interested in Masaccio, because this, from around the same date, from around 1490, we have this drawing that he made after one of the figures of in Masaccio’s fresco, in the Brancacci Chapel. This is also very early from around the same time. It’s a battle scene and it shows this Florentine interest in anatomy and in the male nude. And he was certainly familiar with this print by Pollaiuolo, the “Battle of the Nude Men”. But it seemed, it’s more fluid, isn’t it? It’s more and more convincing, I think, in its treatment of anatomy. So he’s a little older here, he’s around in his 20 or in his early 20s. And this is a figure of “Bacchus” that seems to have been made as a fake. He was actually faking a Hellenistic statue very, very convincingly. But, so this, as we know in the Renaissance, is this obsession they have with the antique world, with classical culture. But this is his first great masterpiece. The first of a series of “Pieta”, the Virgin Mourning the Dead Christ. This dates from the first years of the 16th century. This, as you know, of course, is now in the St. Peters in Rome. So, no, actually it dates 1498 to 1499. And I suppose, it’s one of the most famous sculptures in the world. Very beautiful. There’s exquisite depiction of the Virgin’s face and the Christ figure relaxed in death with an expression really of something like ecstasy on his face. Now, I know that at the end of this talk, somebody is going to ask me, was Michelangelo homosexual? Was he gay? This probably in there already in the Q and A.
And my answer will be the same as it was for Leonard da Vinci, that such a category didn’t really exist in the 16th century. People will not pigeonholed heterosexual, homosexual, straight or gay. But the fact is that there is an incredibly strong element of homoeroticism in Michelangelo as well. Oh, incident, you suggests here the theme of the “Pieta”, which was actually new in Italian art. It was a familiar theme in northern art, in gothic art. We see gothic example on the top right hand corner. What is very knowledge of human anatomy and great interest in the beauty of the human body. As I said, is this, I’m not sure if, is this? What’s his name? A famous footballer. David Beckham, I think it’s David Beckham, in a very “Pieta” like pose. And you see in the Michelangelo how, as I said, the body is relaxed in death and it’s treated in a very sensual way. As I said, this element of homoeroticism is very strong in Michelangelo’s work. And today, I think we would assume that he was homosexual. He certainly never married. He certainly never had children. And we know that for instance, he had a crush on this young man, an aristocratic young man called Andrea Quaratesi in Florence. And that he offered him drawing lessons and he gave him drawings, including probably this one, which is a portrait by Michelangelo, which is very, very unusual.
But Michelangelo didn’t actually rate portraiture in terms of likeness as a valid art form, but he made an exception for this young man. Now, I was rather astonished to receive an email from a listener who felt that when I discussed the issue of the very prevalent homosexual practises in Florence in the 15th century, that even to suggest that there could be a cultural, rather the biological element was some kind opened the way to justification for conversion therapy. Now, I can already, again, I can probably, people are already in the question and answer, what is conversion therapy? What is conversion therapy? What conversion therapy is, I think a totally fraudulent, even criminal activity where methods of brainwashing are used to supposedly change people’s sexual orientation. Well, I doubt whether it’s actually possible, and it is a very dubious exercise. I’m glad to say in this country, it’s just about to be declared illegal and banned. And I know it’s already banned in a number of countries, but I would really say please, please, please, don’t get too heated about this because I think one should be able to discuss these things. And I’d like to go back to that issue of this very prevalent that we know from the figures that considering the population of Florence, enormous numbers of young men were accused of being involved in homosexual practises, far more than you could predict. Say from, you know, the 5 to 10% of the population who are thought to be genetically programmed to be homosexual. So I think, you know, there has to be a question, you have to be able to discuss it. Whether there is a cultural element in this.
And there is an obvious, as far as Florence, in the 15th century is concerned, there is an obvious answer that is actually staring in us in the face. And that is the Renaissance itself. What the Renaissance is about. I mean, as I have been explaining from the start of this course, Renaissance is the rebirth of classical culture. Wanting to explore and revive classical culture, classical ideas, classical moral values. And in the classical world, particularly in the Greek world, they were completely untainted by Judeo-Christian ideas of guilt about same sex relationships. You know, that go right back to Leviticus. That somehow any kind of sexuality activity that doesn’t involve procreation is simple and wicked. That did not occur to people in classical Greece, quite the opposite. That same sex relations, whether between men or between women. I mean, think of the great poeter Sappho, were cherished. They were revered, they were honoured. And so I’m showing you this, of course, this is one of the most famous objects in the British Museum. This is the Warren Cup, which dates from first century AD. And it’s classified in the British Museum collection as Greco-Roman, but I would say it’s more likely to be Greek. I think it’s thought to be more likely to be Greek. And it certainly expresses Greek ideas where, I mean, there’s nothing really, I think it’s very beautiful, it’s very dignified. There’s nothing really prurient about it, but it’s celebrating relation, sexual relationships, between a young man and a boy.
And as we know in ancient Greece, this was, you know, highly regarded and didn’t have any kind of connotations. So I think this prevalence of these practises in Florence in the 15th century, it has to do with this. It has to do with, in a way, a rejection to a certain extent of Judeo-Christian morality and a re-adoption of classical ideas. And of course, the work of art that really, more than any other made Michelangelo’s reputation, it has become something of a gay icon. This is Michelangelo’s “David”. And this date, this was just after the turn of century. This is 1501 to 04. And this was commissioned actually for the dome or for the cathedral. And Michelangelo was given an absolutely enormous block of Carrara marble that a couple of other sculptures had already started to work up on. And they kind of given up in this despair. So it was quite a heavily worth piece of marble, which must have made it very, very much more difficult actually for him to make a convincing piece of sculpture out of this already worked and slightly damaged piece of marble. But when it was completed, it was immediately recognised as a great masterpiece. And as a kind of a wonder. They realised that it was not really a very good idea to put it where it was originally envisaged, high up on the cathedral.
First of all, it’s so enormous and that would’ve been practical possibility problems of doing that. But also to be very high up, it wouldn’t have been seen properly. A whole, there was a kind of convocation of Florentine artists, a kind of committee that was put together where, what should we do with this piece? Where shall we put it? We know that Pieta included a very aged Botticelli. And it also included Leonardo who clearly saw Michelangelo as some kind of rival and threat. And was, I think, quite hostile to him. So David, I mentioned that, you know, the Jewish biblical hero of David became a symbol of Florence, of the courage of Florence, of Florence’s ability to stand up to larger, more powerful rivals like the Papacy and Milan. And I’m showing you here the four most famous versions, four of most famous sculptures of David start on the left. We’ve Donatello, which I mentioned before, was the first life size freestanding male nude since antiquity. And he’s a slightly camp, very rather effeminate, very beautiful young man. And we have next in is the Verrocchio, rather probably the closed of the four to really what the biblical David was supposed to be. He was a very young boy, and he’s a rather wary, feisty young boy. Both of those, of course, shown after the battle, after Goliath has been defeated and his head has been chopped off. Michelangelo, I contrast, shows the moment before the battle, the sling in shoulder.
He’s somewhat more mature, rather more muscular than the Verrocchio or Donatello David. So he’s a young man rather than a boy. And then finally, on the right hand side, we have Bernini who actually, we know that he used his own face, his own facial features for David. He was in his early twenties when he made this sculpture. And typically of the Baroque of course. So we’ve got before, the first two, no, we have after the first two, and before with Michelangelo. And during, you know, Baroque obviously likes the high point of the drummings, actually in the process of swinging the sling to kill Goliath. And here we’ve got a closeup ‘cause the statue was eventually set up in front of the Palazzo Vecchio in the square. It was in the open air for a couple of hundred years. And you can see the effects of the weathering here on the curls of the hair. And you can see this, the farrowed brow, this furious look on his face and the intensity of his expression. And these enormous hands with their very strong veins. Ah, now I know another thing that’s almost certainly turn up in the question and answer at the end. Yes, yes, Michelangelo did get it wrong. He depicts David as uncircumcised rather than circumcised. And I suppose that’s what Michelangelo was familiar with. He probably didn’t know many young men who were circumcised in 15th century Florence.
And here is, well, we’ve got the copy now, onto the Palazzo Vecchio. That’s where it was eventually set up, which is what Michelangelo wanted. Leonardo wanted it to be set in the underneath the arches to the right of the Loggia dei Lanzi, which would’ve been probably a rather less effective place to show it. Now, we’ve got many South African listeners and somebody who should certainly be regarded as a National Treasure of South Africa, as well as this country, I think, is the very great actor Anthony Sher. And if there is anybody today who’s a Renaissance man, it must be him. He’s so multi-talented, you know, he’s a wonderful writer. I mean, he’s a wonderful writer. You know, he’s written autobiographical books, he’s written novels, and he’s a very-
An overall issue here.
artist and illustrator. And I’ve had the-
It’s an open issue 'cause all my Q and A have gone. I’ve had the great privilege of working in. Sorry, I’m hearing we’ve got some problems here. Anyway, I’ve had the great privilege of working with Anthony Sher on a number of occasions. And once, I curated an exhibition of his drawings and paintings at the old London Jewish Cultural Centre. And I visited him in his house and we took a taxi to the LJCC. And in the taxi, he said to me, “Oh, by the way, I’m writing a play about the relationship between Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.” I must say I gulp, I thought, “Oh my God, is he mad?” You know, I think of all those terrible old Hollywood movies. Biopics of great artists and how embarrassing the dreadful, clunky dialogue. But I must say, when I saw the play, I thought, “Wow!”. If you get a chance to see it, I do hope it’s revived. I think it’s a wonderful play, actually.
Very poetic and in its way very convincing and very interesting as an exploration of creativity and the relationship between these two great artists. 'Cause they had, as I said, they had a very intense rivalry. And that was very typical Renaissance that liked period. They liked to set up these rivalries between great artists. And so in the period of the Florentine Republic, when the Medici were in exile, they were both commissioned to paint murals, battle scenes. I talked about this last week in the Palazzo Vecchio. And this is after a cartoon by Michelangelo that shows the “Battle of Cascina”. It had in the same room, two great battle scenes by these two great artists. And this is Rubens’ copy of a lost copy of Leonardo’s battle scene, which was actually executed, but unfinished and started to deteriorate. And as I mentioned, last week was covered up by a mural by Vasari. And here it is a pen and ink drawing of these thrashing, struggling figures by Michelangelo for his “Battle of Cascina”. And two life drawings, again, showing his fascination with the human body, the male body, not really the the female body. Whereas Leonardo actually did for century, Leonardo I think was much more sensitive to female beauty, beauty of the female body. Whereas I feel Michelangelo, I mean, even when he is depicting women, it’s always a male body that really fixates him. This is also from this period in the first decade of 16th century, and it’s the only completed panel painting in oils by Michelangelo. And it shows the “Madonna” and the baby Jesus and Joseph, and it’s called the “Doni Tondo” ‘cause it was made for the Doni family. And what you can see already, this kind of obsession he has with contrapposto. I talked about contrapposto last week, which is these twisted turning poses. It’s one in a couple of days time, I’m going to be talking about the mannerist movement. Many of the mannerist artists picked up on this and really took it to an extreme. And you already, in here, you feel, who are these nude young men in the background? Why are they there?
Doesn’t seem to be any real justification for them other than his desire to explore the beauty of the male body in all its poses and forms. There seems to be some kind, it’s like it’s kind of workout in a gym that’s happening in the background. And you can see also this extremely complex twisted pose of the Virgin reaching up towards the Christ child. This painting is in the National Gallery in London. The National Gallery have two unfinished paintings, which have long been attributed by some people to Michelangelo and recent researchers analysis of the panels. And so has tended to confirm their authorship by Michelangelo, particularly this one of “The Entombment”, which is also on a panel. And as you can see, it’s unfinished. And so I would say Michelangelo, of course, he’s a great artist. He’s one of the great artists. Is he a great painter? Hmm. I’ve already brought up this issue that’s going to be very important in the coming weeks or painterly versus a linear. And Michelangelo veers towards the extreme. It’s a kind of spectrum, really. It’s not a binary thing. It’s not like you have to be either painterly or linear. You are towards one end of the spectrum somewhere. And Michelangelo is very extreme towards the linear rather than the painterly.
And you can see that, you know, everything is really thought through in terms of contour. And he’ll work on one area and then move on to another area. And some areas have been left completely unworked. A painterly artist would be much more likely to work up the whole paint surface, bring it together and give it some kind of unity. And the other thing, I think you could you can see in a way that this is a painting of somebody who is essentially a sculptor. That all the forms in the picture are treated in a very, very sculptural way. So then he moves down to Rome. And from 1506, we have the Papacy of Julius II, he takes over from the notorious Alexander VI, the Borgia Pope. I think Judy’s taught quite a lot about him. Very fascinating family of partly Jewish origin who got a very bad reputation for their depravity. It was rather unfortunate that Borgia in Italian rhymes with Orja, or which is the name for orgy. And the Borgia were famous for their wild and rather dangerous parties. You know, of course, if you got invited to dinner with the Borgia, you wanted to really check that your after eight minutes were not spiked with poison. But so, Julius II took over, and I mean, he’s far from the saints himself. I mean, he, by the time this portrait was painted, this is by Raphael, I’m going to talk about this more my next session. He was suffering from gout and syphilis, which are both things I suppose rather naughty things for a pope to suffer from.
But, so he has quite a short papacy, but he is, of all the popes perhaps, the greatest and the most important patron. He had the luck to have these three great artists, but particularly Michelangelo and Raphael to work for him. And so he calls on Michelangelo. And what he wants is an absolute megalomaniac tomb, a huge monumental tomb, which was to have 40 figures on it. And he’d be sitting on triumph on top of it. This is one design for the tomb, it went through many different designs. Here’s another one. And of course, he didn’t live long enough to really see it through. And the other thing was that he kept on giving Michelangelo other commission. So Michelangelo certainly never completed the tomb in anything like the form that was originally envisaged. And here are more models and designs that show what this incredible tomb might have looked like if Michelangelo had the time to complete it. And there are many figures that he embarked on that he was unable to finish. So this was a question that we talked about last week, and quite a lot of people asked about at the end why, and speculated why it was that Leonardo was unable to finish thing? Michelangelo was not quite as bad as Leonardo in this respect, but there are still an enormous number of works, unfinished works by Michelangelo. These are so-called prisoners that are in the academia in Florence that were intended for Julius’ II tomb. And I think actually, for 20th and 21st century people, their unfinished, unresolved state is part of the extraordinary fascination of these pieces is the very muscular figures struggling, struggling.
They seem to be struggling to emerge from the stone. Now, Michelangelo was really exceptional amongst Western cultures, right up to the end of the 19th century. Being in practising direct carving. I mean, he certainly made model, I mean, there are a wax model that exists. But he had such a powerful vision of the sculpture already existing in the block of stone that, it was for him, it was like he’s releasing this preexisting figure from the block of stone by cutting away the excess stone. Here are for prisoners and the somewhat more, and still not finished, but much more advanced slaves, the struggling slave and the dying slave, which in the Louvre. And again, this , you know, the dying slave treated with, you know, extraordinary. And both of them in the struggling slave with great sensuality. I mean, there is, I think a sexual element in the way that he’s depicted them. And so here is the tomb in San Pietro in Vincoli as it was finally erected not to Michelangelo’s original designs. And with of course, the one of his most famous sculptures, the “Moses” with the horns, which as we know were the result of a mistranslation of the biblical text. So one major reason, of course, that he never finished the tomb was that he got distracted because Julius II commissioned him to paint the Sistine ceiling, which he painted between 1508 and 1512.
Of course, you had to be, this is fresco. So it’s painted into wet plaster directly onto the ceiling. He would’ve been upper scaffolding, very dangerous stuff, being high up in this chapel. And he was such an individualistic artist that by unlike Leonardo, unlike many other great artists, Rubens’, Titian or whatever, he made very little use of assistance. It’s Michelangelo himself who painted this. And the subjects of the Sistine ceiling are the Jewish Bible. It’s the Old Testament. And it’s in a way, it’s like a great comic book, a series of illustrations of all the most famous stories of the Bible. Here, if you can see the creation of Adam, the creation of Eve, the temple where you can see God creating the universe and so on. And here is perhaps the most famous image of the creation of Adam. I think probably this is many people’s idea of God in the Christian world is of this sort of by the muscular elderly man with white hair. And it comes from Michelangelo more than from anybody else. Here is the creation of the universe. And of course, it is as with, you know, with Rubens, it’s always le blonde, isn’t it? Rubens, were whatever the subject, he’ll manage to get in a gorgeous plump blonde women. With Michelangelo, it’s always a beautiful muscular young man that he manages to get into every subject. And as I said, he’s completely fixated with the male body.
So even when he has to depict women, this is a civil, a prophetess on the right hand side. We look at the wonderful sanguine drawing that he made for that figure, it’s very clear that it was drawn from a male model and not a female model. Now he, by this time in Rome, Leonardo is there. There is a point where you have all three artists working in Rome. But Leonardo is already old by the standards of the time. And in a way he withdraws from the competition. So the really serious competition is between Michelangelo and the newcomer, which is Raphael. As I said, the Reformation is, not the Reformation, the Renaissance is full of rivalries and feuds. And Michelangelo’s bitter, bitter enemy was the architect Bramante, who was in charge of the reconstruction of St. Peter’s. He really hated Michelangelo. When Bramante heard that there was an, this wonder kid, this amazing new talent, Raphael, in Florence. And he was instrumental in bringing Raphael to Rome, introducing him to Julius II. And this happens in 1509 when Michelangelo’s at work on the Sistine ceiling. So now, there’s a new competition between Michelangelo and Raphael. The nephew of the pope, now which one is it? It’s the Medici pope who follows, who, is it Clement? Who follows Julius II and his nephew Giuliano de’ Medici has the idea of commissioning two great altar pieces, one from Michelangelo and one from Raphael. Raphael is the “Ascension” on the right hand side, and I’ll be talking about that in the next session. Michelangelo was actually do canny to really engage directly in this.
He realised that as a sculptor, not really as a painter, he would be at a disadvantage in competing with Raphael. So the commission then goes to a Venetian artist called Sebastiano del Piombo. But Michelangelo doesn’t want Raphael to have an easy run. So he actually collaborates with Sebastiano del Piombo, “The Raising of Lazarus” on the left hand side. So although it’s actually painted by Sebastiano del Piombo, it’s based on drawings that were given to him by Michelangelo. And here we see, these painting is in the National Gallery in London. It’s actually number one in the National Gallery catalogue ‘cause it was the prize possession of the collector, Julius Angerstein, whose collection was the core collection on the National Gallery. So it’s a huge and very dramatic painting. And here is, sorry, it’s such a, got all these in descriptions on it, but this is all I can find on the internet. This is Michelangelo’s drawing that he gave to Sebastiano del Piombo. And now, I used to with my students when we went to the National Gallery, I used to stand in front of this picture and I’d say to them, “What’s going on with this loincloth of Lazarus who’s being raised from the dead? Does he have a burgeoning erection underneath his loincloth or not?” And this is not an entirely frivolous suggestion because Lazarus, of course, he’s dead and like Christ, he comes back from the dead. And I think we can see it’s quite discreet here, but the suggestion of an erection is there as a symbolic of resurrection coming back from the dead.
And I would recommend you, I think I’ve mentioned it before, this really amazing book that actually completely change people’s perceptions of the depiction of Christ in Renaissance art by Leo Steinberg came out in the 1980s. And it caused an amazing sensation. And I think it in a way, it had to be a Jewish scholar who saw, who actually saw what was in front of our eyes. It was out there in all the museums of the world, and people had been ignoring it for centuries. Somehow they censored it. But if you go to almost any great museum in the world with Renaissance art, with having read this book. It’s obvious that there are countless, countless images of Christ, either as a child or crucified or resurrected, where there is some kind of fixation on his genitalia. Very obvious, in his German print on the right hand side with some actually touching the genitalia of Christ. These are paintings by where again, it’s pretty obvious that there is a strong suggestion of erection in the loincloth. There are too many of these for it to be a coincidence. Well, back to Florence. And now we’re this is somewhat later, 1530s and 40s. And Michelangelo, of course, as like Leonardo, he’s an extraordinary, he’s great poet. Some of those beautiful poems of the Renaissance. But he becomes very interested in architecture. This is the Church of San Lorenzo. And this is his drawing for the facade, which was never executed. Oh, we got the drawing. I’m not quite sure why nobody ever, you know, over the centuries hasn’t actually embarked on putting on Michelangelo’s facade. This inside this church is the new sacristy as opposed to the old sacristy, which was designed by, momentary name lapses. Come to me in a minute.
So this is the Medici Chapel, and it was again, it’s an unfinished work. It was meant to have four great tombs. It was a mausoleum for the Medici family. And only two of the tombs were completed. And even they are not fully completed, but incredibly influential, these reclining figures with their rather contorted poses. This is Giuliano de’ Medici, but not the famous one that Judy’s talked about, the one who was assassinated in the 15th century. This is a minor member of the Medici family who was also called Giuliano. But this, the female nude and you feel once again, at Michelangelo’s lack of empathy or sympathy or interest actually in female anatomy is just clearly a male figure with breast implants rather than a very convincing female figure. And the Duke himself, who apparently wore a beard, and somebody said to Michelangelo, why he doesn’t look a bit like Giuliano de’ Medici who had a beard. Michelangelo loftily said, “Well, in a thousand years time, who will care whether he had a beard or not?” This is the Laurentian Library, which is perhaps Michelangelo’s greatest masterpiece as an architect. And then he goes back to Rome and he’s then commissioned to paint the end war of the Sistine Chapel with his great “Last Judgement ”. You can see here all the figures with loincloths coming up their genitalia. But they originally, the genitalia were exposed.
But when the counter Reformation comes along, there’s a, you know, the Catholic church is wanting to clean up its act. And the pope ordered that Michelangelo’s figures should be discreetly covered up. And his final works as a painter in fresco, he was obviously more comfortable with fresco than he was with oil on panel. And it’s in the Pauline Chapel. And this is the “Crucifixion of St. Peter” and the conversion of support. And he was also, of course, he’s very, very long lived by the standards of the days. I mean, living nearly 90 years old was extraordinary. Only Titian actually lived slightly longer than Michelangelo. And so the St Peter’s in Rome, I’m sure it’s come up many times in Judy’s lecture. Julius II made this momentous decision to demolish the most venerated church in Crescent that went back to the early Middle Ages. Incredibly bold thing to do. And to rebuild it in the new Renaissance style, of course, the cost was absolutely enormous. And I’m sure you know that the taxes and the selling of indulgences that you could, you know, buy time off in purgatory, buy your way into heaven, by paying taxes, by paying money to the Papacy that was used to construct this building. And it was that, of course, selling for indulgences that triggered the revolt of Martin Luther and the Reformation, which is really the most momentous event of the 16th century. So when Bramante dies, Michelangelo is appointed the architect of St. Peters.
And he had the eventual church, not finish until 17th century is now is very different. Certainly facade is a Baroque facade rather than Renaissance facade. But Michelangelo like other Renaissance artists conceived St. Peters as a centrally planned Greek cross church. And it was eventually built as a Latin cross church with a long naive. So his most important contribution, of course, was the exterior form of the dome. And so, as I said, he lives into great old age, to the very end obsessed, preoccupied by the theme of the “Pieta”. This one where he has sort of introduced himself really as Joseph of arm of the elder sister. This is a kind of ideal self-portrait of Michelangelo behind the dying war or the dead Christ. And then finally, this Rondanini Pieta, which is in Milan in the Castello Sforzesco, which he was working on right up to the time he died. Sort of gnawing on it like a dog might gnaw on a bone. A very extraordinary and a very moving image.
And I think that’s where I’m going to come to a halt and I’m going to go into the Q and A and see what people…
Q&A and Comments:
And some saying, well, I did mention his poetry where I might and of course, there are very beautiful musical settings of his poetry by Benjamin Britain. Yeah, what else? We got?
Q: Why is his sexual orientation relevant beyond how it affects his luminous art?
A: Well, the fact that it does affect his luminous art does make it relevant, doesn’t it? Doesn’t it? I think it’s relevant. I think an artist’s sexual orientation is relevant. Caravaggio’s for instance, Rubens without a doubt.
There is much to this is Rose Ramani saying, “As much to suggest strongly that he was gay. I would agree with that.” And that his female sculptures have a very masculine look to them. Well, of cause, but what we don’t know of course is and does it matter as a previous person suggested, is what he actually did sexually. Maybe we don’t know if he had physical relations with men or women for that matter.
Q: David, 17 foot tall?
A: Yes, I think you are right.
Somebody else said talking about the, you know, the masculinity of his female figures.
Q: Is there any relationship between Antony Sher and Bartlett Sher?
A: I don’t know. I don’t know that. I didn’t know that Anthony Sher was seriously ill. I’m very sorry to hear that. As I said, I worked with him on several occasions and I found him an utterly delightful, modest, and very, very considerate person to work for. I interviewed him twice and he was the nicest person to interview. I always find interviewing absolutely terrifying. And he knew that and he really helped me with it.
Predominantly a sculptor. Yes, I suppose, sir.
Q: What is the alternative director?
A: The alternative direct or direct carving is, which almost everybody did between Michelangelo and say Henry Moore is to that you create the forms by modelling either in clay or plaster. And you make a large model and then effectively, if the piece that’s carved in stone is a copy of what you’ve created by modelling. The written translation over the pictures is very annoying.
I’m not sure what that is. Is there any way of getting? I’m not sure I follow what you are saying then.
Q: The unfinished work speaks to struggle expressing against the norm, beyond the popular set perceptions of time. I’ve got, there is this incredible sense, isn’t there?
A: Of struggle in those unfinished figures for the Julius II. How did he have time to create this? He’s not, I would say, he’s not one of the most prolific artists, you know, compared to say, Titian or Rubens. I wouldn’t say he’s one of the most prolific.
It’s absolutely true that the horns cause this whole thing about Jews having horns and they’re all those stories about Jewish children being evacuated from London in the Second World War and going to very rural places and the local people wanting to touch their heads to see if they had horns. Because people believe that Jews had horns.
Q: How much access would he have had to female nude models?
A: That’s an interesting question. I think in the Renaissance, it would’ve probably the only female models that you could have got hold of would have been prostitutes. And that’s probably true right through to the 19th century. But certainly other artists managed it and they certainly managed to do rather more convincing female nudes.
Thank you for all your very nice. Pieta, who devised the term is Pieta not Pietar. And it’s the pity. And I suppose that term goes back to the 15th century.
Q: What is the significance of the fabric across the chest of Christ and slaves?
A: I’m not sure if it has a significance. I mean, artists in Renaissances, you know, looking back at classical art, they’re very interested in the way you think about Hellenistic sculptures, where particularly a female nude where they show the body through the fabric. And it’s also the case with many Renaissance artists that in a way it’s almost a way they show the body through the fabric clings to the body, and you can actually sense or see the body underneath the fabric.
Q: Were the design of important builders given to artists?
A: Yes, I mean, there were people of course, Palladio, who were uniquely architects. But I would say right through, it’s not really till the 19th century that, you know, architecture becomes very professionalised. And it’s to, I mean, even in the 18th century, there are many great buildings that are designed by artists who are primarily painters. And actually in the Baroque period, of course, there are two ways to become an architect. One is from engineering and the other is from sculpture and painting.
Q: Did he have any female models?
A: I suspect that he didn’t.
Oh God, I do hope that’s not true that Antony Sher has a terminal illness. I’d be very, very sad if I heard that.
He travelled to Carrara. That’s quite true. I went to the marble quarries there. That is true.
Q: How does his sculpture compare with the work of Bernini?
A: Well, you know, Bernini is a much more of a virtuoso than Michelangelo. I mean, it depends what your priorities are in art. But if it really comes down to the skill in the cutting of marble, you know, Bernini is beyond comparison. But then there will be people who think that Bernini is too operatic, too showy, superficial about the profanity of Michelangelo.
Oh, God, I’m really, that’s very, very sad news that I’m hearing from you about Antony Sher. ‘Cause although I haven’t seen him, I haven’t had much anything to do with him actually for about 10 years. I really enjoyed and cherished my professional association with him. And we seem to be running out of questions. Thank you very, very much indeed for listening in. And thank you for your comments and questions. And I will be moving on to the third great master of the Renaissance, Raphael. When is that? That’s on Wednesday.
Thank you, Patrick.
So thank you. Thank you, Judy.
[Judy] Thank you. And thank you everybody who join us today and we’ll see everybody next week.
Yep.
Take care everyone. Bye.
Bye-Bye.