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106284_Brochure.indd 2 11/30/12 12:51 PM Giorgio Vasari, Michelangelo Michelangelo, David, – Buonarroti, woodcut, from Le vite , marble, h. cm (including de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori e base). Galleria dell’Accademia, architettori (Florence, ). Florence National Gallery of Art Library, Washington, Gift of E. J. Rousuck
The loan of Michelangelo’s David-Apollo ( ) from a sling over his shoulder. The National Gallery of Art the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, to the owns a fteenth-century marble David, with the head of National Gallery of Art opens the Year of Italian Culture, Goliath at his feet, made for the Martelli family of Flor- . This rare marble statue visited the Gallery once ence (. ). before, more than sixty years ago, to reafrm the friend- In the David-Apollo, the undened form below the ship and cultural ties that link the peoples of Italy and right foot plays a key role in the composition. It raises the United States. Its installation here in coincided the foot, so that the knee bends and the hips and shoul- with Harry Truman’s inaugural reception. ders shift into a twisting movement, with the left arm The ideal of the multitalented Renaissance man reaching across the chest and the face turning in the came to life in Michelangelo Buonarroti ( – ), opposite direction. This graceful spiraling pose, called whose achievements in sculpture, painting, architecture, serpentinata (serpentine), invites viewers to move and poetry are legendary (. ). The subject of this around the gure and admire it from every angle. Such statue, like its form, is unresolved. In Michel- poses grew increasingly articial in the work of later angelo’s biographer Giorgio Vasari described the gure sixteenth-century artists who emulated Michelangelo by as “an Apollo who draws an arrow from his quiver,” striving for a gure style that surpassed nature in power but a inventory of the collection of Duke Cosimo or elegance. An example here at the Gallery is the Venus de’ Medici calls it “an incomplete David by Buonarroti.” wringing out her wet hair in a fountain (. ). That By then it had entered the Palazzo Vecchio (the seat of bronze statue comes from the circle of Giovanni Bologna, government in Florence), joining several earlier sculp- the most celebrated sixteenth-century Florentine sculp- tures of the biblical giant-killer David, a favorite Floren- tor after Michelangelo. tine symbol of resistance to tyranny. Michelangelo’s Michelangelo carved the David-Apollo for Baccio colossal marble David, executed from to Valori, who was appointed governor of Florence in (. ), stood as a guardian at the entrance, holding after the Medici and their imperial allies had crushed a
106284_Brochure.indd 3 11/30/12 12:51 PM resurgence of the republic. Having fought on the repub- Michelangelo regularly took on more work than he lican side, Michelangelo needed to make peace with the could realistically complete, often carving several gures Medici and sought to please their henchman through simultaneously. He apparently enjoyed the look of forms this work. He brought the gure tantalizingly close to taking shape, born from the stone he loved. But the completion before leaving Florence, never to return, after number of un nished sculptures also suggests that he the death of Pope Clement , his Medici patron and sensed a nished work would not live up to his idea, protector, in . Valori, who later joined a failed rebel- exalted and constantly changing. In one poem he lion against the Medici, was executed in , and Duke referred to “the hand obedient to the mind” that con- Cosimo de’ Medici took possession of the statue. fronts the near-impossible task of liberating the artist’s conception from the stone. Viewers can trace stages of execution through the The David-Apollo and marks of different tools: a point chisel to rough out Michelangelo’s Un nished Works forms, as on the back and tree stump (. ), and claw This statue embodies a highly personal aspect of Michel- chisels of various sizes to re ne them, up to the compar- angelo’s work — his habit of leaving sculptures incom- atively smooth surfaces of the esh. In less nished plete (non- nito). The results stimulate the imagination, works by Michelangelo, such as the captives begun for as gures seem to emerge from the rough marble. The the tomb of Pope Julius (. ), the visible process of reasons for the practice have been much discussed. bringing forth vital forms from inert material has
Bernardo or Antonio Rossel- Follower of Giovanni Bologna, lino, The David of the Casa Mar- Venus and Cupid, c. / , telli, c. / , marble, . × bronze, h. . cm. National . × . cm. National Gallery of Gallery of Art, Washington, Art, Washington, Widener Collec- Gift of John and Henrietta Goelet, tion (Gallery - ) in memory of Thomas Goelet, and Patrons’ Permanent Fund (Gallery - )
106284_Brochure.indd 4 11/30/12 12:51 PM Michelangelo, David-Apollo (side view), c. Michelangelo, Awakening Captive, c. / , marble, h. cm. Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence Auguste Rodin, Woman and Child (originally Première Impression d’Amour), model c. , carved c. – , marble, overall . × . × . cm. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Mrs. John W. Simpson (Gallery -)
evoked for some the work of God as described in the Under the auspices of the President of the Italian book of Genesis. This expression of the artist’s creative Republic, the presentation of Michelangelo’s David- struggle also impressed the romantic imagination and Apollo inaugurates — The Year of Italian Culture, inspired many later sculptors, especially Auguste Rodin. organized by The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs His marble works show gures with varying degrees of and the Embassy of Italy in Washington, in collabora- nish, the smoother elements in deliberate contrast to tion with the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali their massive, chisel-marked blocks ( . ). and with the support of the Corporate Ambassadors While the David-Apollo is nearly completed, the Intesa Sanpaolo and Eni. esh areas remain veiled by a ne network of the claw- chisel marks that de ned the shapes of the limbs. The The presentation has been organized by the National roughed-out eyes appear to be closed, enhancing the Gallery of Art, Washington, The Italian Ministry of impression of a gure who moves in his sleep. Least n- Foreign Affairs, the Embassy of Italy in Washington, ished are the supporting tree trunk and the elements the Soprintendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico, that would de ne the subject: the rectangle on his back Artistico ed Etnoantropologico e per il Polo Museale della that could become a quiver or sling, and the form under città di Firenze, and the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, his right foot that could be a stone or the head of the Florence. vanquished Goliath (see . ). The David-Apollo dates to a time when Michelangelo was torn between his loy- alty to the republic and his long devotion to the Medici family that had obliterated it. Consciously or not, he may have sought to put off the nal choice between a beautiful but authoritarian pagan god and the young biblical tyrant-slayer, a hero of the lost republic. Michelangelo, David-Apollo, c. , marble, × × cm. Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, Soprintendenza Speciale per il Polo Museale Fiorentino gs. , , cover: Scala / Art Resource, ; g. : The Bridgeman Art Library
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