![]() It depicts the body of Jesus in the lap of his mother after the Crucifixion. This was the first of a number of Pietàs Michelangelo worked on during his lifetime. Marble - National Museum of Bargello, Florence Art historian Claire McCoy said of the sculpture, "Bacchus marked a moment when originality and imitation of the antique came together." Although intended to mimic classical Greek sculpture and distressed toward an antique appearance, Michelangelo remained true to what in visual human terms it means to be drunk the unseemly swaying body was unlike any depiction of a god in classical Greek and Roman sculpture. His excellent knowledge of anatomy is seen in the androgynous figure's body which Vasari described as having the "the slenderness of a young man and the fleshy roundness of a woman." A high center of gravity lends the figure a sense of captured movement, which Michelangelo would later perfect even further for David. Despite its colored past though, the piece is evidence of Michelangelo's early genius. Michelangelo sold it to his banker Jacopo Galli instead. But when Riario saw the finished piece he found it inappropriate and rejected it. It was originally commissioned by Cardinal Riario and was inspired by a description of a lost bronze sculpture by the ancient sculptor Praxiteles. The work, one of Michelangelo's earliest, caused much controversy. From behind his left leg peeks a satyr, significant to the cult of Bacchus often representing a drunken, lusty, woodland deity. In the other hand, he holds a lion skin, which is a symbol for death derived from the myth of Hercules. He wears a wreath of ivy and holds a goblet in one hand, brought up toward his lips for a drink. This statue of Bacchus depicts the Roman god of wine precariously perched on a rock in a state of drunkenness. Michelangelo's most seminal pieces: the massive painting of the biblical narratives in the Sistine Chapel, the 17-foot-tall testament to male perfection David, and the heartbreakingly genuine Pietà are considered some of the world's most genius works of art, drawing large numbers of tourists to this day.He often abandoned projects midway through or played out his pride or defiance of conventionality through controversial means such as painting his own face on figures in his work, the faces of his enemies in mocking fashion, or unabashedly portraying sacred characters in the nude. The artist's feisty and tempestuous personality is legendary.He once said, "I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free." He was known as one who could conjure real life from stone. ![]() Michelangelo's dexterity with carving an entire sculpture from a single block of marble remains unparalleled.The musculature of his bodies is so authentically precise that they've been said to breathe upon sight. His early studies of classical Greek and Roman sculpture, coupled with a study of cadavers, led Michelangelo to become an expert at anatomy.
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