David, Before and After

The Baroque movement brought out the drama in the art of its time. Unlike renaissance art, the baroque style brought about the depiction of the most intense moment of a given scenario, while still holding on to some of the renaissance ideals, like perfect form and realism. While the Baroque period still resembled and imitated many ideas of the renaissance it is easy to see that the subject matter and portrayal was taken to a new level during this movement. I will be comparing two sculptors depicting the biblical hero David to breakdown the differences and similarities in these two time periods of art.

I will begin with Michaelangelo’s David. Still viewed as a masterpiece in Renaissance art, the sculptor is perfect in scale and form. Michaelangelo received much deserved attention for this piece, for one reason. this was one of the first times David was depicted without Goliath. It shows David before the impossible battle and opens an entire new perspective on the story. It is a sculptor meant to show the seconds before the battle with Goliath and in every detail that anticipation comes to life. This sculptor holds dear the original ideals of the renaissance, in pure subject matter it is able to solute the humanistic style. The expression on David’s face is very tense and concentrated. The contrapposto position he was made to stand is very relaxed, while his tense neck and muscles hint at the battle to come. In every detail Michaelangelo tried to show David seconds before he fights a much larger and stronger opponent for his life. This is what was great about renaissance art, it brought you to the moment before the action took place, the moment of contemplation. The baroque period shoved the actual dramatized climax of the moment in the viewers face.

This can be seen in the many differences between Michaelangelo’s David and Bernini’s Sculptor of David. It is obvious the two sculptors are very different after the first glance. It all comes down to what each artist was trying to portray, and those are two very different things in this case. Bernini, working in the baroque movement, was focused on depicting the climax of the story rather then anything else. This means intense poses where action and ending are both implied. It was not good enough to show David before his battle nor was it enough to show him at some random point in the battle. This sculptor of David implies nothing less then the actual moment of David’s final blow to Goliath. What I find interesting is that like Michaelangelo’s David there is no representation of Goliath, something that is not usually left out in the depictions of this biblical legend, revealing the humanist ideals that are still evident in both of these sculptors and times. After that, other then the quality and craftsmanship the similarities between these two sculptors are few and far between. I enjoy Bernini’s sculptor because it seems to try and be the opposite of Michaelangelo’s. It shows an entire knew perspective of not just the hero standing awaiting the fight of his life, or even just the fight taking place but the pose of the contorted human figure of David winding up to throw his final blow to Goliath (who is not mortal enough to be shown.) While Michaelangelo;’s David is only standing in a slightly contrapposto stance, Bernini figure is depicted in such a manipulated way it holds so much more gravity and space, reminding the viewers it is three dimensional and inviting them to rally all around David.

I really enjoyed both of these Sculptors and find it to be one of the best blunt comparisons I have come across. Both Sculptors have similarities in quality and form and I cannot help but feel as if they belong next to each other, or at least are able to be read together as if a story line. While the differences in content between these two sculptors may only be a few seconds apart in the story of David the difference in style of these two time periods is what sets these two pieces apart and at the same time is what allows them to be read together.