More Awakening Slave II

A view of the Awakening Slave in the foreground, at the Accademia, with David in the background. A new angle, and also interesting again to see it's size compared to other objects in the room.

"Interior View of the Gallery with Michelangelo's 'Awakening Slave' and 'David' in the Background". No date. Online Image. All Posters. January 22, 2012. 

<http://www.allposters.co.uk/-sp/Interior-View-of-the-Gallery-with-Michelangelo-s-Awakening-Slave-and-David-in-the-Background-Posters_i7677963_.htm>

More Awakening Slave

"Awakening Slave". No date. Online Image. Study Blue. January 22, 2012. <http://www.google.ca/imgres?um=1&hl=en&tbo=d&authuser=0&biw=1092&bih=480&tbm=isch&tbnid=HokrKGk7c6cuPM:&imgrefurl=http://www.studyblue.com/notes/note/n/the-high-renaissance-leonardo-raphael-michelangelo-and-bramante/deck/1867009&docid=IcUEh0war8nHkM&imgurl=http://classconnection.s3.amazonaws.com/100/flashcards/1071100/png/41327273901705.png&w=664&h=1097&ei=kdoAUZ6lDK2UjAKr9YHoCg&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=361&sig=104518276566745611726&page=2&tbnh=125&tbnw=80&start=19&ndsp=24&ved=1t:429,r:22,s:0,i:150&tx=22&ty=50>

Photos of The Slaves

These photos were taken inside the Accadamia where the Slaves currently reside. It's interesting to see in these photos how the sculptures compare beside other people. They seem much larger than life this way.

  

                              Awakening Slave                                                                                         Bearded Slave

                              Atlas Slave                                                                                          Young Slave

Bearded Slave

All of these photos have been taken off the Boston College website.

F. Sulivan, S.J. No date. Online Image. Boston College. January 22, 2012. <http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/art/ren_italy/ren_sculpture01.html>

Related Images: Part II

This sculpture is called La Pensee, or Thought, and it was created by Auguste Rodin in 1895. The style is called "non finito" meaning that the sculpture is meant to look unfinished. For somewhat obvious reasons it can be related to Michelangelo's Slaves. Unlike Michelangelo however, Rodin's purpose for the sculpture was fulfilled. This incompleteness was in fact it's intended form. This was created in France, and now resides there still at the Musee d'Orsay.

 Photos taken from the Musee d'Orsay website:

"Thought". No date. Online Image. Musee d'Orsay. January 22, 2012. <http://www.musee-orsay.fr/index.php?id=851&tx_commentaire_pi1%5BshowUid%5D=397&no_cache=1>

Related Images: Part I

As I am thinking of and looking more and more at the images of Michelangelo's slaves, I am somehow reminded these works by Daniel Arsham... The most obvious similarity is that the statues in Arsham's paintings depict a style of sculpture that is easily recognized as classical and common to Michelangelo's time. Further than that though, the obstruction of a completed human form is something I find similar. (These human figures are not hidden or trapped, but they are not completed human forms either). The foreign objects attached to the sculptures are such basic and simple shapes, they are only building blocks to become perfectly formed human bodies. In this way this attached incompleteness reminds me of Michelangelo's Slaves. Human figures which lack a whole completeness to achieve the human form.
These are all gouache on mylar, and were made in New York City in 2010.

"Figure"

 "Man" 

 "The Eyes"

"Eyes"

All images have been taken from Daniel Arsham's website at <http://www.danielarsham.com/index.php?/project/on-paper/>

A Closer Look at the Awakening Slave

While all four Slaves are incredibly unique from one another, and all posess very different features, the one which I find most powerful is the Awakening Slave. His surface does not show many details, and out of the four he seems the farthest away from completion. The sculpted form of this slave is probably the least visible out of the four, but the aspects of the body that are seen are incredibly compelling and dramatic.
Atlas Slave would be my opinion the second most powerful image, a close runner-up to the Awakening. Again, Atlas Slave is more engulfed in marble than Young or Bearded Slave. The most prominent difference I see and perceive between the Atlas and the Awakening Slave, is the movement of the slave's forms. Atlas Slave seems to be struggling against the weight above him, as though he is being crushed or flattened. He looks as though he is  trying to push back against the marble. On the other hand, Awakening Slave seems to be fighting his way out from the stone beneath him. The form is extremely fluid. It shows strength, but the position is also exhausted.

Focusing on Awakening Slave, the block of marble has multiple textures. The rough and un-sculpted marble is a clear contrast against the more smooth and formed surfaces, the "completed" areas, that define the figure of the slave. Though the colour of the stone material remains the same light colour all over, the rough and uneven surfaces create many small shadows. Overall these areas seem darker than the slave's figure, the contrast creates the illusion of two different materials and substances. The rough and dark substance is  what the man is fighting to be freed from. The smooth and even surface is the perfectly sculpted body of the slave. 

The lines of the man's body are always round and curving, creating the appearance of movement. His body is very twisted, and all his limbs are bent. This depiction of the slave's body and muscles moving is incredibly fluid. Not all limbs are completed, and his hands and feet are not visible, except where the carving ends it leaves the form of the hands and feet effectively to the viewers imagination. The lines of the forearm dissolve into an undefined shape of the raw marble.

The position of the chest protrudes most from the stone, giving the impression the man is fighting and heaving for breath. Though there is not a lot of detail to the man's torso, the muscles and ribcage are defined and highlighted through the shape to enhance the appearance of a body that is breathing heavily. His head is turned and only a portion of it, including his face, is visible and protrusing from the uncut marble. The fact that the facial features are just barely making it out of the rough portion, adds to the feeling of desparation of this character. His eyes are nose and mouth, which are major organs of sensory perception, are in such close proximity to the "smothering" material of the unvcarved marble. The effect is that the Slave is not safe from drowning or suffocating.

Meet The Slaves

Four unfinished sculptures by Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, otherwise referred to as Michelangelo, reside in Florence at the Accademia di Belle Arti Firenze. They are known as The Slaves. Made out of marble, they were commissioned for Pope Julius in Rome, and were intended to be a part of his tomb. When Julius died soon after, funding for the work diminished, and Michelangelo only worked on them sporadically between 1520 and 1523. 

If completed, the project of Pope Julius' tomb would have been the most esteemed project of Michelangelo's life. It originally entailed a total of thirty to fourty sculptures, but only six were ever produced. Two of which, Rebellious Slave and Dying Slave, were mostly completed and now can be found in the Louvre. As for the unfinished four, which are titled Young Slave, Atlas Slave, Awakening Slave, and Bearded Slave, they are found today in the Accademia di Belle Arti Firenze. The Slave which I will be focusing on most prominently is the Awakening Slave, which measures 2.67 meters in height.

Michelangelo has described the art of sculpting as  "liberating the figure imprisoned in the marble"... He has been quoted saying, "I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free". The way which these unfinished sculptures are still encaged in  marble, a seemingly stone prison, not yet set free, is how they have come to be known as "The Slaves". I find these scultpures to be incredibly powerful and unique from their period; Not only in appearance, but also the perceived meaning's they exude. I also find the back-story and history very intriguing as their fame and recognition as highly influential works has not come through a typical means. The way which the meaning of these sculptures has developed through an evolution of their original purpose, and become such influential pieces, is different than most other comparable pieces from the time period. What I mean  is that despite the fact that these are incomplete works, never completing their original purpose, they  have come to serve a new purpose, and have gained an important place in the study of art and history precisely because they were left incomplete. They have given art historians a way of examining further the procedure Micheleangelo used to sculpt. As well, their form and structure is almost more powerful because they have been left in the state of incompleteness; It gives them further and deeper meanings.  
Awakening slave I find to be the most visually powerful. He is perhaps the least complete of the bunch, but his sculpture I find most effective in convaying a sense of movement and struggle.

The Unfinished Slaves

"Atlas Slave". No date. Online Image. A Husk Of Meaning. January 15, 2012. <http://ahuskofmeaning.com/2011/08/michelangelo-at-the-accademia-part-2-the-unfinished-slaves/>

"Awakening Slave". No date. Online Image. A Husk Of Meaning. January 15, 2012. <http://ahuskofmeaning.com/2011/08/michelangelo-at-the-accademia-part-2-the-unfinished-slaves/>

"Bearded Slave". No date. Online Image. A Husk Of Meaning. January 15, 2012. <http://ahuskofmeaning.com/2011/08/michelangelo-at-the-accademia-part-2-the-unfinished-slaves/>

"Young Slave". No date. Online Image. A Husk Of Meaning. January 15, 2012. <http://ahuskofmeaning.com/2011/08/michelangelo-at-the-accademia-part-2-the-unfinished-slaves/>