Living Art:
Michelangelo
Art museums and galleries have been described, among other things, as houses of ‘dead
stuff’. In other words, the items including paintings, artefacts, sculptures and more are mere
objects to be regarded with the knowledge that they come from a different time, representing
the past and are often no longer relevant. But often, significant discoveries are made that
re-awaken interest and meaning in these objects, sometimes causing controversy, at other
times curiosity. Far from being ‘dead’, art objects and their changing meanings and relevance
are able to provide a wealth of knowledge that is often under-estimated.
Art apprentices often
practised by copying
the work of their
masters, developing
their skills in drawing,
painting and sculpting
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Art historians make an attempt to
recognise the connections between
movements and styles, studying their
context and revealing the influences
that art pieces and artists have had.
Uniquely, art works are able to reflect the
social, political, personal attitudes of the
maker and time in which they are made
but also influence other artistic styles
through rules of aesthetics, form, colour,
technique, etc. In terms of display, an
object becomes subject to the various
agents around it, for instance the curator
determines the mode of display, chooses
the context in which it is shown and
suggests how the viewer may interpret
the work, even to the point of coercion.
However, a recent topic of great interest
to many working in the fields of history,
art, ethnography and even anthropology
is the extent of the power of the object as
an agent in its own right. The knowledge
and history the object holds can be neverending, with new meanings revealed
as technology and our explorations
advance. For museums and institutions,
discovering new material is key to
keeping the collections ‘alive’ and being
able to showcase permanent collections
in a new light.
The continued interest and study, by a
team of international experts, into two
marble figures dated around late 15th
to early 16th century has led to the
discovery of new information about the
maker, confirming a century old theory
that the sculptures may have been carved
by Michelangelo.
The sculptures stand at just over a metre
tall and depict two male nudes riding
panthers each with an arm raised, almost
an identical image of each other apart
from the fact that one man is clearly older
and the other a younger man, perhaps to
represent continuing power and strength
over time.
Michelangelo’s sculptures are
predominately made using marble, which
makes this rare find of the bronzes that
much more spectacular, as these could
very well be the only surviving bronze