Elizabeth Doolittle Flagler College

CHRISTIAN ART CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY  Story driven  Narrative style  Prop usage to hint at narrative  Similarity to biblical story  Depicts Judeo-Christian characters, saints and trinity  Naturalism  Nudity  Detailed musculature  Realistic rendering of figures  S-curve and contrapposto  Depicts pagan Greco- Roman gods

 “[the Renaissance] was not in any sense un-Christian or an Anti-Christian enterprise.” (1)

 “Renaissance art is not necessarily concerned with new (pagan) subjects but that it represents “old”, that is traditional Christian subjects in a new way, with new verisimilitude. Renaissance art looks, or is intended to look, real – it simulates and resembles truth.” (4)

 “Convincing the senses, the artist may hope also to convince the spirit, encouraging belief in the actual presence before us of the things being represented.” (6-7)

 “The monumental forms of the sacred beings require a grand three- dimensional environment to contain them…powerful naturalism of space, light and psychology to express the reality of the supernatural – and that is the primary concern of the Renaissance.” (21)

 “the perfection or revival of aerial perspective [that] allowed Renaissance artists a greater precision in this regard….” (21)  “the distinction is blurred between the devotional image, removed from time, and the narrative…” (22)

 “That Michelangelo conceived his figure of Christ all’antica is evident, the common charge that he did so to the detriment of its Christian content does not cut deep enough. We must, I think, credit Michelangelo with the knowledge…” (20)

 “[a] narrative theory… [which] constructs a syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic structure, a representation of history, or rather a story, an iconic representation of a narrative.” (108)

 “We must, I think, credit Michelangelo with the knowledge that Christian teaching makes bodily shame no part of man's pristine nature, but attributes it to the corruption brought on by sin. And would not such Christian knowledge direct him to the ideality of antique sculpture?” (20)

 “[Pieta will represent] religious vision of abandonment and a serene face of the son.”

 “How then could he who restores human nature to sinlessness be ashamed by the sexual factor in his humanity? And is this not reason enough to render Christ’s sexual member?” (17)

Michelangelo, David ( CE.)

SECULAR (ANTIQUITY)NON-SECULAR (RELIGIOUS)  Subject’s irrelevant nudity  Contrapposto  Highly realistic and modeling  Humanistic musculature  Biblical narrative  Props (rock and sling)

SECULAR (ANTIQUITY)NON-SECULAR (RELIGIOUS)  Subject’s nudity  Superior modeling in legs and torso  Heightened realism in hair  Detail of scars and stigmata  Contrapposto  Biblical narrative  Props (cross, sponge, spear and rope)  Details in modeling (stigmata, scars, relevant nudity)

 “Why would not such Christian knowledge direct him to the ideality of antique sculpture?” (20)