Reading Week 4

This week I'll write about the reading I did in Chapter 16. I had never thought about the fact that you have to view sculpture in two different ways. I think that sculpture really is unique because it is tangible and because you have to walk around it, view it form different angles, to get the whole experience. I've never been in a position that I could touch a great work, but it sounds pretty nifty when Finn describes it. "There must have been a heavenly spirit in Michelangelo's fingers as they guided his tools, and I felt that spirit now transmitted like electric impulses through my fingers into my heart. I ran my hand again and again over those surfaces I could reach. It took only moments but it was a timeless experience." It was interesting to me that Michelangelo thought that he was just beginning to learn his craft as he died. I really am more of a realist I guess, because I really like his Pieta, and while I admire his skill still, the Rondanini Pieta isn't my favorite. At this point, I like his "polished words," better even if his later work "betrays all the anguish and genius of this great artist's last years and expresses a nobility and poignant depth."

For a tenth grade English project on veterinarians I sculpted a pair of hands cupping a puppy. I thought it was pretty hard, you know, fairly realistic. Then I see these sculptures carved out of marble, that look just like a living person. Holy cow, how did they do that? All three of the sculptors the chapter talks about had an interest in art in the very beginning. It's a good thing that their talents were encouraged or the world would be deprived of some very great visual and apparently physical, experiences. I like the sentence about Bernini's skill, "the great Italian Baroque sculptor of the seventeenth century, created the illusion of soft flesh or silken cloth in solid marble with breathtaking credibility." I used some sort of clay for my veterinarian's hands, and they didn't look soft. In fact the puppy's fur looked somewhat sharp. The greats used marble, metamorphosed limestone, as their medium, and it looks far more supple than my clay creation when carved by their talented hands.

I have to admit that I've always been a little afraid of sculpture, especially that of 'Greek' origin. The naked and nude bodies kind of make me uncomfortable. I think it might be because of what my mom calls a Victorian upbringing. For example, my mom's mother didn't even approve of talk about bathrooms and my mom was absolutely shocked when at a movie, her date leaned over to her and said, "At least you don't have to urinate." I don't remember why he said that, as I never quite understood that part of the story, but honestly, it even makes me uncomfortable to write that. I mean, what if someone just skimmed my blog and saw that word on the page causing them to think that it was simply disgusting. Anyway, the point is, my mom passed that same sort of upbringing on to me. The really weird thing though, is that one of my grandma's favorite paintings was one that she called 'Grab Your Hat and Let's Go,' which was of a woman donning only a hat. My family isn't uncultured I guess. At the start of the chapter there is a quote that it says is supposed to help people who have my same sort of problem. "To be naked is to be deprived of our clothes and the word implies some of the embarrassment which most of us feel in that condition. The word nude, on the other hand, carries, in educated usage, no uncomfortable overtone. The vague image it projects into the mind is not of a huddled and defenseless body, but of a balanced, prosperous and confident body: the body re-formed." I don't really know if that helps my phobia, but I'll try to remind myself of it when I view sculpture of, in my opinion, a provocative nature.