As I seem to be unable to come up with a favorite painting to contribute, I figured I would ask instead: what’s your favorite sculpture?
To this I can readily answer Michelangelo’s Pieta. It breaks my heart just to look at it. Since I am basically a cultureless Philistine at the core, that’s really saying something.
Any others?
RR
I can’t really think of a favorite—I certainly haven’t been able to find any links. I do like a marble head of Jenny Lind at the Met. And the huge head of the Emperor Constantin scares the living bejeebus outta me.
Since you’re making me think of the Renaissance and Rome, the first favorite that comes to mind is Bernini’s Ecstasy of Saint Teresa.
Jaw-dropping.
David, which I started a thread about several months ago. It combines strength, grace and eroticism in one piece.
The “Pieta” was the first thing I thought of when I saw the thread title. Deeply moving, and when I saw a fairly good presentation of the sculpture on a TV documentary, I was amazed at how such a thing was wrought from marble.
The link in the OP simply doesn’t do this sculpture justice.
Michelangelo’s “David” does nothing for me.
Ukulele Ike, bless his little cotton socks, has sent me a link to The Big Scary Head of Constantine. is that the most alarming goddam thing you have ever seen?
I love the Youth from Antikythera. This is the best picture I could, but it doesn’t even begin to do it justice. He’s in the Athens archaeological museum, and is diplayed at just the right height so that you can make eye contact with him. He has this beautiful, warm human expression on his face, as if he’s been standing there for centuries waiting for his friend and, oh, you’ve finally come!
I also think this group of three is absolutely darling.
Michelangelo did at least TWO Pietas (i.e., “the pity”). The most famous one, linked to in the OP, he did in his twenties and it rests in the Vatican. But he did a much nastier, grislier version when he was an old man. It is in a museaum in Florence, and is just as moving but in a different way.
http://www.anu.edu.au/ArtHistory/renart/pics.art/0203/20335.JPG and elsewhere.
My personal favorites are all by Rodan - especially “The Caryatid Fallen Under Her Stone” or whatever the heck it’s called. And of course “The Gates of Hell” rock…TRM
“The Tormet of Existance Weighed Against the Horror of Nonbeing” by Calvin. Of his “Snowman” series.
Hey, it doesn’t exist, but it still works well for me.
Ranchoth
A couple of my favorites
Boccioni’s bronze version of Unique Forms of Continuity in Space:
http://www.moma.org/collection/paintsculpt/images/boccioni.unique.jpg
Robert Longo’s Corporate Wars: Wall of Influence
I like Claus Sluter, like the little figures from Charles the Bold’s tomb
http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/html/s/sluter/philip/index.html
A Burgundian guy that knows how to carve. From that era Til Riemenschneider is also swell. http://gallery.euroweb.hu/html/r/riemensc/
I also like Brancusi. And Rauschenberg’s stuff is a hoot.
Two favorites:
First is Bernini’s “St. Jerome”, in the Siena Duomo (Cathedral). Absolutely splendid, even by Bernini’s standards. However, I can’t find any pictures online that do it justice, so you’ll have to take my word for it from this shoddy B&W photo.
Second is “Milo of Croton”, by 17th century Frenchman Pierre Puget, in the Louvre. The tension, pain, and resignation are truly palpable. Again, I resent that there are no worthy depictions of it on the Net, so bear with the one I’ve linked.
I’ve got postcards of them both, but nothing compares to standing in front of either of these masterpieces in person.
