Baroque vs. Michelangelo

 Bernini’s “David”(1623) was a change of the 17^th century compared to Michelangelo’s 16^th century “David” (1501-1504). These two David’s, made in two different centuries were portrayed as the same man with completely different qualities. Bernini’s piece of art turned away from the classic Renaissance style and went for something completely different. As Michelangelo’s piece is stable, innocent, and mysterious, Bernini decided to go with a more mature David. Bernini’s David was depicted as lean, determined, tense, and his stance (which has never been seen before), shoes it. Baroque varies away from Renaissance art because it full of exaggerated motion and detail. Michelangelo’s David is transformed over after Bernini remade this incredible new altered sculpture.

     The first thing that makes these two sculptures unusual is the figures stances. Bernini’s twisted David was something that the people had never seen before. As Michelangelo’s piece is standing straight, it is very different to the crouched down 17^th century David. Bernini’s David is exciting and full of action! The fact that this David is caught in conflict makes this sculpture more visually appealing. This sculpture has the viewer captured in the moment with David as he is in the middle of battle about to throw the stone, rather than the other David were the viewer is displaced and dispassionate.

As for the 17^th century David, there are many different things that separate it from the traditional Renaissance David. As far as the stance, Renaissance sculptures were strictly all about frontal views, making the Michelangelo piece only dictating the observer to view it from one side to the other rather than an overall three-dimensional feel like Bernini’s idea. The facial expressions are both extremely different as well. As for Michelangelo’s piece, his face is still and doesn’t really show any emotion. Bernini’s piece shows David to be masculine, realistic, and full of emotion. He is ready for battle and it is easy for the view to tell he is in the moment of adrenaline. His facial expression is different than anything seen before it actually shows what a man would really look like in the middle of battle.

What I find most interesting about these two pieces is that one is nude and one is not. I may guess what Bernini’s piece is not nude because men do not battle naked. I think Bernini wanted people to focus more on what the sculpture is representing rather than the nude. It is also interesting because his sculpture is actually a self-portrait of himself. Maybe that is another reason why he put drapes over his nude body. What I noticed most about 16^th century artists like Michelangelo is that they are perfectionists. They wanted every detail to be perfect. Artists like Bernini wanted his artwork to be realistic but not perfect. His David had amazing detail, but his piece shows more realistic emotion than Michelangelo’s piece. Bernini’s dramatically altered David changed the way of sculpture for the 17^th century.