Florence while everyone is away is pretty nice! We went up to Piazzale Michelangiolo with a packed lunch of bread, cheese and carrots and met Laurie at Oltrano for the Florence Wine-Tasting event, which was also really nice. Some band played songs while we sipped wine and admired Palazzo Pitti.
Something I noticed while at Piazzale Michelangiolo though was that the copy of the David showed the same contrapposto stance that we'd seen at the Archaeological Museum earlier:
Idolino of Pesaro (1st cent. A.D. Roman)
The term contropposto is Italian in origin and literally means "counter pose". This term is used to describe a characteristic of art which appears primarily in sculptural pieces and began its popularity in classical Greece. Contrapposto (as illustrated above) is shown through a figure placing more weight on one leg while the other is relaxed, thus shifting the pelvic axle to a slant. This, in turn, causes the shoulder axle to slant in reverse. The result of these slanting axles creates somewhat of an S-curve in the figure and produces an appearance of dynamism or animation in an art piece. This quality can be noted as a high priority in classical Greek sculptor Polykleitos' canon.
Polykleitos was considered one of the greatest sculptors of classical antiquity and ran a school of art in the late 5th century B.C. Among his rules for perfection in sculpting the human figure (known as Polykleitos' canon) was the use of contropposto and additionally, a set of guidelines for proportions. According to Polykleitos, an ideal representation of the body was seven heads tall, as the Idolino of Persaro can be found to be.
Milani Kouros or Apollo (530 B.C. Greek)
Another figure which had been pointed out during the tour was the Milani Kouros or Apollo. It's interesting to note the differences in sculptural style between the Idolino and Apollo. This kouros figure is one of many (known as kouri) which emerged from Greece during the 6th century B.C. The word "kouros" itself refers to a young boy and here we see the god Apollo represented as a male youth. What's known as the archaic period of Greece produced many of these figures and in these, and the other Greek artistic expressions of the time, we can mark a heavy Egyptian influence. An emphasis on appearing stoic, composed and balanced in artistic representations was borrowed from the Egyptians by the Greeks and utilized in their sculpture.
The kouros figure pictured here is standing very still, is physically very fit and shows the same cosmetic characteristics of the Egyptians (almond eyes, highly decorative hair, pointed chin, etc). The lack of animism or heightened realism in this piece also evokes a want of the time for picturing figures as god-like. Because he does not look like an actual person, he is instead seen as more divine. A return to this way of thinking comes during the Byzantine Period (post 4th century Byzantine Empire). This though is utilized more through flatness of figures and mosaic tiling rather than sculpture. A prime example of such is (Emperor) Justinian and His Attendants. It is important to note at least, a change from stoicism and the divine in the Archaic Period to dynamism and human reality during the Classical Period.
This shift further increases toward heightened reality during the Hellenistic Period as a wont for creates figures which are even more dynamic and much more real (a draw from the perfected male bodies of Polykleitos which, although are anatomically correct, do not represent some of the more "uglier" realities of the human figure). Two good examples of such are the Old Market Woman and the Dying Gaul which both emerged from this time period. Toward the end of the Hellenistic Period, Rome came to power in Greece's stead and adopted many of the styles which had been developed (archaic, classical and hellenistic). The influence of the hellenistic can be seen in many of the busts of important Roman political figures; all carry heightened realism in sculpture and a disregard for an ideal youth appearance (instead they appear as old as they were). As I mentioned before, the Byzantine Period follows this era with a resurrection of emphasis on the divine. All of these periods are represented in the Archaeological Museum.
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