Frame 2: Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

I will soon get to witness the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. As overwhelmed as I’ll be with Michelangelo’s feat, what will stand out the most for me is the way he brings everything to life – animation’s exact definition. Even looking at powerpoint slides of the different panels, it’s easy to see the various expressions, positions and sheer monumentality of every story depicted. For instance, in the Creation of Adam: God, accompanied by wingless angels and Eve under his arm, flies towards Adam who is looking lovingly at his creator. God has his finger extended to give Adam life and to establish a connection between man and God. Adam represents divine perfection which Michelangelo depicted spot on -- I gaped immediately at how beautiful this man is. It's true.

Working down the ceiling, it’s evident Michelangelo’s style began to evolve. The first panel he did was Noah’s Ark, which included the most details, the smallest figures and was much more technical than his later, much more freely painted panels with larger figures. In this painting, his experience in sculpture is seen cause the figures are grouped as such; he also stresses human drama more than movement. In later panels like Creation of Sun, Moon, Plants, there’s less detail but a lot more motion. This one almost resembles two separate frames of an animation where God is creating and then flying away later. Just like in the Expulsion of Adam and Eve, there's a great sense of storytelling because you see the same people at different times.

My favourite is possibly the Separation of Light and Darkness. With more abstract and loose brush strokes, he infuses a certain spirit in God. Anyone who sees this, almost on instinct, will start imagining God twisting his mighty body. 

Mannerism, an Italian art movement in the 16^th century, was strongly influenced by Michelangelo’s later work especially his incredible use of ‘contra posto’, bright colours and individualism. While looking at Pontormo’s The Deposition of the Cross, the teacher mentioned how in Mannerism, artists were beginning to find their own styles. Instead of replicating or imitating reality, they embrace a more expressive, exaggerated expression of reality -- using much looser, larger strokes and not necessarily being completely technical. I find this more interesting because I love it when an artist takes a “less is more” approach and exhibit a unique style. This idea can be drawn from Michelangelo’s later sculptural works as well. Although he never finished them, he left them ragged and roughly crosshatched with his tooth chisel, incorporating the medium’s texture. Such as the unfinished Captive. I find them much more expressive and full of life this way. Perhaps this is how he intended them.

A sculpture that captivated me which uses this same rough, expressive look is Apennine, Carved by Giambologna from real rock. The jagged texture of the rock was left on the figure working harmoniously to depict his agony.

In traditional animation, like Mannerism, style, a real sense of movement and facial expressions are exaggerated and details aren’t everything. When going frame by frame through great animated action scenes, the minutiae are often left out and the drawings might even look like a jumbled, disproportionate, gooey mess. But our eyes and mind work together to make sense of what’s happening during the short amount of time that passes. Cooooooool....

Frame 1: We’re in Michelangelo’s city.

Looking at the precision and detail on all these sculptures, it’s mind boggling how a human being can recreate such a high degree of depth, emotion and composition starting with a block of marble. Our teacher described the process of sculpting like taking a bath and draining the water: pretending the pool of water is the marble and we are the figure being carved. The human form slowly revealing itself from the face of the block. As a sculptor, I’d be extremely overwhelmed by how much work lay ahead of me but I guess it’s simplifying the idea in your mind first.

I imagine this process being similar to 3D character modeling in programs like Maya. The character needs to be imagined as a combination of basic 3D shapes, extruded or subtracted until the form is created. In sculpting, it would just be subtracting. Afterwards, the texture is added. Much like when Michelangelo uses his tooth chisel to cross hatch his works in the end to the point of smooth perfection. Also, in an animation studio sculptures of each character are present for the animators to observe for depth. I understand why because it helps knowing how each part looks from every angle and having it tangible in front of you.

 

We visited the Accademia where Michelangelo’s infamous David (1501-1504) stands. David is from the bible story David and Goliath where he defeats Goliath being a young unarmored boy with merely a slingshot and bold faith. Michelangelo created David from a 17 foot block of marble that had been attempted by a few other skilled sculptors but they failed. One look at this massive piece made me lightheaded. I particularly enjoyed his facial expression: TERRIBILITÀ, a trademark of Michelangelo. He was a troubled artist and it was a feeling he was very familiar with so he knew how to execute it flawlessly. I love how he puts himself in his work. In a way, to make a powerful piece of art, you need to become the art itself. Animators do this, understanding their own movement and then becoming the character they're putting life into. This applies to most forms of creativity, removing oneself from reality and becoming your creation using the imagination. That's the fun of it all.