From a single cut of Carrara marble, Michelangelo sculpted the Pietà (1499) as a funereal monument for French Cardinal Jean de Bilhères, who paid for it. According to fellow artist and friend Giorgio Vasari, the statue was not signed, but Michelangelo changed his mind after overhearing his work had been credited to a rival. He snuck back in to chisel his name on the sash across Mary’s chest. Ignominy kept Michelangelo from signing future works of art.
However, he found other ways of signing. In the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo imposed his own features on St. Bartholomew, who was flayed alive, possibly as a joke or a complaint about the physically grueling project. All this creamy white marble comes from one place, Carrara, Italy. Several years ago, a student artist at the Academy of Art University told me one cubic foot costs $1,000.
Before you start criticizing mining here or abroad for environmental reasons, consider this: these marble mines, at elevation 3,000′, give employment to about 6,000 men and boys and are the sole support of a population of nearly 75,000 in this part of Italy. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-marble-quarries-of-carrara/
However, he found other ways of signing. In the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo imposed his own features on St. Bartholomew, who was flayed alive, possibly as a joke or a complaint about the physically grueling project. All this creamy white marble comes from one place, Carrara, Italy. Several years ago, a student artist at the Academy of Art University told me one cubic foot costs $1,000.
Before you start criticizing mining here or abroad for environmental reasons, consider this: these marble mines, at elevation 3,000′, give employment to about 6,000 men and boys and are the sole support of a population of nearly 75,000 in this part of Italy. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-marble-quarries-of-carrara/
RSS Feed