Art History101

Numan Saleem

Art History-101

Case-2

October 19th, 2012

Prof. Mary Schmitt

The greatest difference between renaissance and baroque eras in art history is in the style used by artists. Renaissance painters and sculptors were among the first to use perspective in their work. This allowed them to give more realism to their creations. However, this focus on adding depth to their work has made paintings and sculptures seem to lack emotions and failed to capture the emotions that it should depict. This ‘stillness’ was solved by Baroque artists as seen in their famous works. They focused more on the drama of the subject they were trying to showcase. (Hartt, 1970)

This opposite treatment of a subject is displayed in the statue of David that Renaissance man Michelangelo first sculpted and recreated by Bernini of the Baroque movement. The first one shows an emotionless David heading into battle with Goliath, which is the exact opposite of Bernini’s work, which showed an intense David raring to fight the giant. This contrasting style shows the biggest disparity between these two periods. (Hennessy, 1996)

The statue of David, by Bernini, depicts David in a crucial moment in his life. The young man only twenty years old stands in front of Goliath, the giant Philistine warrior, facing a battle of life and death. He shed the armor of the warriors which he was given, since he was not accustomed to, wearing heavy armor, and using only the slingshot (a shepherd's weapon), attempts to hit the giant.

David gathered momentum, and for a part of a second stands motionless, as he is taking aim, before throwing the stone at Goliath. His body expresses the great physical strain he is under, and his face expresses determination and concentration.

In Michelangelo’s David, there is a timeless quality, a poised grace, because this David knows that he will be able to accomplish the task of killing the giant, Goliath, with one shot. There is an air of the...