Thoughts on Michelangelo in Our Time of Crisis

by Gregg Chadwick

Frequent readers know that I enjoy the wit and erudition of Tyler Green. His Modern Art Notes Podcast is always worth a listen. The latest episode, embedded above, features art historian William E. Wallace and curator Julian Brooks.

Wallace discusses his latest book - “Michelangelo, God’s Architect: The Story of His Final Years and Greatest Masterpiece.” Wallace's new book is available on Bookshop. 

 Tyler writes :"The book offers a rich and lively biographical examination of the last two decades of Michelangelo’s life, a period when he became the architect of St. Peter’s Basilica and other buildings, even as he continued to sculpt and draw." 

Michelangelo

The Florentine Pietà

 1547-55

Wallace's discussion of Michelangelo's late Pietàs is exceptionally interesting. These are two of my favorite sculptural works by Michelangelo because of their incomplete nature. 

Michelangelo 
Two Views of the Rondanini Pietà 
1564
Castello Sforzesco, Milano
photos by Gregg Chadwick

I have spent hours in the company of Michelangelo's two late pietàs in Florence and Milan. 

There is an intently spiritual nature to these sculptures. The marble seems to flicker like candlelight. Form seems to melt with time. My painting La Vita Trasparente (The Transparent Life) was inspired by my visits to the Castello Sforzesco which houses Michelangelo's Rondanini Pietà. Watching a couple stroll through the garden along the castle wall reminded me of the hope that new love brings. Life flickers with light and hope in these moments. Now, as the Covid-19 crisis rages through Northern Italy and the world, I am brought back to the time that I painted La Vita Trasparente. I think of my friends in Milan, Verona, and Trento. Many are health care workers on the front lines of the pandemic. Today, it seems that the curve may be breaking in Italy. I hope this is a positive shift. I send my thoughts to all of you caught up in this struggle. Take care my friends. 

Gregg Chadwick
La Vita Trasparente (The Transparent Life) 
48"x38" oil on linen 2014
Private Collection, New York

In the second half of this podcast Tyler Green chats with Julian Brooks who co-curated with Emily J. Peters, the exhibition “Michelangelo: Mind of the Master” at the J. Paul Getty Museum. Brooks explains to us how Michelangelo used his drawings. Brooks discusses Michelangelo's studies for his unfinished and now lost Battle of Cascina, with detail and excitement. I wrote about Michelangelo's drawings after viewing the monumental 2017 exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. My thoughts then - 

These drawings are sumptuously beautiful, and set the stage for the rest of Michelangelo's artistic life. Michelangelo's touch is all over these works. The use of chalk in many of the drawings, rather than pen and ink, opens up a sensuous physicality that feels more like flesh than stone.

A map of desire seems to be drawn across the back of many of Michelangelo's figures. In the gallery I think of the poetry and art to come - Cavafy, Isherwood, Bachardy, Bacon, and Hockney.

Sadly, the Getty is temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is scheduled to be at the Getty through June 7. The catalog is available on Bookshop. 

Vale Robert Hughes: Influential Author, Artlover and Art Critic Dies at 74

 "I have always tended to take art contextually. If I have any merits as a critic, they have to do with my ability as a storyteller — and above all I wanted to tell a story."
Robert Hughes in Salon, May 23, 1997

Robert Hughes in New York City - 1970's

In a 1997 piece on "60 Minutes," correspondent Steve Kroft said to Robert Hughes that he was the most powerful art critic in the world. Hughes deftly avoided the moniker and described his job as being akin to being the most important beekeeper in the world and that his influence said more about Time magazine than it did about the importance of his writing. But Robert Hughes writing is important. For many of us it was the first real taste of the transcendence and power of great art. Since I discovered the art criticism of Robert Hughes in Time magazine when I was a teenager, I have eagerly awaited each of his new works. Robert's articles, books, and documentaries helped open the worlds of art and history to me. Robert wrote clearly about art, taking pains to avoid jargon and faddish arguments. Hughes expressed that he was drawn to artworks that explored the questions: "Why am I here? And what am I doing here?" This search for philosophical and metaphysical concepts underscored much of the great art that Hughes explored in his work and shared with us. 

The Critic's Eyes
Robert Hughes - 2008

With great sadness I note that at the age of 74, Robert has died after suffering through a long illness. Robert Hughes will be greatly missed.

Robert Hughes on 60 Minutes in 1997

Robert Hughes in Italy - 1960's

The Mona Lisa Curse
Written and Presented by Robert Hughes


More At:
Robert Hughes Dies at 74: The New York Times
Hughes Views in Salon

Beware the Ides of March: Julius Caesar in Art

Gerard Julien/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
A Roman bust thought by some French historians to be the only surviving statue of Julius Caesar that was carved during his lifetime.
On display at the Musée Départmental de l’Arles Antique.


Julius Caesar's assassination in Joseph Mankiewicz' 1953 film version of Shakespeare's play.


The Ides of March
by C.B. Cavafy

Guard, O my soul, against pomp and glory.
And if you cannot curb your ambitions,
at least pursue them hesitantly, cautiously.
And the higher you go,
the more searching and careful you need to be.

And when you reach your summit, Caesar at last—
when you assume the role of someone that famous—
then be especially careful as you go out into the street,
a conspicuous man of power with your retinue;
and should a certain Artemidoros
come up to you out of the crowd, bringing a letter,
and say hurriedly: “Read this at once.
There are things in it important for you to see,”
be sure to stop; be sure to postpone
all talk or business; be sure to brush off
all those who salute and bow to you
(they can be seen later); let even
the Senate itself wait—and find out immediately
what grave message Artemidoros has for you.


Translated by Edmund Keeley/Philip Sherrard

(C.P. Cavafy, Collected Poems. Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Edited by George Savidis. Revised Edition. Princeton University Press, 1992)

Μάρτιαι Eιδοί

Τα μεγαλεία να φοβάσαι, ω ψυχή.
Και τες φιλοδοξίες σου να υπερνικήσεις
αν δεν μπορείς, με δισταγμό και προφυλάξεις
να τες ακολουθείς. Κι όσο εμπροστά προβαίνεις,
τόσο εξεταστική, προσεκτική να είσαι.

Κι όταν θα φθάσεις στην ακμή σου, Καίσαρ πια·
έτσι περιωνύμου ανθρώπου σχήμα όταν λάβεις,
τότε κυρίως πρόσεξε σα βγεις στον δρόμον έξω,
εξουσιαστής περίβλεπτος με συνοδεία,
αν τύχει και πλησιάσει από τον όχλο
κανένας Aρτεμίδωρος, που φέρνει γράμμα,
και λέγει βιαστικά «Διάβασε αμέσως τούτα,
είναι μεγάλα πράγματα που σ’ ενδιαφέρουν»,
μη λείψεις να σταθείς· μη λείψεις ν’ αναβάλεις
κάθε ομιλίαν ή δουλειά· μη λείψεις τους διαφόρους
που χαιρετούν και προσκυνούν να τους παραμερίσεις
(τους βλέπεις πιο αργά)· ας περιμένει ακόμη
κ’ η Σύγκλητος αυτή, κ’ ευθύς να τα γνωρίσεις
τα σοβαρά γραφόμενα του Aρτεμιδώρου.


(Από τα Ποιήματα 1897-1933, Ίκαρος 1984)

Much more on Cavafy at:
The Cavafy Archive
Hat tip to the Hellanic Antidote
And Happy Birthday Ralph Heilemann!


Master of the Apollini Sacrum
Italy, late 15th century
Death of Julius Caesar
Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Study Collection, 60.48
Depicted on a cassone (marriage chest) panel in the collection of the Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas
Noting that this painting of the death of Caesar is in the collection of the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas, it would behove Kansas - the #1 seed in March Madness - to heed the warning. Is there an NCAA Brutus in the mix?

Eleanor Antin's Classical Frieze at LACMA

"Pompeii, especially, with its grand murals and flourishing gardens haunted by the dark shadow of Vesuvius, has always suggested uncomfortable parallels with our contemporary world, especially here in Southern California, where the sunlit life also turns out to have dark shadows in which failure and death lurk at the edge of consciousness. Now, in these times, we have even closer parallels with those ancient, beautiful, affluent people living the good life on the verge of annihilation."
—Eleanor Antin on Classical Frieze


Eleanor Antin
The Artist's Studio from "The Last
Days of Pompeii," 2001 (detail)
chromogenic print
46 5/6 x 58 5/8 inches


Eleanor Antin
The Tree from "The Last
Days of Pompei," 2001
chromogenic print
60 x 48 inches

Eleanor Antin's film and photo work, Classical Frieze, re-imagines Pompeii and the classical Roman world as if seen through the eyes of a contemporary filmmaker paying homage to the sword and sandal film epics of the 1950's which are then viewed through a scrim of French neoclassical painting from the 1800's. Eleanor Antin's work was chosen to illuminate a contemporary viewpoint or perhaps fantasy of the Roman world and is featured alongside LACMA'S current exhibition Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture around the Bay of Naples.

Art21 on PBS describes Eleanor as "a cultural chameleon, masquerading in theatrical or stage roles to expose her many selves." Eleanor has a long and influential record as a visual and performance artist, as well as a filmmaker and photographer. Eleanor Antin "delves into history—whether of ancient Rome, the Crimean War, the salons of nineteenth-century Europe, or her own Jewish heritage and Yiddish culture—as a way to explore the present. "

I find Eleanor's Classical Frieze to be lightly provocative and very humorous. At the same time, the work which is ravishing in its color reminds me of the rich chroma in David Lynch's Blue Velvet. In that film and Antin's work, as Eleanor suggests," the sunlit life also turns out to have dark shadows in which failure and death lurk at the edge of consciousness" Antin sees that "Pompeii, especially, with its grand murals and flourishing gardens haunted by the dark shadow of Vesuvius, has always suggested uncomfortable parallels with our contemporary world, especially here in Southern California, ... Now, in these times, we have even closer parallels with those ancient, beautiful, affluent people living the good life on the verge of annihilation."

"Pompeii and the Roman Villa illustrates how the Trojan War and the death and wandering of the great Greek heroes were the moral and aesthetic tropes of Roman culture. Whereas for us, the romance of the Roman Empire, with its deliciously decadent affluence and military power, lies deep in modern Western consciousness. The great 19th-century colonial powers that preceded us saw themselves as the new Rome, bringing civilization to primitive peoples, not unlike the way we see ourselves today. At the same time, we are uneasy and haunted by the great empire that owned but then lost the world."


Art:21 | Eleanor Antin | Inventing Histories

May 14, 2009–October 4, 2009 | LACMA - Art of the Americas Building