Art Piece Anotation - Essay Example

Milon de Crotone sculpture Introduction Etienne Maurice Falconet was born in 1st December, 1716 in Paris from a very poor family (Artfinding.com, 2006). Falconet first developed his artistic talent by becoming an apprentice of a famous carpenter in their home village back in Paris. Despite working with wood in the carpenters shop, Falconet had deep affection toward clay work. He started developing small molding and figures out of clay during his free times. This clay molding exposed him and he was noticed by famous sculpture called Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne (Artfinding.com, 2006). Immediately Baptiste took him and kept him under his wing. Falconet continued with hard work in sculpturing and he was successful in developing his first sculpture by the name Milo of Crotone (In French it is Milon de Crotone) (Artfinding.com, 2006). This successful bit of art made Falconet very famous and immediately he was absorbed and became a member of “Academie des beaux-arts” in the year 1754 (Artfinding.com, 2006). This was the royal academy of painting and sculpture that only had prominent outstanding painters and sculpture of the time being appointed to be members. Due to his hard work, the sculptures he developed between the year 1755 to 1757 made him get appointed to be the director of sculpture workshops in that royal academy. The sculpture of Milon de Crotone This sculpture is a figure of a great legend known as Milo of Crotone. This was a real life portrait of a Grecian wrestler of the 6th century; who was born in a town called Magna Grecian city of Croton in southern Italy (Djibnet.com, 2011). Milo was a great wrestler who at all time enjoyed the career since he always won. In addition to this, Milo was also an athlete and had won many wrestling and athletics competitions during important festivals of ancient Greece (Djibnet.com, 2011). Moreover, Milo is also remembered for his role in leading his fellow citizens to a military triumph in 510 B.C. over their neighbors in Sybaris (Djibnet.com, 2011). Milo was also associated with another Crotonean Pythagoras who was once saved by Milo from a collapsing roof (Djibnet.com, 2011). In repayment Milo was given the daughter of Pythagoras called Myia. His name became very famous and the greatest complement was on his strength and power. This is the main theme portrayed in most of his statues developed by most artists. It should be noted that the sculpture of Milon de Crotone is entirely constructed from the artistic literature demonstrating Milo’s power, strength and his painful death. Milo’s legendary strength and unique death have currently become the subject matter of modern art and literature as far as baroque literature is concerned (Djibnet.com, 2011). To many sculpture artists including Falconet, most of them have developed Milon statues from marble and bronze. This is to symbolize his power and might. In the 18th century, Milon unique death where he was rarely defeated by wild animals influenced advance development of artistic sculpturing of that time. The development of Milon des Crotone marble sculpture by Falconet saw the artist become famous at that time though the art was accompanied with wide criticism. It was criticized that Falconet’s sculpture of Milo exhibited lack of nobility (Djibnet.com, 2011). According to critics, the artwork by Falconet clashed with the classical ideal requiring a dying hero to express stoic restrain (George, 1972). Everybody believed that for Milo to be defeated by wild animal there must be vigourous stoic challenge which the art was to demonstrate. The sculpture of Milon de Crotone is considered to be a real life situation and a favorite source of heroism as far as art work is concerned (George, 1972). The life of Milo was considered to near myth and the artwork portrayed him in legendary powerful position. The sculpture showing the death of Milo was a pure reflection of how the powerful legend died (George, 1972). The truth is that Milo was killed by wolves when his hand got stuck in a tree stump when he was trying to tear the tree apart with his bear hands (George, 1972). However in most of his sculptures, most artists have replaced the wolves with lion (George, 1972). Milon de Crotone sculpture by Falconet (George, 1972). In the analysis of this sculpture, there are more disputed aspects on this artwork by Falconet. It is noted from the facial image of the sculpture that Falconet designed the legend with a snub nose, pained face and slightly flabby body (George, 1972). This according to legendary history is contradicting compared to what people knew about the powerful Milo. In addition to this, the contraversion is also directed to the decision of Falconet to incorporate a stoic, classically pure and pseudo-mythologized sculptured hero with a contorted body (George, 1972). Furthermore, the sculpture also demonstrated the artistic baroque naturalism that was clashed with the romanticized classism of the time (George, 1972). When analyzing the sculpture Milon de Crotone, Falconet also included the art that depicted a direct reference to what another legendary sculpture Pierre Puget did. The sculpture of Milon de Crotone by Pierre was developed 75 years earlier and he also displayed the theme of pain in Milon face (George, 1972). The sculpture work displayed Milo’s body form with painful face and which was depicted with more symbolism (George, 1972). The symbolism employed in Milon des Croton sculpture involved the lion which was a minor part of the composition and Milo with his body sculptured in an idealized form (George, 1972). Falconet did develop the best of Milon de Croton sculpture as an improved reference of art work developed by Pierre Puget (Louvre.fr, 1990). Falconet ensured that the material he used in developing this Artwork was bronze to symbolize the strength that Milo had. The sculpture developed by Falconet also displayed a powerful and energetic treatment of Milo. The body curving openly revealed how muscular Milo was. The arms of Milo were sculptured displaying powerful biceps muscles and this was obviously stemmed from the reality of Milo (Louvre.fr, 1990). There were plagiary disputes that Falconet copied Pierre Puget sculpture of Milon de Croton. However, the dispute was cleared since Falconet’s sculpture displayed Milo pushing the head on the lion away with one hand while the other was stuck on the tree stump (Louvre.fr, 1990). This is another aspect of strength demonstration through the arts. Although Milo was helplessly trapped on the tree stump, he still had power to continue battling using one hand with lion that was attacking him. This means that if the other hand was not trapped, definitely Milo would have triumphed (Louvre.fr, 1990). Falconet did his art work sculpture on Milo with the body his on the grounds trying to fight the Lion with one hand (Louvre.fr, 1990). This is another symbolic nature of artwork that revealed the strength of Milo. According to Falconet sculpture, there is open and direct confrontation between the lion and Milo who was on the ground. That was the main focus aspect of the sculpture. Moreover, the sculpture also shows the head of Milo and the lion being on the same ground level (Louvre.fr, 1990). This is the revealed distinction of savagery against that of pain as revealed in Milos face (Louvre.fr, 1990). The sculpture portrayed Milo suffering from two sources pain. First of all, the lion was biting attempting to kill him. Secondly is the pain that is further supplemented by the stuck hand on the tree stamp. Despite all these pain, the sculpture still shows Milo not giving up and struggling with the lion up to the ground level (George, 1972). Throughout the entire Falconet sculpture on Milo, the style employed is purely the baroque inspiration art (George, 1972). Falconet did factor in artistic styles including sweeping diagonals, the twisting of the bodies being sculptures and also the sculpturing of lifelike flesh of the subject (George, 1972). The reality was that the sculptured body of both Milo and the lion appear to be lifelike flesh with natural like forms of body twists which revealed body muscles and flesh (George, 1972). In addition to this, Falconet also employed the style balancing the opposition between light and shade to bring out theatricality and virtuosity of the (George, 1972). The sculpture also demonstrated Falconet artistic technical compositional skills, his anatomical knowledge and also his mastery of foreshortening primarily using the figure of the lion (George, 1972). Despite this sculpture of Milo de Croton being developed back in 1755, it demonstrated advanced stylistic application of art. The styles used literary clashed with the contemporary taste of antiquity despite having the passion of general favorable reception (George, 1972). In the sculpture, Falconet had not idealized the perception of the body where he did not portray the folds of the abdomen and the hairs on the chest (Louvre.fr, 1990). The sculpture Falconet developed also did not reveal the facial appearance of Milo since Falconet only focused on a self –portrait wit a snub nose (Louvre.fr, 1990). The most critical aspect of the sculpture that disputed with the heroic story of Milo was the fact that Falconet did not factor in stoic restrain believed the legend exposed before dying (Louvre.fr, 1990). Falconet artwork on Milo only demonstrated the final act of defeat by the lion when he fell on the ground. This literary made the sculpture portrait clash with the classical ideal based on the legendary history of stoic nature (Louvre.fr, 1990). Conclusion Based on the above analytical discussion, it is important to state that Falconet sculpture of Milon de Crotone is much more than a mere picture. By the fact that the sculpture was developed back in the 17th century, the styles used by the artists demonstrate advanced skills and knowledge of preserving history through arts. A lot can be learnt from the sculpture rather than the beautification perception of the sculpture. References Artfinding.com. (2006). Artists Bibliographies: Etienne Maurice Falconet. Accessed on April 22, 2014 from http://www.artfinding.com/Biography/Falconet-Etienne- Maurice/32418.html. Djibnet.com. (2011). Milon de Crotone (Milo of Croton) - Etienne-Maurice Falconet. Accessed on April 22, 2014 from http://www.djibnet.com/photo/agape/milon-de-crotone-milo-of- croton-etienne-maurice-falconet-6007583123.html. George, L. (1972). The Sculpture of Falconet. New York. 22-25. Louvre.fr. (1990). Milo of Croton. Accessed on April 22, 2014 from http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/milo-croton. Read More