D. Anderson, Rome_)
The twenty Athletes that decorate the corners of these central
compositions, and support bronze medallions held in place by oak garlands
or by draperies, are nothing but the most direct of transcripts from the
nude model, but the most noble that have been executed in the art of
painting. They are finished to the smallest detail, and are as truthful to
nature as it was possible for a man with an innate sense of grandeur of
line to make them. Italian models have been posed in the positions of most
of them, and drawings from them compared with the photographs of these
figures; they are marvellously true, to the very wrinkles of the skin
under the arms and about the knees, and the drawing of the curves and
creases of the torso as the body bends. So naturalistic are they that
Michael Angelo must have posed a model and made drawings in the chapel
itself, perhaps even on the scaffolding, and worked straight away. He
appears to have used only three models for this purpose. The Athletes
drawn from the same model can easily be distinguished; they are actual
portraits. One was the man who sat for the Adam, and was of a noble
proportion with a small head, a beautiful brow, and a solemn mouth. His
hair was wavy and of a wispy character; he had broad shoulders; his
extremities were small, the thighs large and well developed, showing the
individual muscles by large forms with flat planes. He may be seen, as we
have said, in the Adam, and in the four figures surrounding the fresco
representing God dividing the Light from the Darkness; in the two figures
near the Adam in his creation of Eve; and best of all, for comparison, in
the figures near the foot of Adam in the creation of Man.
Pages:
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184