tuscany # 23 ~ Italian weather # 4 (and a superb picture surprise)
Friday, September 25, 2009 at 09:35AM 
David has no umbrella ~ Firenze, Tuscany • click to embiggenWithout a doubt, the single most disappointing thing that I experienced in Tuscany was my time spent with Mr. David.
As dutiful tourists should, we made ticket reservations for our visit with Mr. David - the real Mr. David, not the life-size replica pictured here - at the Galleria dell’Accademia months before our actual visit. We were advised to do so in order to avoid the long ticket queues that are a daily feature of waiting to see The Man.
Unfortunately, avoiding the queues is the least of the problem when spending time with the big guy because all of those people in the queues end up being a mob inside the exhibit hall where Mr. David hangs out (just standing around). And, like all mobs, they are noisy, pushy, and generally unsympathetic to the notion of quiet contemplation. In other words, whatever it was that Mr. David was trying to tell me, I just couldn't hear it over the din and clamor.
But ... surprise of all unexpected surprise - I was struck dumb by a display (literally and figuratively) of pure genius:
The naked bodies in the Accademia Gallery in Florence, home to Michelangelo's David, strain and contort and flex their muscles. Athletic flesh is posed in spectacular acts of prowess, the body constrained and tested in ways that have been part of the tradition of the nude since ancient times. But the flesh that shines in these images is not the work of Michelangelo. I am looking, in these proud surroundings, at photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe. ~ Jonathan Jones On Art
Genius. Pure genius.
Yep, right there, displayed right next to David and a variety of other Michelangelo pieces were large (30×40-ish?) beautiful prints of Robert Mapplethorpe nudes - part of the exhibit, Robert Mapplethorpe ~ Perfection in Form.
What an utterly marvelous display of putting 2 and 2 together and coming up with a sum that is much greater than its parts. There were more Mapplethorpe nudes and non-nudes pictures on exhibit in a small gallery adjoining the David gallery which was nice touch and very notable by the fact that it is the first ever exhibition of a modern artist in the Galleria dell’Accademia.
For me, the effect of this pairing was twofold - simply stated (Art-wise), 1.) Mapplethorpe's nudes helped vulgarize / humanize Michelangelo's David, and 2.) Michelangelo's David helped legitimize / elevate Mapplethorpe's nudes.
Or, put another way (personhood-wise) - 1.) more than a bit of Mapplethorpe's regular-guy "personhood" rubbed off on Michelangelo, and, 2.) more than a bit of Michelangelo's iconic artistic stature robbed off on Mapplethorpe.
Either way (or any way) one might one choose to view it, the primary benefit for me, in situ, was to let me in on (above the din and clamor) at least a bit of the conversation that Mr. Michelangelo and Mr. Mapplethorpe were engaged in.
Quite a delightful surprise, indeed.
Reader Comments (3)
I see the wife bought an umbrella.
"Synergy" as applied to art - that would make suffering the queue to see "David" much more fulfilling. There are plenty of other classic sculptures that "stand" on their own much more effectively (pun intended).
Mona Lisa in Paris is a similarly anticlimactic experience and so is the Capella Sistina in Rome. Of all museums that I know, I like Madrid's Prado best, and our Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna is not bad either, not bad at all :)