Baroque vs. Renaissance: "The Great David Showdown"

The Baroque period of art was a great transition from the renaissance period. Art was becoming more in-depth show tings such as emotions and movement. With that several other elements were adjust to match the preferences of the Baroque period. This is best examined by comparing Michelangelo’s David, a renaissance piece, and Bernini’s David, a sculpture that simply defines the Baroque period. 

Both sculpture represent at the biblical character, David, in his battle with the Goliath. To see the changes the Baroque period made on top of renaissance work it is important to look at the latter first. In Michelangelo’s David we see a large male, heroic –style figure. This form was chosen due to the renaissance’s obsession with humanism (the philosophy of where man has come from and where it can go, and all the great accomplishments in between). It relates to humanism because it uses the classic Greek hero or Kouros. While incorporating elements of the past, like idealism in the form, Michelangelo’s David also incorporates the idea of perspective. Originally designed to be placed above the viewer some seventy feet away it was proportioned and scaled to work for that perspective. That is the primary reason why this David is not to anatomical form. As well the line of the figure is straight up and down and in contrapposto, a very geometric composition, another trait of the renaissance. Nearly all of these “renaissance ideas” are thrown out of the door in Birnini’s Baroque David. 

The most obvious one comes of course in the pose. The Baroque David is in action, he is moving, he is fighting. He has a strong diagonal line, a contradiction to the liner up and down line of the renaissance. As well this form is truly anatomically correct. Baroque David also does not have as strong of ‘base’. I believe this makes him appear more human. However the most human like part of the piece I think belongs to the face. The face shows a full range of emotions, something that Michelangelo’s David lacks even one sign of emotion. There is a sense of action, courage, and fear that is represented in Birnini’s David that is otherwise disappeared from Michelangelo’s version. One thing they do share however is the sense of visual harmony, in their own right. In Michelangelo’s David there is a nice harmonic sense from his structured, and formal pose. The same can be said to a degree about Birnini’s David.

 The movement and agile, organic lines, allow for the viewer to seamlessly comb through each individual element of the design, sometimes without ever realizing it. The diagonal lines in the form allow for the viewer to start focusing on anyone spot of the sculpture but then visual trace those lines to face, and eventually back around to the staring point. One could say that chaos has created harmony in Bernini’s piece. The sense of realism one obtains from viewing Bernini’s David over Michelangelo’s is the true difference maker of what separates the Renaissance period to the Baroque.