“The head of the faun” ( Italian: Testa di fauno ) - the lost marble sculpture of Michelangelo , created by him apprx. 1488 −1489 [a]
| Michelangelo Buonarroti | ||
| Faun's head . OK. 1488 -1489 | ||
| ital. Testa di fauno | ||
| marble | ||
| not preserved | ||
Content
Product Information
According to Vasari , this sculpture was created by Michelangelo in the Medici Sculpture Garden, as a copy of the antique head of the “old wrinkled laughing faun with its nose upturned” [b] [1] . Michelangelo slightly altered the faun's facial expression - he portrayed his mouth completely open, so that his tongue and all his teeth were visible [2] . Lorenzo the Magnificent , having seen this work, praised the master, but made a remark that the old people cannot have all their teeth. Michelangelo broke Faun one tooth and pitted in the gums [2] . Both Vasari and Condivi agree that it was this story that helped the young talent to gain favor from Lorenzo Medici [3] .
William Wallace believes that at the time of the creation of this statue of Michelangelo was already 15 years old, which means he was already relatively adult, and this story is more like a beautiful legend [4] . Erica Schigliano believes that the very existence of the sculpture seems doubtful - no evidence of it, except for the story of Michelangelo to his biographers (Condivi and Vasari), has not been preserved [5] .
The Laughing Faun marble mask in the Bargello Gallery is considered the “lost” sculpture of Michelangelo. It does not quite correspond to the description of Vasari and Condivi, since there are only two teeth in the mouth that look more like fangs, and the tongue protrudes between them [3] .
Image in Art
Emilio Dzocchi created the marble statue “Young Michelangelo carves the“ Faun's Head ”” (1861), which is now kept in the Pitti Palace . There are famous copies of this statue created by Cesare Zocchi, Henry Wolfe and others.
In the biographical novel by Karel Schulz “Stone and Pain”, the section “Fauns Laughter” [6] is dedicated to the first sculptural work of Michelangelo [6] :
| (...) Michelangelo grabbed a chisel and, in front of the prince and Poliziano, hit hard on his faunal lips. A gaped hole. The old demigod lost several teeth. Faun's mocking smile has changed. He stopped taunting before sticking his teeth into the meat. He looked at the world like an old man ... |
Notes
- but. ^ According to Fritz Erpeli - approx. 1490-1492 [7]
- b. ^ The original has not been preserved and its description is known only from the words of Vasari and Condivi
Links
- ↑ Vasari, 1970 , p. 302.
- ↑ 1 2 Michelangelo. Poetry. Letters, 1983 , p. 136.
- ↑ 1 2 Symonds, 1893 , p. 14.
- ↑ Wallace, 2010 , p. 9.
- ↑ Scigliano, 2005 , p. 41.
- ↑ Schulz, 2006 , p. 158.
- ↑ Erpel, 1990 , p. 13.
Sources
- Vazar D. Life painting of the most famous painters, sculptors and architects = ital. Le Vite de'piu eccelenti Pittori, Scultori e Architetti . - K .: Mistetstvo, 1970 .-- S. 296-429, 497-507. - 520 s. (unavailable link) (in Ukrainian)
- Michelangelo. Poetry. Letters. Judgments of contemporaries / comp. V.N. Grashchenkov. - M .: Art, 1983 .-- 451 p. (Russian)
- Erpel Fritz. Michelangelo / Per. with him. Sergey Danilchenko. - Berlin: Henschel, 1990 .-- 72 p. - ISBN 3-362-00044-4 . (Russian)
- Schultz K. Stone and pain: a novel. - K .: Universe, 2006 .-- 688 p. - ISBN 966-8118-23-5 .
- Eric Scigliano Michelangelo's Mountain: The Quest For Perfection In The Marble Quarries Of Carrara. - Simon and Schuster, 2005 .-- 352 p. (eng.)
- John Addington Symonds. The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti . - 1893. (English)
- William Wallace. The Treasures of Michelangelo. - Andre Deutsch, 2010 .-- ISBN 978-0-233-00253-8 . (eng.)