Final essay

Adeeb

Michelangelo, considered as one of the greatest living artist in his lifetime created many sculptures through which he was able to express themes relating to different topics. The talent Michelangelo had allowed him to be able to created sculptures that not only could hold multiple but such profound themes is what made him one of the men of genius. This sense of trying to escape from the things of life is what the sculptures are representing, desires and personal conflicts could make this life that we are free in feel that in reality we are actually trapped . His statues of the captives that he constructed may seem to be unfinished but are still able to relate to the era he lived in, his personal self and certain philosophical ideas.

The sculptures of the captives all seem to be leaning on one foot, twisting their torso while writhing and trying to escape, but when someone normally wants to escape they want to leave with their bodies still with them. In this case the statues are trying desperately to escape their bodies as they are prisoners to it. Descartes talks about how we are made up of two parts, our body and mind and that essentially our mind is who we are and our body is just a vessel to keep our mind in. Our mind is immortal and will outlast our body, so this material trapping of it inside the body restrains it and succumbs it to the physical desires that we all long for. Freud talks about the Id and superego, the superego is the social standards we learn as a kid, this sense of rules or guidelines creates restrictions not letting us express fully who we are. The Id is the instinctual drives that needs immediate satisfaction, these needs we need to appease can end up in hurting us or the people around us, be it by unintentional acts or by doing whatever we need to do, bad or good to fill these urges. The act of trying to escape our bodies would be us trying to be free from these self restraints.

Michelangelo’s prisoners all seem to have their heads tilted away so you can not see them or have a hand that is covering it, it would suggest that they are in shame or humiliation. Is this a feeling Michelangelo was feeling and that was conveyed into his sculptures? He was commissioned to paint a decoration in the hall of the great council of the new democratic council and chose to do a group of Florentine soldiers taken by surprise simply because he could draw them nude. This type of evidence would come to believe that Michelangelo was homosexual. But him, such a religious man whose religion condemned people with these kinds of desires must have felt very confused and conflicted as to whether theses thoughts in his head were right or not. The Dying Slave is seen as more sexual and him lifting and taking off his shirt as if to expose himself to everyone can be seen as Michelangelo wanting to unmask himself and let this secret burning inside of him out. Not being able to tell anyone afraid it would go to the wrong person would have made him feel trapped inside his own body not being able to do anything about it.

 Before the 14^th century there was a period of stagnant cultural growth, horrible plagues and other poor conditions. This time of deterioration was called the dark ages, the renaissance which means “rebirth” came after this age and was he result of the people in that time of decline climbing out of it and escaping into a prosperous culture. Much like with the captives we see that they are struggling to free themselves from whatever is binding them, which Michelangelo could have used to portray the transition of the dark ages into the renaissance.

The renaissance was a time where discernable growth and change was made, and Michelangelo was able to capture all of this not with words but with solid stone objects that he was able to carve stories into. This great and complex mind of his, was it trapped? These captives represent something more than just statues for the tomb of Pope Julius II , they are filled to the brim with ideas and thoughts. Michelangelo put all his knowledge of himself and the world around him into these few sculptures.