The Drunken Bacchus
Michelangelo, 1497, Florence, Museo di Bargello.
„Michelangelo non avrebbe potuto peccare di piu col cesello..." a Florentine
said once, standing thoughtfully in front of "the Drunken Bacchus",
watching the soft lines. "Michelangelo couldn't have sinned more with
his chisel."
The enthusiastic, intellectual Florentines were very receptive to the
beauty of a young man like the Athenians. This "sin" isn't just found
in the work of Michelangelo and Leonardo (who were mostly appointed for
thatmatter), but also by Donatello and Verrocchio, by Pontormo and all
the other Manierism-artists. At least Raphael seemed to be straight,
but all the others..... In Florence of the 15th and 16th century the
favourite subject were shapely, strong men's legs, -thighs, and buttocks
in their tight stockings. The well-shaped young man was glorified in
Florence, more than in any other place. The common, earthly minded
Florentine were aroused by a pretty boy as much as by a young girl and
nobody objected. Well, Savonarola perhaps, although he never mentioned
it.
It was in 1497 when Michelangelo chiselled the Drunken Bacchus in Rome
for his patron Jacopo Galli. The human body in Michelangelo's statues
never denies its heaviness - much to the Greek and Roman Gods and heros'
bodies opposite, who are standing upright and easy, almost pending free
in a room. But Michelangelo meets this motive of a heavy body for the
first time when he's making his Bacchus. The drunken one tries to stand
upright, albeit the wine has made his limbs heavy.