Picture

Boy butts #4.

Michelangelo's David.

Any image of this work is iconic. But apart from the most obvious point of interest (it's so little!) the most powerful and compelling part is that hand.

When I look at this, the arm, the slouched shoulder, the hips akimbo, all point to this hand.

We all have experienced drawing, however badly. But I can't even begin to imagine sculpting from stone, where you have to anticipate a wrist bent just so, so that it connects again, so things don't break. Where you need a convenient tree stump, so things don't fall over.


That hand is over-sized, and out of proportion and has sinews and veins that make it individual.
In stark contrast to the the rather generic rendition of boy-bits nearby. I've always imagined that he used his own hand as a model, and that this hand is the most accurate portrait of the artist that we have.


From people who draw, I've often heard that hands are the most difficult to render. The most famous hands in western art belong to Michelangelo.

Oh, and leaving aside the hands, this, from the fresco in the Sistine Chapel, is tiny, too.

The reason for this is, I suspect, a bit of prudery, conveniently together with the fact that it was the style of ancient Greek sculptures and vase paintings that Renaissance artists chose to emulate.

This post got hung up in the queue while I was trying to do something from Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio). Even though he painted the most famous putti ever, as near as I could find he never did bottoms.

Compare and contrast: Butts #3,

In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock at Dirty John Bonny.