Michelangelo's Christ in Santa Maria sopra Minerva Reconsidered : stylistic analysis through the comparison with the first version rediscovered in Bassano Romano

NIIKURA Shinsuke

doi:10.20631/bigaku.63.1_49

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Other Title

ミケランジェロ作サンタ・マリア・ソプラ・ミネルヴァ聖堂の《キリスト》再考 : 再発見されたバッサーノ作品との比較を通じた造形分析
ミケランジェロサクサンタ・マリア・ソプラ・ミネルヴァセイドウノ《キリスト》サイコウ : サイハッケンサレタバッサーノサクヒントノヒカクオツウジタゾウケイブンセキ

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Description

There was the first version of Michelangelo's Christ in Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Roma which had been abandoned before the completion. In 2000, Baldriga and Squarzina identified the statue of Christ in San Vincenzo Martire at Bassano Romano with the lost first version. Although they argued only about the difference of the posture between two statues of Christ in Roma and in Bassano Romano, the rediscovery is very important for the reconsideration of the shape of Christ in Roma, because being executed under the same condition of the contract the difference makes the progress of Michelangelo's idea from Christ in Bassano Romano to that in Roma clear. This paper examines the importance of Christ in Roma to Michelangelo's transition of the style in statue. The factors (mainly the twist of the body and the position of the arm) that make the apparent difference between two statues of Christ appear on the works that Michelangelo executed after Christ in Roma, and it is this Christ that Michelangelo boldly made at first time under such idea which he would continue to utilize for realizing his statue. Therefore, contrary to the comparatively low evaluation of the modern studies, Christ in Roma occupies fixed position in the stylistic history of Michelangelo's statue.

Journal

Aesthetics

Aesthetics 63 (1), 49-60, 2012

The Japanese Society for Aesthetics