Featured Image Credit: PaoloGaetano/coverdale84
Topics: News, World News, Art
Kit Roberts
When people think of artists who are truly masterful in how they represent the human form, those from the Italian renaissance are certainly among the top ones that spring to mind.
Leonardo Da Vinci for example was able to create mind-blowing drawings and sculptures of the human body.
One drawing from his notebooks even showed a foetus in the womb.
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But it's a detail on a Michelangelo sculpture which has gotten people absolutely gobsmacked at the level of anatomical understanding that he would need to know to do this.
While also creating many beautiful paintings, Michelangelo is mainly known for his work as a sculptor in marble. He would create incredible representations out of solid stone.
It's impressive enough making a piece of marble look like a writhing sinew, or like delicate fabric draped over a limb, or locks of curly hair.
It's frankly an astonishing level of craftsmanship.
But it's not just the level of sculptural skill which is needed for this, but also deep understanding of human anatomy.
You can't make a sculpture of a person that stunningly accurate, albeit a little more ripped than the average person, without know what muscles are where.
And in this case, it's not Michelangelo's statue of David which has people stunned, but of Moses, which is housed in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome.
The piece shows Moses with a beard as large as you might expect, sat down with two tablets containing the ten commandments.
But it's a detail on Moses' arm which has people amazed.
A post on Facebook described it, saying: "Michelangelo's Moses is a marble sculpture made in 1513–1515.
"One of the many details of this masterpiece is one very small muscle in the forearms that contracts only when lifting the pinky, otherwise it is invisible.
"Moses is lifting the pinky, therefore that tiny muscle is contracted."
Stunning!
Art lovers were blown away, with one writing: "Truly spectacular detail."
Another said: "Thought of everything. Brilliant."
While a third added: "Amazing! Just amazing!"
A fourth shared: "I was fortunate enough to see this in Rome and it's spectacular!"
As well as his mastery of the human form, Michelangelo was even able to adjust the proportions of his sculptures to ensure that when viewed from a particular angle they appeared to be perfect.
You don't get that with AI-generated images from Midjourney.