"Figura Serpentinata": Becoming over Being in Michelangelo's Unfinished Works

Author(s): Paula Carabell

Source: Artibus et Historiae, Vol. 35, No. 69 (2014), pp. 79-96
Published by: IRSA s.c.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/24595733
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 Paula Carabell

Figura Serpentinata: Becoming

over Being in Michelangelo's
Unfinished Works

The notion that Michelangelo left nearly three-fifths of his sculp

tural works unfinished has aroused the interest of artists and
critics since the sixteenth century.1 It has led certain scholars
to adopt a conflict-based theory while others have viewed the
presence of the non-finito as an essential, and more importantly,
intentional part of the artist's pictorial language.2 Perhaps one
reason this view attained popularity is because by the end of the
fifteenth century, the intendenti had already shown an apprecia
tion for inchoate form, one undoubtedly prefigured by the Neo
platonic notion that man, himself, was protean in nature and by
definition, a work in progress.3 This idea, that the emergent and
even the incomplete could exist as desirable attributes, finds
artistic expression early on in Michelangelo's own oeuvre, while
the young sculptor was a resident in the Medici household. We
know from contemporary sources that Angelo Poliziano, tutor
and humanist scholar, had not only provided the burgeoning
artist with the subject matter of one of his earliest works, the
Battle of the Centaurs, but with it had offered a lesson gleaned
from the ancients, that of the merits of a less than diligent level
of finish.4 This work, to which we shall soon return, embodied
the notion that a high degree of polish was not always a desir
able trait and that process was, in effect, an end in itself.5 How
ever, should the emergent forms and visibly chiseled surface
of the Battle of the Centaurs suggest an early and ineluctable
predilection on the part of the young master for the aesthetics of

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 Paula Carabell

1. Michelangelo, «Pieta» (detail), 1498-1499, marble, 174 cm, Vatican, Saint Peter's Basilica.
Photo: Scala/Art Resource, NY

roughly hewn marble, we must also consider Condivi's account issue of being over becoming, of finished versus open work nev
of the sculptor's life in which Michelangelo expressed his disap ertheless manifests itself in one of his earliest endeavors.

proval over one of his most illustrious predecessors, Donatello,
whose works, he insisted, seemed admirable when viewed as
a distance, but because they were not highly polished, lost their
reputation when seen from up close.6 But despite Michelange
lo's stated preference for works that had achieved an unequivo
cal state of resolution, he himself would be plagued throughout
his life by an inability to finish and tormented by the schism he
In August of 1498, Michelangelo received a commission
from the French Cardinal, Jean Bilheres de Lagraulas, for a Pie
ta [Fig. 1] intended for Sta Petronilla, a chapel then attached to
the south transept of Saint Peter's.7 The young artist has already
won acclaim with the Bacchus he had made for Jacopo Galli,
who, therefore, in turn was keen to give his assurance to the
Cardinal that 'this will be the most beautiful work in marble that

perceived between the realization of his concetto and the no
tion of art as continuing process. While the artist's struggle to
bring a work to completion is more readily apparent both in his
later and sculptural works and can be considered a function of
the master's increasingly complex compositional strategies, the
Rome has ever seen and that no master today would make it
better'.8 Indeed, when the work was unveiled in 1499, it was to
unprecedented accolades and today holds a special place in
the master's oeuvre as his only signed work. His name, which
is carved on the sash that transverses the Virgin's upper torso

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 Figura Serpentinata: Becoming over Being in Michelangelo's Unfinished Works

2. Michelangelo, «Battle of the Centaurs», c. 1492, marble, 84.5 x 90.5 cm, Florence, Casa Buonarroti.
Photo: Scala/Art Resource, NY

reads as follows: MICHEL'AGELVS'BONAROTVS'FLORENT* chelangelo had found himself standing amongst a group of a
FACIEBA[T].9 Such a prominent declaration was uncommon
mirers and had heard the remark made that the piece had been
completed
even within the competitive tradition of Florentine sculptors and by 'II Gobbo nostra da Milano'.11 Dismayed that hi
for this reason, Giorgio Vasari must have felt compelled accomplishment
to ad had gone unnoticed by the crowd, he slipped
dress this anomaly in both the 1550 and 1568 editions back
of the
later that evening and added the inscription. It is not t
intent
Lives. In the earlier account, he suggests that the action of this discussion, however, to determine which, if either,
occurred
because Michelangelo had placed so much love into the these accounts is closer to the truth, but rather, it is to examine
carving
of the work that 'here - something which he would not the do context
in any of Michelangelo's gesture in order to explore the sig
nificance
other work - he left his name written across a strap that of the non-finito in his later work.
encircles
the bosom of our Lady, as something with which he himself Almostwasten years before the creation of the Pieta, the young
Michelangelo
satisfied and pleased'.10 By 1568, however, Vasari alters the ac was at the Medici court at work on the Battle of
count and tells us that the signature had instead grown the Centaurs
out of [Fig. 2], a subject suggested to him by Angelo
Poliziano.12
a case of mistaken identity. According to the second edition, writ The piece was, however, left unfinished at the death
ten after the master's death, Vasari recounts a tale in of
which Mi the Magnificent in 1492, and not only exhibits the
Lorenzo

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 Paula Carabell

prominent marks of the chisel, but also manifests the continu'Go and tell Giuliano da San Gallo, that he should go and take
ous, animated and emergent forms that would be a hallmarka look,
of right away'. And so right away he went. And since Michel
many of his later works. But despite its unequivocal status angelo
as Buonarroti was continually at our house - because my
an unfinished work, its protean forms also belong to an artistic
father had had him come to Rome, and had given him the com
tradition that was brought to the attention of the young master
mission for the Pope's tomb - he wanted him to go with him. And
by the elder humanist and as such, must be examined as part soofI joined this group, and together with my father we went down
Michelangelo's aesthetic. to where the statues were and right away my father said, 'This is
In 1488, Poliziano had traveled to Rome, where he chancedthe Laocoon that Pliny mentions'. They had the hole opened up,
to observe an inscription on a Greek plinth in Piazza Navona, in order to be able to pull the statue out, and having seen it, we
which read, 'Seleucus rex, Lysippus faciebat'.13 To Poliziano, began
the to draw and constantly they talked about antiquities [...].18
inscription bore witness to the veracity of Pliny's account in his
Natural History, where he states, '[...] those founders of paint Such an encounter with the past, one that verified the au
ing and sculpture who [...] used to inscribe their finished works,
thority of an ancient source, naturally generated excitement and
speculation within humanist and artistic circles. One area of en
even the masterpieces which we can never be tired of admiring,
quiry concerned Pliny's claim that the Laocoon had been creat
with a provisional title such as Worked on by Apelles or Polyklei
tos [Apelles faciebat aut Polykleitos]',14 The notion that even
ed extheuno lapide, that is, out of one block of stone. To resolve this
best of artists recognizes the continuing potential within a workthe two leading sculptors of Rome, Giovan-Christofano
matter,
of art that has been deemed complete by choosing to sign it
and Michelangelo himself were consulted; they examined the
with an imperfect verb form was considered an admirable trait
multi-figured group and determined that it, instead, contained
approximately
amongst the artists of antiquity. This trope is again reflected in four joints.19 This discovery must have gener
Pliny's example of Protogenes who did not know when ated to liftdisappointment regarding the working methods of ancient
his hand from the brush and who thus went beyond the perfec sculptors since by the sixteenth century, the notion of ex uno
lapide had become an important concept not only in terms of
tion he had already realized in his painting.15 Pliny's injunction
against the 'frequently evil effects of excessive diligence' thewas,
artist's desire to respect the integrity of the stone, but also
of course, invoked on a regular basis in discussions on art dur to his ability to demonstrate his judgment and skill.20
in relation
One needs
ing the sixteenth century and finds its place in such treatises as only to consider Michelangelo's well-known sonnet,
Lodovico Dolce's, Aretino, of 1557 and Paolo Pino's, Dialogo Non ha di I'ottimo artista alcun concetto, in which he describes the
Pittura of 1548. In so far as Michelangelo's own knowledge ofby which form is liberated from matter:
process
the Plinian trope goes, he could, in theory, have learned it him
self from Christoforo Landino's 1472 translation; it is significantly
Not even the best of artists has any conception
more likely, however, that the young sculptor would have first
that a single marble block does not contain
absorbed this ancient aesthetic of the unfinished from Poliziano within its excess, and that is only attained
himself.16 by the hand that obeys the intellect.21
Despite the emergent forms of the Battle of the Centaurs,
created, as we have seen, under the tutelage of Poliziano, the Thus, for Michelangelo, the sculptor's reputation depended
notion that a work is always in process finds its first direct form upon his capacity to create a work ex uno lapide. The young
of expression in the Pieta. Here, Michelangelo chose to go be master had, of course, already completed a multi-figured group,
yond the Plinian conceit of signing a work with the imperfect the Pieta, from a single block of stone some six years prior to the
tense and instead, literally transforms the imperfect into the in discovery of the Laocoon and in this manner, had already sur
complete; by omitting the final T on faciebat, the artist not only passed one of the most exemplary works of the ancient world.
creates a visual pun, but exemplifies the idea that even the most Thus, from early on, Michelangelo's creations were seen as a ri
polished of creations partakes of the notion of the unfinished. valing those of antiquity and as reifying a process of assimilation
On 14 January 1506, one of the most dramatic archeological in which past and present, imitation and innovation were seen as
finds was unearthed in Rome; the Laocoon [Fig. 3] as described parts of a complex and dialectical relationship.22
by Pliny.17 Francesco da San Gallo, son of Giuliano da San Gal During the first half of the sixteenth century, the nature of
lo, patron and friend of Michelangelo, describes the event, still imitation was a hotly debated topic within artistic and intellectual
vivid in his memory some sixty years later, as follows; circles. As knowledge of antiquity became ever greater, the ques
tion of how to balance the concept of emulation with that of artis
When I was young, and in Rome for the first time, the Pope was tic originality and of whether to follow one or multiple models in
told that certain very beautiful statues had been found in a vine the quest for perfection became an integral part of Renaissance
yard near Santa Maria Maggiore. The Pope ordered a footman, aesthetics. The desire to retain the authority of the ancients yet

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 Figura Serpentinata: Becoming over Being in Michelangelo's Unfinished Works

3. Hagesandros, Athanadoros and Polydoros, «Laocoon», c. 200 BC, marble, 2.4 m, Vatican, Vatican Museums, Museo Pio Clementino. Photo:
Alinari/Art Resource, NY

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 Paula Carabell

older masters in order to obtain the originals from their own

express the ingenuity and splendor of a new age was so central
ersthat
to the development of a modern literary and visual language and more famously, the tale of the sleeping cupid that had
it gave birth to one of the most important academic exchanges passed for a work of antiquity when it was sold in Rome to Car
of the time, a series of letters between Giovanfrancesco Pico dinal San Giorgio who, upon discovery, demanded his money
della Mirandola and Pietro Bembo.23 back, thus demonstrating to Vasari that he 'did not recognize
For Bembo, the way to a uniform and pleasing style was the value of the work, which consisted in its perfection' are now
readily apparent and was comprised of the imitation of a single biographical commonplaces in the life of the artist.26
and perfect master, Cicero, and therefore notes: Such conceits are predicated, of course, upon a conscious
awareness of period style, upon the notion that there once exist
Imitation [...], since it is wholly concerned with a model, must be ed, another time other than one's own.27 Thus, in order to create
drawn from the model; if it ceases to do so, then how can there be a work whose goal was to replicate the past, one's own manner
any imitation? For the whole subject of our discussion, the activity had to be temporarily cast aside, an act that implicitly acknowl
of imitating, is nothing other than translating the likeness of some edges the epistemological schism that exists between one age
other's style into one's own writings and to cultivate that very tem and another. For Michelangelo, however, this sense of rupture
perament present in him whom you have chosen as a master.24 was made all the more acute by the desire not only to emulate,
but to surpass his venerable predecessors. As one who believed
According to this formulation, the sole path to excellence in the merits of an eclectic approach to the past, however, his
resides within the study of one, singular master whom one must aspirations were ill fated from the start; to follow the authority
strive to emulate and, if possible, ultimately to surpass. For Bem of both self and other, to represent the present and the past in
bo, however, rarely could a student equal, let alone exceed such one, called for an ability not only to tolerate, but to transcend the
an exemplar and thus, the accomplishments of the past were ambiguity inherent in the work of art.28 In essence, Michelangelo
presented as unattainable ideal. To adopt the notion that as was involved in a relationship with history in which his own tacit
similation of the particular was the only path to perfection meant acknowledgement of difference, of temporal disjunction and of
that the Renaissance artist experienced antiquity as a monolithic the presence of the other in the same, would engender a crea
presence that disallowed critical involvement and that denied tive tension that would ultimately be irreconcilable; it was one,
the recognition of the disjunctive nature of the acts of retrieval in fact, that would often be best expressed through the notion of
and revival. the unfinished.

Pico's position, in opposition, eschewed the singular and It is a commonplace notion that the majority of ancient works
advised that the student avail himself of as many models as posthat came to light in the Renaissance did so only in fragmented
sible, examining each to find their strengths and weakness inform, a reality that begs the question as to whether an apprecia
order to form a style that was in keeping with his own individualtion of the unfinished was built into a rediscovery of the past. De
character. In brief, Pico's argument against Bembo's strict Cicspite the accolades such pieces received, these partial images
eronianism rests upon the idea that just as each artist is differentwere not, however, always kept in their fragmented form, but
from the next, so too is each age unique and as such, represents rather, were on occasion restored as faithfully as could be imag
an unbreachable chasm of experience. As a result, all manner ofined, some even under the direction of Michelangelo himself29
cultural production remains outside the realm of contemporaryThis willingness to let the past remain as an incomplete version
knowledge, making its reproduction in any essential sense, anof itself, while simultaneously desiring its return it to its full level
impossibility. Thus, while to Bembo, imitation assumed continuof integrity describes the ambivalent status of the fragment in the
ity between past and present, for Pico, it signaled a schism in Renaissance; its corporeal existence stood as both a symbol of
which antiquity became synonymous with the notions of dis presence and of absence, testifying to its survival in the here and
junction and desire.25 It is in the Renaissance, therefore, thatnow and referring back to something irrevocably lost in the past.
the concept of historical distance, the awareness of a notion of This sense of loss exists as a common element within hu
otherness, becomes a powerful force in the creative life of themanist thought as scholars and artists strove not only to revive
artist; the past becomes both presence and absence, a gap thatthe past, but to surpass it as well.30 Such a desire was certainly
lives on as anachronistic existence. shared by Michelangelo who recognized, however, that such
Michelangelo's own awareness of the notion of historical an endeavor could not be accomplished through mere imita
distance comes early in the master's career. As a student oftion the alone, but rather, could only be achieved by acknowledging
art of both the recent and classical past, he strove to make clear
the necessity of a reciprocal relationship between two divergent
the distinction between his own prodigious talent and thatepochs, of wherein the existence of each served as a mutually self
those who came before him. The accounts of the young artist defining source. In the words of Thomas Greene, this notion of
who tinged with age the drawings he made from the studydialecticalof imitation;

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 Figura Serpentinata: Becoming over Being in Michelangelo's Unfinished Works

involves a conflict between two mundi significantes. The text

comes to terms most effectively with its own humanistic problem
atics, its own incompleteness, by measuring its own signifying
habits with those of the subtext. The text is the locus of a struggle
between two rhetorical or semiotic systems that are vulnerable to
one another and whose conflict cannot easily be resolved [...].
Anachronism becomes a dynamic source of artistic power.31

It is this notion of the irresolute, the disharmony that ex

ists not only between historically based signifying practices,
but also between the temporal and shifting aspects of the indi
vidual's own existence, that ultimately informs the trajectory of
Michelangelo's sculptural style. In what follows, we will see that
the increasing level of complexity that characterizes the artist's
later works relates to a growing awareness of the caesura that
resides at the heart of any enterprise that involves a sense of
belatedness. Michelangelo's remit, to surpass the work of the
ancients, not only fuels his undertakings, but in addition, creates
an awareness of the unbreachable gap that exists between in
compatible models. It is one that, as we will see, results in a tran
sition from forms based upon a theory of binary opposition to
those that express a conviction in the ongoing dialectic between
past and present and that admit the impossibility of closure.
In 1501, the Operai di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence of
fered Michelangelo the commission for a marble David [Fig. 4].
The trajectory of this project is a familiar one: the large block was
first worked by Agostino di Duccio and subsequently by Anto
nio Rossellino, with the result that neither was able to bring it to
completion.32 It was only when Michelangelo took over the pro
ject that the work reached fruition and there appeared a statue
of gigantic proportions, one that was successfully carved out
of a single block of stone. So stupendous was this feat that in
his Life of Michelangelo, Vasari later wrote that, 'it cannot be
denied that this work has carried off the palm from all other
statues, modern or ancient, Greek or Latin'.33 Certainly, Michel
angelo was inspired by classical antiquity in his conception of
the David, with his emphasis on the transcendent nature of the
hero; while most fifteenth century representations of the battle
between David and Goliath rely upon the rendering of a specific
moment of the Biblical account, Michelangelo instead depicts
David as eternal, a paragon of virtue that eschews discrete, nar
rative time.34 It is this strategy, this emphasis on the abstract no
tions of strength and courage, rather than on the singular act of
triumph itself that, moreover, has led some scholars to formulate
a reading that privileges the classical over the Biblical, one that
forges a symbolic relationship between Michelangelo's creation
and the ancient figure of Hercules who, like David, was seen
in the Renaissance as an exemplar of the notion of Fortitude 35
Formally, of course, there is no doubt that the David is se
curely tied to the classical tradition through its emphasis on chi 4. Michelangelo, «David», 1504, marble, 434 cm, Florence, Galleria
asmus. The notion of contrapposto, where balance and symme dell'Accademia. Photo: Scala/Art Resource, NY

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 Paula Carabell

thebent
try are achieved by the counter-positioning of straight and notion of movement; by varying the position of arms, legs
and torso in a systematic and dialectical manner, the painter or
limbs was made canonical in the fifth century BC by the Greek
sculptor Polykleitos, but was, of course, known to Renaissance
sculptor was able to enliven his figures, thus strengthening the
image's rhetorical appeal.43 According to Quintilian:
artists through the discovery of such works as the Belvedere
Torso and was apparent in fifteenth century Florence itself, par
ticularly in the work of Donatello.36 It is, however, the clarity[...]
of We see the same thing in pictures and statues [...]. The
the David's stance, the strong articulation of bent and straight,
body when held bolt upright has but little grace, for the face looks
open and closed that helps to establish this work as a perfect
straight forward, the arms hang by the side, the feet are joined
expression of Renaissance ideals during the opening yearsand of the whole figure is stiff from top to toe. But that curve, I might
the sixteenth century. almost call it motion [...] gives an impression of action and ani
Contrapposto was an essential concept within the Renais mation. Some figures are represented as running or rushing for
ward, others sit or recline, some are nude, others clothed, while
sance theory of art and was codified early on in the fifteenth
some again are half-dressed, half-naked. Where can we find
century in the writings of L.B. Alberti. In his treatise, On Painting,
a more violent and elaborate attitude than that of the Discobolus
he observes that the body can move 'up or down or right or left
of Myron? Yet the critic who disapproved of the figure because
or going away in the distance or coming towards us' and extend
ing the strategy beyond qualities of movement, states that the
it was not upright, would merely show his utter failure to under
painter should ensure that one color be set against the other stand the sculptor's art in which the very novelty and difficulty of
so that 'light colors are always next to dark ones of a different execution is what most deserves our praise.44
kind'.37 In the years that followed, Leonardo too, stressed the
importance of this classical approach when he declares that: Although Quintilian characterizes the Discobolus as a figure
in 'violent and elaborate attitude', thus extending the notion of
bilateral opposition to include extremes of movement, its affinity
I say also that in narrative paintings one ought to mingle contra
to all
ries so that they may afford a great contrast one another, and the David's relaxed counter-positioning is surprisingly well
the more when they are in close proximity; that is, the uglyfounded
next and can be demonstrated through their shared formal
andthe
to the beautiful, the big to the small, the old to the young, epistemological qualities.
strong to the weak, all should be as varied as much as possible Formally, Myron's Discobolus [Fig. 5] is a work based upon
and close together.38 two intersecting arcs, one that stretches from the discus to the
left hand and the other that moves from the hand to the right
Although contrapposto became most closely associated knee, a configuration that promotes the impression of vigorous
with the positioning of the human figure, it initially referred and fleeting
to action. Yet despite the strong departure from the up
a broader set of dualities as is evident in both Alberti's and Leon right, a type of posture cited by Quintilian as a mark of stiffness
ardo's formulations. The term itself comes from the Latin contra and a lack of grace, the figure retains a planimetric quality that
positum, a translation of the Greek, antithesis, or those instancesimparts an unwanted sense of stasis.
in which opposites were set directly against each other.39 This Michelangelo's David, while indebted to a more strictly clas
sical notion of contrapposto as described by the opposition of
technique finds its roots, of course, in the ancient art of rheto
ric.40 According to the Roman orator, Quintilian, an authoritybent and straight arms and legs, shares a similar state of latency
whose work was widely known in the artistic and humanist cir as embodied by the Discobolus. As discussed above, the David
cles of the Renaissance, 'antithesis, which Roman writers call seems to eschew narrative association and instead communi
either contrapositum or contentio, may be effected in more thancates a sense of transcendence, not only through its rejection of
one way. Single words may be contrasted with single [...] or the the attributes usually associated with the Biblical hero, but equal
contrast may be between pairs of words [...] or sentence mayly through its reliance on a purely dyadic strategy. Thus, despite
be contrasted with sentence [...]'.41 Thus, prefiguring the eclecthe fact that since antiquity, contrapposto has been invoked as
tic use of contrapposto by artists in the Renaissance, Quintiliana tool for the convincing depiction of movement, both the Disco
describes a system in which the strategy of opposition may be bolus and the David impart a sense of immobility rather than ac
extended to suit the orator's need. tion. They exhibit a stance that is so markedly indebted to the no
Spurred on by its classical status, an interest in antinomiestion of antithesis, that the potential for action has been reduced
had become a Renaissance commonplace, ranging from its to a simple dialectic. Within the rhetorical strategy of opposition,
application to the pictorial, plastic and poetic arts and in phi
there exists only binary structures, dualities that ultimately restrict
losophy to its invocation by the Florentine Neoplatonists whothe range and unfolding of discourse. It is this closed system of
saw in it the universal principle of concordia discors.42 In artisticsignification that defines the technique of contrapposto and the
circles, however, contrapposto was most closely associated withrhetorical trope of antithesis to which it is indebted.

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 Figura Serpentinata: Becoming over Being in Michelangelo's Unfinished Works

5. «Discobolus» (known as the «Lancellotti Discobolus»), marble, Roman copy of the original bronze by
Myron, 5th century BC. Photo: Vanni Archive/Art Resource, NY

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 Paula Carabell

Any given system of language, verbal or visual, depends

cernable and discrete posture that denies a true sense of move
upon the existence of opposing units to generate meaning.
ment. We can say that the David, with its close affinity to the art
Thus, while the paradigm of binaries dominated classic of
rheto
rhetoric, belongs as well, to a Structuralist paradigm in which
both verbal and visual attain resolution as a result of a closed cir
ric, its pervasive appeal pertained not only to the art of debate,
but also to acquisition and meaning in language, bringingcuit about
of pairings. According to Deleuze, 'to recompose movement
a renewed academic interest in the twentieth century in the with
formeternal poses or with immobile sections comes to the same
of Structuralist thought. thing: in both cases, one misses the movement because one
The semiotician and structuralist thinker, Roman Jacobson,
constructs a Whole, one assumes that 'all is given', whist move
was the first to suggest that linguistic units are organized
mentbyonly occurs if the whole is neither given nor giveable'.48
As we will see, it is only when Michelangelo abandons the
a system of binary oppositions, maintaining that without these
dyads, the fundamental notion of meaning in language strict
would interpretation of the classical trope of contrapposto in
be lost. Accordingly, in his essay The Concept of the Phoneme
which, as Deleuze might note, the figure is presented both with
(1976), he notes: clarity and in its entirety, that the potential for movement will be
come increasingly viable. As the master more fully embraces an
expanded interpretation of opposition and torsion, it will result in
First of all, we should recall what logic teaches us on the subject
of oppositions. The opposed terms are two in number, andthe creation of the figura serpentinata, a compositional strategy
they
that expresses the dynamism of form, the notion of indetermi
are interrelated in a quite specific way: if one of them is present,
the mind educes the other. In an oppositive duality, if one nacy,
of theand the ongoing nature of the unfinished work.
terms is given, then the other, though not present, is evoked On
in 24 April 1503, Michelangelo signed a contract with the
Arte delta Lana to complete twelve apostles at the rate of one
thought. To the idea of white there is opposed only that of black,
a year
to the idea of beauty that of ugliness, to the idea of large that of for Florence Cathedral.49 Not uncharacteristically, the
master was soon called away to work on another commission,
small, to the idea of closed that of open, and so on. Oppositions
this
are so intimately interconnected that the appearance of one oftime by Julius II to Bologna, where he was to fashion a large,
them inevitably elicits the other.45 bronze monument to the Pope, and subsequently to Rome to
begin work on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. As a result, the only
Although there does exist a hierarchical ordering of apostle
ele he undertook was the Saint Matthew [Fig. 6] most likely
ments within each dyadic structure known as the concept carved
of in 1506.50
'markedness', the notion of binary opposition nonethelessAlthough al the figure is certainly unfinished, having only been
lows for a predictable equilibrium of finite possibilities that, in
partially liberated from the block, its departure from the forms of
the end, makes possible a state of closure.46 Thus, an approach the David, completed not more than two to three years earlier,
based upon opposition, such as the technique of contrappos is strikingly clear.51 As we have seen, the David stands in a bal
to, restricts the range of expression and limits communicative anced, classically derived pose, while the Saint Matthew exhibits
force to a series of dualities in which movement is inevitably a torsion yet unknown in the master's free standing sculptural
curtailed. According to the philosopher Giles Deleuze, whose work; its head turns violently to the side revealing a profile view,
post-structuralist thought will be explored more fully later in one knee is raised, projecting strongly outward, while the flexed
this
essay: arm tightly holds a book or tablet. Although initially movement
appears restricted by the parameters of the block, the contours
For antiquity, movement refers to intelligible elements. Forms still
or conforming to the shape of the stone, the protean forms of
Ideas which are themselves eternal and immobile. Of course, in the Saint Matthew nonetheless exhibit an intensity and sense of
order to reconstitute movement, these forms will be grasped as unrest that is absent in the David. The disparity between the two
closely as possible to the actualization in a matter-flux. These works has, of course, long been associated with the discovery
are potentialities that can only be acted out by being embod of Laocoon, found, as we have seen, in January of 1506, just be
ied in matter. But conversely, movement expresses a 'dialectic' fore Michelangelo went to work on the Saint Matthew. Thus, Mi
of forms, an ideal synthesis which gives it order and measure. chelangelo's desire not only to imitate, but to surpass the works
Movement conceived of in this way, will thus be the regulated of the ancients surely must have impacted upon his decision to
transition from one form to another, that is, an order of poses or find inspiration in the twisting, writhing forms of the Laocoon -
privileged instants, as in a dance.47 then the most important archeological find of the Renaissance.
While the strong contrappostal pose of the Saint Matthew is pre
If, therefore, we return to the David, and examine it anew figured in such early works as the Battle of the Centaurs, the
according to Deleuze's construct, we see that its inherent stasis Battle of Cascina and in the Sistine Chapel's ignudi, it is not until
results from its transcendent attitude and its reliance upon a dis Michelangelo begins to explore the potential of such torsion in

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 Figura Serpentinata: Becoming over Being in Michelangelo's Unfinished Works

free standing statuary that he discovers in it a paradigm for the

notion of sculptural process, of becoming over being and of the
epistemological nature of the unfinished work.52
In 1584, approximately twenty years after the death of Mi
chelangelo, G. R Lomazzo published his Trattato dell'arte della
pittura, a treatise that addresses the vicissitudes of late sixteenth
century art. It is here that the term, figura serpentinata first ap
pears, a term that according to Lomazzo, was put into use by
none other than Michelangelo himself:

It is said that Michelangelo once gave this advice to the paint

er Marco da Siena, his disciple, that he ought always to make
the figure pyramidal, serpentinate, and multipled by one, two or
three. And in this precept it seems to me consists the whole se
cret of painting, because the greatest grace and loveliness that
a figure may have is that it seems to move itself; painters call
this the furia of the figure [...]. One may go about it in two ways
[...] showing one shoulder and making the other recede, and be
foreshortened, so that the body is twisted, and the other shoul
der hidden, while the other is revealed. The painted figure may
also stand like a pyramid [...]. But because there are two sorts of
pyramids, one straight [...] and the other the shape of a flame of
fire, which Michelangelo calls serpentinate, the painter must cou
ple the pyramidal form with the serpentine form, that represents
the tortuosity of a live serpent when it moves, which is the proper
form of a flame of fire that undulates. This is to say that the figure
ought to represent the form of an upright letter S, or the form
inverted [...] because then it will have beauty.53

While it is clear that the concept of the figura serpentinata

grew out of the more generalized notion oicontrapposto, it none
theless represents an extension and intensification of the classi
cal notions of antithesis and symmetry; rather than balance and
measured opposition, the figura serpentinata emphasizes the
difficult and the extreme. According to Lomazzo, 'Michelangelo
was stupendissimo in this part, and as one who understood it to
be the most difficult, devoted long and continuous study to it.
So that the figures in his paintings are set forth in attitudes more
difficult and outside the common usage, all moreover tending
to a certain fierezza and terribilita'.54 Of course, even within his
own lifetime, Michelangelo had become associated both per
sonally and professionally not only with the notion of terribilita,
but with difficulty as well, his works often appearing isolated and
self-contained. But beyond his propensity for extreme and chi
astic contrapposto, postures that could communicate constraint

6. Michelangelo, «Saint Matthew», c. 1506, marble, 271 cm,

Florence, Galleria dell'Accademia. Photo: Scala/Ministero per
i Beni e le Attivita Culturali/Art Resource, NY

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 Paula Carabell

rather than kinesis, Michelangelo's career was equally built uponIn 1893, Aby Warburg, German intellectual and founder of
the Renaissance desire to create works that fulfilled the rhetori
the library that bears his name, completed a dissertation on San
cal promise of life and movement. In this manner, he partook dra
of Botticelli's two most celebrated paintings, the Birth of Venus
the traditions of Alberti and Leonardo, each of whom had alsoand Primavera, in a work subtitled, 'An Examination of Concepts
pursued the quest for enlivened and dynamic form. of Antiquity in the Italian Early Renaissance'.60 In part, his thesis
As early as 1435, when Alberti codified the new and human established the still accepted relationship between those tex
istically inspired precepts of painting for an upcoming genera tual sources known to the circle of Lorenzo de Medici and their
tion of practitioners, he made clear that the illusion of movement pictorial expression in Botticelli's work. In addition, however,
was essential to the creation of a convincing narrative, that it is, also sought to address the more elusive question of, 'what
of the istoria, the highest form of painting. While he explained it was about antiquity that "interested" the artists of the Quat
that the gestures of figures 'should have pleasing and graceful trocento'. With Botticelli's classically inspired works in mind, he
movements that are suited to the subject of action', he noted asked whether it was possible 'to trace, step by step, how the
that inanimate objects, such as hair, could be less restricted artists
in and their advisors recognized "the antique" as a model
that demanded an intensification of outward movement', in par
form, and might 'twist around as if to tie itself in a knot, and wave
ticular 'how they turned to antique sources whenever accessory
upwards in the air like flames'.55 It is interesting to note that such
a description directly anticipates Lomazzo's own, later account forms - those of garments and of hair - were to be represented
of movement, particularly of the figura serpentinata: in motion'.61
We have already seen how Alberti and Leonardo had made
similar observations, noting that objects were perceived as most
to represent this movement, no form is more suited than a flame
graceful
of fire, which, as Aristotle and all the philosophers say, is the most when animated and put into serpentine motion. For
active of the elements, and the form is the most apt of all forms Warburg,
to however, these 'accessory forms' were part of a larger
phenomenon, one where not only details, but entire figures ex
movement because it has a cone, and a sharp point, with which
pressed a surfeit of movement. These were female figures whose
it seems to want to rend the air and ascend to its sphere. So that
graceful
when the figure will have this form it will be the most beautiful.56 linearity and agitated demeanor set them apart from
their larger, narrative environment, appearing not only in the con
Thus, while Alberti limits such a strategy to objects in na text of Botticelli's mythologies, but equally in such staid and pa
ture, Lomazzo embraces these twisting forms in the human fig trician works as Ghirlandaio's frescoes in the Tornabuoni [Fig. 7]
ure and views them as markers of grace and fluidity. Leonardo and Sassetti Chapels in Florence. It is these pictorial anomalies
too, whose obsession with the vicissitudes of nature occupied that led Warburg to develop the notion of Pathosformel, a motif
him throughout his entire career, not only asserts that if bodies in which expressive and stylistically disjunctive forms from an
are not shown 'with great liveliness' they appear 'twice dead', tiquity seem to erupt fully articulated into Renaissance imagery.
but equally contends that, 'each movement should be carried Essential to Warburg's conception of Pathosformel is the idea of
out with twistings and bendings of great violence'.57 movement, particularly that of serpentine form, movement that
In order to highlight the impact of such extreme and com tends to disrupt, rather than further, the narrative account and
plex poses, Leonardo suggests that they be reserved for 'una that rehearses Leonardo's conception of the figura sola fuori
figura sola fuori della storia'.58 Thus unlike Alberti, whose dellaob storia.62 It is these restless figures, moreover, that seemed
servations on movement remained in the service of narrative to Warburg to reveal the presence of multiple, temporal reali
painting, Leonardo advocated that such figures stand apartties, as a notion that in turn, led him to question the mechanism
exemplum of artifice and skill. by which historically remote periods transmitted their cultural
By the middle of the sixteenth century, the serpentine figurelegacy across time. As a result, Warburg conceived of the figure
had become a popular artist's conceit and it is not surprising, in perpetual motion as a multi-temporal entity, whose persistent
therefore, to find it part of contemporary discourse on image and identifiable formal elements led him to posit a non-hierarchi
making as in Paolo Pino's Dialogo di Pittura, where the author cal conception of the image. In Warburg's view, therefore, history
is dynamic in nature; it exists in a constant state of becoming,
suggests the artist include, 'at least one figure that is all contort
ed, mysterious and difficult, so that from it you may be seen where
to form and meaning are both immanent and deferred in
be [a painter of] worth by whomever understands the art's aper dialogue between past and present.
fection'.59 Although Pino's statement pertains specifically to the Nowhere in recent art historical scholarship have these ide
art of painting, sculptors too, invoked the precepts of extreme as been more fully addressed than in Georges Didi-Huberman's
artifice. Such complexity was, of course, a hallmark particularly L'I mage survivante: Histoire de I'art et temps des fantomes selon
of Michelangelo's later career, where it marked a shift from Aby the Warburg, where he considers the significance of Warburg's
clarity of the dialectic to the ambiguity of serpentine form. notion of a 'discontinuous, folded history in which time appears

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 Figura Serpentinata: Becoming over Being in Michelangelo's Unfinished Works

7. Domenico Ghirlandaio, «Birth of Saint John the Baptist", 1486-1490, Florence, Santa Maria Novella, Tornabuoni Chapel. Photo: Scala/Art
Resource, NY

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 Paula Carabell

in the form of "strata, hybrid blocs, rhizomes, specific complexi

ties, unexpected returns and goals always frustrated"'.63
Warburg's non-linear conception of history is a recurrent
theme in his writings as in the connections he forged between
radically different cultural, geographic and temporal moments.
In a letter of 1907, written after a long sojourn in New Mexico
and Arizona, where he had been studying Native American prac
tices, he notes:

[...] my studies are once again the Renaissance period. Never

theless I always feel myself very much indebted to your Indians.
Without the study of their primitive (?) civilization I would never
have been able to find a larger basis for the Psychology of the
Renaissance.64

As we have seen, Warburg's abiding interest in the art of

the Renaissance centered upon the figure in motion, which in
his view, contained the potential to express a heightened sense
of emotion within an otherwise staid and controlled pictorial en
vironment. It was this same type of animated figure that caught
his attention in Native American culture where he became con
vinced that their rituals intuitively rehearsed certain ancient mo
tifs, such as the Dionysic rites of the maenads or even implic
itly evoked specific works, such as the Laocoon. Such a notion
brings us back, of course, to the Renaissance Pathosformel
and to concept of serpentine form as a persistent expressive
modality. Thus, for Warburg, specific formal traits were not nec
essarily limited to particular historical periods, but rather, their
reoccurrence was emblematic of the chiasmic, folded nature of
cultural production in which the act of becoming took priority
over a state of being.
Like much of the master's oeuvre, Michelangelo's Victory
[Fig. 8], originally intended for the tomb of Julius II, remains an
unfinished work.65 While according to Vasari, the piece was well
advanced compared to some other of the blocks left in Michelan
gelo's studio after his death, it nonetheless lacks final resolution
and as a result, unequivocally partakes of the non-firiito.66 The
two-figure group consists of a youth whose knee rests upon the
aged back of his bearded, vanquished adversary; while the for
mer has been brought to completion in the areas of the legs and
torso, the latter still exists in protean form, but even so, is joined
with his triumphant partner in a twisting, calligraphic dance.
As we have noted, the invention of the figura serpentinata
was attributed by Lomazzo to none other than Michelangelo
himself and it is in the Victory that we can see the first, decid
edly sculptural example of this characteristic form.67 Thus, with
this example, we can now return to Michelangelo's earlier work,
where the distinction between the notions of contrapposto and
serpentine form becomes overwhelmingly apparent. In keeping
with the notion of antithesis, the flexed arm of the David is not 8. Michelangelo, «Victory», 1532-1534, marble, 261 cm, Florence,
only positioned over the non-weight bearing leg, but is angled Palazzo Vecchio. Photo: Scala/Art Resource, NY

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 Figura Serpentinata: Becoming over Being in Michelangelo's Unfinished Works

to approximately the same degree, neither protruding in depth
nor extending laterally beyond what is commensurate. In the
Victory, however, the youth's arm has been pulled diagonally
across his chest as he grasps his mantle, creating a torsion
that twists his upper body to the right, while his hips shift to the
left. Such a compositional strategy reveals an increased level
of complexity, which rejects the dialectical and binary notions
of free and weight bearing, open and closed seen in the David,
and instead, manifests a spiral-like movement that remains am
biguous and unending, privileging the idea of becoming over
that of being.
We have seen how the classical conception of movement,
as exemplified by the David, relies upon a closed circuit of pair
ings that offers the beholder a finite view of a generalized, tem
poral moment, one that, by definition, lacks an overtly dynamic
presence. If we now take this opportunity to return to the work of
Gilles Deleuze, whose observations on antiquity and kinesis in
the visual arts have been noted, we can reframe the nature of the
Victory in terms of his notion of 'any-instant-whatever', a theory
that implicitly recalls such non-narrative forms as Leonardo's
figura sola fuori delta storia. Deleuze's formulation suggests
an alternative conception of expression in which movement is
no longer structured from transcendental forms and privileged
moments, but rather, is created from 'immanent material ele
ments [or] (sections)'.68 Accordingly, the Victory can be seen as
a work that rejects the closed, narrative system of the David and
instead, represents an emerging, indeterminate object in the un
ending process of unfolding. It is this through this notion of the
fold, this Deleuzian mode of thought that will ultimately enable
us to comprehend the relationship between Michelangelo and
the unfinished work.
Deleuze's notion of the fold is one that is indebted to the
Baroque sensibility of the seventeenth century philosopher, Gott
fried Willhelm Leibniz, and describes an indefinite undulation of
matter and spirit, extending to infinity.69 For Deleuze, however,
the characteristics of the Baroque period as perceived by Leib
niz, are not limited to any one particular historical period, but
rather, represent a pervasive phenomenon that refers to an un
ending process of multi-temporal forms and experiences. In vis
ual form we could, of course, cite the figura serpentinata, which
as we have seen, exists as an irresolute compositional strategy
that through its complexity, not only gestures toward a plurality
of chronographic moments, but also towards multiple meanings,
contexts and functions as in Warburg's demonstration of perva
sive structures in the notions of Pathosformel or the Native Ameri
can snake ritual. Deleuze, himself, calls such a paradigm the 'law
of the cupola', a mode in which 'the base, always in extension,
no longer relates to a center but tends toward an apex or a sum
mit'.70 This climb toward infinity is what brings us back to the fold,
'the world as pyramid or cone that joins its broad material base,
lost in vapors, to an apex, a luminous origin or point of view', and
what rehearses Lomazzo's account of the figura serpentinata as
a 'pyramid [...] the shape of aflame', which as he noted, 'Michel
angelo calls serpentinate [...] '.71 It is then, the Victory, a work that
rises flame-like, its spiraling forms reifying the notion of the fold,
that defines the presence of the unfinished work.

An earlier version of this paper was first presented at the annual confer
2 These positions are neatly summarized in J. Schulz's important article,
ence of the Renaissance Society of America (2012), as part of a panel 'Michelangelo's Unfinished Works', Art Bulletin, 57, 1975, pp. 366-373.
entitled, "'The Mute and Meddling Text'': Papers in Memory of Leo Stein Also see, D. Cast, 'Finishing the Sistine', Art Bulletin, 73, 1991, pp.
669-684; C. Gilbert, 'What is Expressed in Michelangelo's "Non-Finito"',
berg', In keeping with the spirit of that panel, I would like to acknowledge
the influence that Steinberg's writings have had on me. More important Artibus et Historiae, no. 48, 2003, pp. 57-64; R Barolsky, 'As in Ovid, so
ly, however, I would like to dedicate this essay to David Rosand, who for in Renaissance Art', Renaissance Quarterly, 51, 1998, pp. 451-474 and
the past 25 years has been a teacher and a friend and whose unfailing idem, Michelangelo and the Finger of God, Athens (GA), 2003 as well as
confidence in me has inspired me to forge ahead in the face of all that my own study, 'Image and Identity in the Unfinished Works of Michel
has come my way. Corraggio\ angelo', RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics, 32, 1997, pp. 83-105. For
a broader approach to the notion of the unfinished, see The Fragment:
An Incomplete History, ed. by W. Tronzo, Los Angeles, 2009.
1 The most important contemporary discussions of Michelangelo and 3 the
'[...] with freedom of choice and with honor, as though maker and mold
question of the unfinished occur in G. Vasari, Le vite de' piu eccellenti er of thyself, thou mayest fashion thyself in whatever shape thou shalt
pittori, scultori edarchitetti (Florence: Giunti, 1568) ed. G. Milanesi, Flor
prefer'. Pico della Mirandola, 'Oration on the Dignity of Man' (1486),
ence, 1906, and A. Condivi, Michelangelo: La vita raccolta dal suo dis trans, by E. Livermore Forbes, in The Renaissance Philosophy of Man,
cepolo Ascanio Condivi (7553), ed. A. Maraini, Florence, 1928. ed. by E. Cassirer, R O. Kristeller, J. H. Randall, Jr, Chicago, 1948, p. 225.

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 Paula Carabell

4 The notion that it was Poliziano who suggested the subject of theG.Bat Vasari, Le vite de' piu eccellenti achitetti, pittori, et scultori italiani, da
tle of the Centaurs to the young Michelangelo comes to us both from Cimabue insino a'tempinostri (Florence: Torrentino, 1550), ed. by L. Bel
Condivi, ed. Maraini, pp. 18-19 ('Era nella medesima casa il Poliziano, losi and A. Rossi, Turin, 1991, p. 886.
uomo, come ognun sa, e piena testimonianza ne fanni I scuoi scritti,
11 'Pote I'amor di Michelagnolo, e la fatica insieme in questa opera tanto,
dottissimo ed acutissimo. Costui, conoscendo Michelagnolo di spirit
chi quivi (quello che in altra opera piu non fece) lascio in suo nome
elevatissimo, molto lo amava, e di continuo lo spronava, benche non
scritto attraverso in una cintola che il petto della Nostra Donna soccigne:
bisognasse, alio studio; dichiarandogli sempre e dandogli da far qual
nascendo che un giorno Michelagnolo entrando drento dove I'e posta,
che cosa. Tra le quail un giorno gli propose il ratto di Deianira e la zuffa
vi trovo gran numero di forestieri Lombardi, che la lodavano molto; un
de' Centauri, dichiarandogli a parte per parte tutta la favola') and from
de'quali domando a una di quegli chi I'aveva fatta, rispose: II Gobbo
Vasari, ed. Milanesi, pp. vol. 7. p. 143 ('[...] dove in questo tempo, nostracon da Milano. Michelagnolo stette cheto, e quasi gli parve strano
sigliato dai Poliziano, uomo nelle lettere singulare, Michelagnolo fece che la sue fatiche fussino sttribuite a un altro. Una notte vi si serro dentro
in un pezzo di marmot, datogli da quell signore, la battaglia de Ercole con un lumicino e avendo portato gli scarpegli, vi intaglio il suo nome',
coi Centauri'). For a summary of the scholarship on the Battle ofVasari, the Le vite (1568), ed. Milanesi, vol. 7, pp. 151-152.
Centaurs, which most probably dates from 1492, see Ch. de Tolnay, Mi
chelangelo, vol. 1, Princeton, 1943, pp. 133-137. 12 There has been contention amongst historians since the sixteenth cen
tury on the precise subject of the relief. For a summary of these posi
5 On the relationship between Michelangelo and Poliziano, see D. tions, Sum see DeTolnay, Michelangelo, vol. 1, pp. 133-136.
mers, Michelangelo and the Language of Art, Princeton, 1981, pp. 242
249. Poliziano's involvement with the Battle of the Centaurs will be dis 13 On the relationship between Poliziano and Pliny's text, see V. Juren,
cussed fully below. On Michelangelo's presence at the Medici household, 'Fecit Faciebat', Revue de I'art, 26, 1974, pp. 27-30; M. Koortbojian,
see Vasari, Vite, ed. Milanesi, vol. VII, pp. 141-145; Condivi, ed., Maraini,
'Poliziano's Role in the History of Antiquarianism and the rise of Ar
chaeological Methods', in Poliziano e sua tempo: atti del VI convegno
pp. 14-19. On Michelangelo's later involvement with the Medici family,
internazionale, Florence, 1996, pp. 265-273.
particularly his assistance with their collections, see L. Fusco and G. Corti,
Lorenzo de' Medici: Collector and Antiquarian, Cambridge, 2006. 14 Pliny, Natural History, trans, by H. Rackham, Cambridge and London,
1949, p. 26.
6 Condivi, ed. Maraini, p. 32 ('Quel che si vede nel mezzo della corte del
15 'He [Apelles] also asserted another claim to distinction when he ex
palazzo de' Signoria, e di mano di Donatello; uomo in tal arte eccellente,
e molto da Michelagnolo lodato, se non in una cosa, che'egli non aveva pressed his admiration for the immensely laborious and infinitely me
pazienza in ripulir le sue opera; di sorte che, riuscendo mirabili a vista ticulous work of Protogenes; for he said that in all respects his achieve
lontana, da presso perdevano riputazione'). Interestingly, in both thements and those of Protogenes were on an even level, or those of Pro
1550 and 1568 editions of the Lives, Vasari makes the opposite point andtogenes were superior, but that in one respect he [Apelles] stood higher,
implicitly relies on the Plinian trope, where Protegenes does not know that he knew when to take his hand away from a picture - a noteworthy
when to take his hand from the brush - a concept that will be discussedwarning of the frequently evil effects of excessive diligence'. Pliny, Natu
below. In addition, Vasari makes no mention of Michelangelo within thisral History, vol. 9, Bk 35, 80.
context. See Vasari, 'Luca della Robbia', in Le Vite de' piu eccelienti ar
16 There are certain painters, that is, who make their figures so supremely
chitetti, pittori, et scultori italiani da Cimabue insino a' tempi nostri (Flor
finished that they look prettified, and their hair styles so diligently ar
ence: Torrentino, 1550), ed. by L. Bellosi and A. Rossi, Turin, 1986, pp. ranged that not even a single lock is out of line. And this is vice, not
232-235; Vite, ed. Milanesi, vol. II, pp. 169-172. It is, of course, Condivi'svirtue, because there is a lapse into affectation, which denies grace to
text that is viewed as the most reliable source on Michelangelo's life as any object there may be'. See M. W. Roskill, Dolce's Aretino and Vene
he became the appointed spokesman, elected by the master himself, to tian Art Theory of the Cinquecento, New York, 1968, p. 157. '[...] It is
correct claims made by Vasari in his first edition of the Lives. a cruel thing that no one may ever finish acquiring mastery [...] before
1 On the details of the commission, see K. Weil-Garris Brandt, 'Michelan we reach the end of understanding [...]. This is why our Pino writes
gelo's Pieta for the Capella del Re di Francia', in 'II se rendit en Italie':on his works "faciebat" [...] to suggest that the more one learns, the
Etudes offertes a Andre Chastel, Rome and Paris, 1987, pp. 77-119. more remains to be learned'. See M. Pardo, 'Paolo Pino's "Dialogo di
pittura": A Translation and Commentary', Ph.D. diss., University of Pitts
8 As cited in Ch. de Tolnay, The Youth of Michelangelo, Princeton, 1969,burgh, 1984, pp. 355-357. See Juren, 'Fecit Faciebat', p. 21; Goffen,
p. 91. On the Bacchus, see De Tolnay, Michelangelo, vol. 1, pp. 142-145.
'Signatures', pp. 303-324; eadem, Renaissance Rivals: Michelangelo,
For recent scholarship, see R. Lieberman, 'Regarding Michelangelo's Leonardo, Raphael, Titian, New Haven and London, 2002, pp. 113-115.
Bacchus', Artibus et Historiae, no. 43, 2001, pp. 65-74; L. Freedman,
17 Pliny, Natural History, Bk 36, 37-38.
'Michelangelo's Reflection on Bacchus', Artibus et Historiae, no. 47,
2003, pp. 121-135. 18 Letter of 28 February 1567 addressed to Reverendo Monsignor Spedalen
go published in C. Fea, Miscellanea Filologica Critica e Antiquaria, Rome,
9 See L. Pon, 'Michelangelo's First Signature', Source: Notes in the His
1790, vol. 1, p. 329. As cited in M. Koortbojian, 'Pliny's LaocoonT, in
tory of Art, 14, 1996, pp. 16-21; A. J. Wang, 'Michelangelo's Signature',
Antiquity and its Interpreters, ed. by A. Payne, A. Kuttner and R. Smick,
Sixteenth Century Journal, 35, no. 2, 2004, pp. 447-473; R. Goffen, 'Sig
Cambridge, 2000, pp. 199-200.
natures; Inscribing Identity in Italian Renaissance Art', Viator, 32, 2001,
pp. 303-370. 19 See Koortbojian, 'Pliny's LaocoonT, p. 202 and p. 212, note 23.

20 See I. Lavin, 'Ex Uno Lapide\ The Renaissance Sculptor's Tour de Force',
10 'Pote I'amore di Michele Agnolo e la fatica insieme in questa opera tanto,
chi quivi quello che in altra opera piu non fece lascio il suo nome scritto in II Cortile delle Statue: Der Statuenhof des Belvedere im Vatikan. Akten
a traverse uno cintola che il petto della Nostra Donna soccigne, comedes Internationalen Kongress zu Ehren von Richard Krautheimer, Rom,
di cosa nella quale e sodisfatto e compiaciuto s'era per se medesimo', 21.-23. Oktober 1992, Mainz, 1998, pp. 191-210.

94

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 Figura Serpentinata: Becoming over Being in Michelangelo's Unfinished Works
21 The Poetry of Michelangelo: An Annotated Translation, trans, by J. Sa
slow, New Haven and London, 1991, sonnet 151, p. 302.
22 The first to make the comparison between Michelangelo and the an
cients was Paolo Giovio in his Life of Michelangelo of 1527. See Scritti
d'Arte del Cinquecento, ed. by R Barocchi, Milan, 1971, vol. 1, pp. 10-13.
38 Leonardo da Vinci, Treatise on Painting [Codex Urbinas Latinus 1270],
23 See T. M. Greene, The Light in Troy: Imitation and Discovery in Re
naissance Poetry, New Haven and London, 1982, esp. pp. 171-196;
39 See Summers, 'Contrapposto: Style and Meaning in Renaissance Art',
D. Quint, Origin and Originality in Renaissance Literature: Versions of
the Source, New Haven and London, 1983; M. L. McLaughlin, Literary
Imitation in the Italian Renaissance: The Theory and Practice of Literary
Imitation in Italy from Dante to Bembo, Oxford, 1995, esp. pp. 249-274;
G. W. Pigman III, 'Versions of Imitation in the Renaissance', Renaissance
Quarterly, 33, 1980, pp. 1-32. For primary text material, see Ciceronian
Controversies, ed. by J. Dellaneva, trans, by B. Duvick (/ Tatti Renais
sance Library), Cambridge, MA and London, 2007.
24 As cited in Greene, The Light in Troy, p. 174.
25 See Greene, The Light in Troy, pp. 172-175.
26 See Vasari, ed. Milanesi, vol. 7, p. 140-141. This affair did not happen
without some censure attaching to Cardinal San Giorgio, see Vasari,
ed. Milanesi, vol. 7, pp. 147-149 ('il quale non conoscendo la virtu
dell'opera, che consiste nella perfezione, che tanto son buone le mod
erne, quanto le antiche, pur che sieno eccellenti, essendo piu vanita
quella di coloro che van dietro piu al nome che a'fatti; che di questa sorte
d'uomini se ne trovano d'ogni tempo, che fanno piu contro del parere
che dell'essere'). On the distinction between this activity and the act of
forgery, see A. Nagel and Ch. S. Wood, Anachronic Renaissance, New
York, 2010, pp. 275-299. Michelangelo was not, of course, the only artist
to engage in this practice. See Koortbojiian, 'Pliny's Laocoon', p. 208.
27 On the notion of belatedness, see Nagel and Wood, Anachronic Renais
sance, esp. Chapter One: 'Plural Temporality of the Work of Art'.
28 On Michelangelo's affinity with Pico's position as well as that of Quintil
lian, Petrarch and Poliziano, see Summers, Michelangelo and the Lan
guage of Art, p. 449.
29 See L. Barkan, Unearthing the Past: Archaeology and Aesthetics in the
Making of Renaissance Culture, New Haven and London, 1999.
30 See Greene, The Light in Troy, pp. 28-53.
31 Greene, The Light in Troy, p. 46. Also as quoted in Nagel and Wood,
Anachronic Renaissance, pp. 297-298.
32 See de De Tolnay, Michelangelo, vol. 1, pp. 93-98 and 150-156. Vasari
offers a different explanation, which states that it was instead Simone da
Fiesole that had begun the work (ed. Milanesi, pp. 152-154).
33 Vasari, ed. Milanesi, p. 156.
34 The most notable exception is Donatello's bronze David (c. 1440s),
which exists as the first known nude male sculpture since antiquity.
35 De Tolnay, Michelangelo, vol. 1, p. 153. The David has, of course, been
associated with other political and personal agendas. See I. Lavin, 'Da
vid's Sling and Michelangelo's Bow: A Sign of Freedom', in Past - Pre
sent. Essays on Historicism in Art from Donatello to Picasso, Berkeley,
1993, pp. 29-61; Ch. Seymour, Jr, Michelangelo's David: A Search for
Identity, New York, 1967.
36 By the late sixteenth century, the association with Polykleitos was made
explicit by Lomazzo in his Trattato (see Summers, Michelangelo and the
Language of Art, pp. 410 and 571 note 22). On the notion that the Bel
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vedere Torso might have instead been a fragment of a Discobolos, see
D. Summers, 'Contrapposto: Style and Meaning in Renaissance Art', Art
Bulletin, 59, 1977, pp. 336-361.
37 See Alberti, De picturalOn Painting, paragraphs: 40, 43 and 48.
trans. A. P. McMahon, 2 vols, Princeton, 1956, vol. 1, para. 271.
and idem, Michelangelo and the Language of Art, esp. pp. 76ff. On the
significance of contrapposto in Raphael's late work, see J. Cranston,
Tropes of Revelation in Raphael's Transfiguration', Renaissance Quar
terly, 56, 2003, pp. 1-25.
40 See B. Vickers, In Defense of Rhetoric, Oxford, 1988.
41 Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, trans, by H. E. Butler, Cambridge, 1921,
IX.III.81.
42 On the importance of antinomies to Renaissance culture, see Ch. Bur
roughs, 'Michelangelo at the Campidoglio: Artistic Identity, Patronage,
and Manufacture', Artibus et Historiae, no. 28, 1993, pp. 85-111. Pe
trarch and subsequently Michelangelo made extensive use of this trope.
On the latter's indebtedness to both Petrarch and the notion of antith
esis in his writing, see G. Cambon, Michelangelo and the Fury of Form,
Princeton, 1985; The Poetry of Michelangelo.
43 Leonardo da Vinci, Treatise on Painting, where he equates movement to
rhetoric (see vol. 1, para 385). On Alberti's strong connections to rheto
ric, particular that of Cicero, see M. Baxandall, Giotto and the Orators:
Humanist Observers of Painting in Italy and the Discovery of Pictorial
Composition 1350-1450,Oxford, 1971; J. Spencer, 'Ut Rhetorica Pictura:
A Study in Quattrocento Theory of Painting', Journal of the Warburg and
Courtauld Institutes, 20, 1957, pp. 26-44; W. L. Rensselaer, 'Ut Pictura
Poesis: the humanistic theory of painting', Art Bulletin, 22, 1940; Sum
mers, Michelangelo and the Language of Art, esp. pp. 71-96.
44 Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, II, XIII, 10-11.
45 R. Jacobson, 'The Concept of the Phoneme', in On Language, ed. by
L. R. Waugh and M. Monville-Burston, Cambridge (MA) and London,
1990, p. 235. Also see D. Chandler, Semiotics: The Basics, London and
New York, 2002, esp. pp. 90-99. It should be noted that while Saus
sure's semiotic model equally resides within the dyadic tradition, his
primary concern is on the dual nature of the sign, rather than on Jacob
son's emphasis on linguistic units. See F. de Saussure, Course in Gen
eral Linguistics, trans, by W. Baskin, New York, 1959. Of course, it is
interesting to note that the study of art history has traditionally placed
great importance upon binary structures as in the case of Alois Riegl's
haptic and optic and of Heinrich Wolfflin's linear and painterly, elements
that unsurprisingly constitute the basis of formal analysis - the mecha
nism by which the visual arts was first systematized into an academic
discipline and through which meaning was first explored.
46 Jacobson, 'The Concept of the Mark', in On Language, pp. 134-140.
47 G. Deleuze, Cinema 1: The Movement Image, trans, by H. Tomlinson and
B. Habberjam, Minneapolis, 1986, p. 4.
48 Deleuze, Cinema 1, p. 7.
49 De Tolnay, Michelangelo, vol. 1, pp. 168-171.
50 The dating of the Saint Matthew has remained problematic. See
M. J. Amy, 'The Dating of Michelangelo's St. Matthew', Burlington Maga
zine, 142, 2000, pp. 493-496.
95
 Paula Carabell

51 Amy, The Dating of Michelangelo's St. Matthew'. 61 Warburg, The Renewal of Pagan Antiquity, p. 89.

52 On the genesis of this formal device, see D. Summers, 'Maniera

62 Seeand
Ph.-A. Michaud, Aby Warburg and the Image in Motion, trans.
Movement: The Figura Serpentinata', Art Quarterly, 35, 1972, pp. 269
S. Hawkes, New York, 2004.
301, and idem, Michelangelo and the Language of Art, esp. pp. 80-83
63 G. Didi-Huberman, L'tmage Survivante: Histoire de I'Art et Temps des
and 411-414. The figura serpentinata has, of course, long been associ
Fantomes selon Aby Warburg, Paris, 2002. Also see Nagel and Wood,
ated with the notion of Mannerism, see J. Shearman, Mannerism, Lon
Anachronic Renaissance, esp. p. 34.
don, 1967, esp. pp. 81-91.

53 As cited in Summers, 'Maniera and Movement', p. 271. Also64 A.Sum

see Warburg, Images from the Region of the Pueblo Indians of North
America, trans, by M. R Steinberg, Ithaca (NY), 1995, p. 66.
mers, Michelangelo and the Language of Art, pp. 81-82.
65 On the Victory, along with its problematic dating, see De Tolnay, Mi
54 As cited in Summers, Michelangelo and the Language of Art, p. 411.
chelangelo, vol. 4, pp. 110-113; J. Wilde, Michelangelo: The Group of
55 Leon Battista Alberti, On Painting and On Sculpture, ed. and trans, by
Victory, Oxford, 1954; J. Pope-Hennessy, Italian High Renaissance and
C. Grayson, London, 1972, paras 44 and 45. Note, however, that Alberti
Baroque Sculpture, London, 1963 (repr. 2002), pp. 433-434.
was adamant regarding the use of violent movements, ones that 'make
visible simultaneously in one and the same figure, both chest 66andAs cited in De Tolnay, Michelangelo, vol. 4, p. 68: 'tra quail marmi erano
but
alcune
tocks, which is physically impossible and indecent to look at' (para 44). bozze di figure ed una statua assai tirata innanzi da Michelag
nolo'.
56 Summers, 'Maniera and Movement', p. 271; Michelangelo and the Lan
guage of Art, p. 81. 67 For example, see Shearman, Mannerism, pp. 81-84.

68 Deleuze, Cinema 1: The Movement Image, p. 4.

57 Leonardo da Vinci, Treatise on Painting, trans, by A. Philip McMahon,
paras 395, 373. 69 See G. Deleuze, The Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque, trans, by T. Conley,
58 Leonardo da Vinci, Treatise on Painting, para 386. An example of Minneapolis,
such 1993.
a figure is Leonardo's Leda, explored by the master is a number of sur
70 Deleuze, The Fold, p. 125.
viving drawings. It has been suggested that the pose may have actually
71 Deleuze,
been indebted to the discovery of the Laocoon. See A. H. Allison, 'An The Fold, p. 124. See note 53 above. We might compare this to
Leonardo's observation, where he states: The same action will appear
tique Sources of Leonardo's Leda', Art Bulletin, 56, 1974, pp. 375-384.
to be infinitely different because it can be seen from an infinite number
59 Pardo, 'Paolo Pino's "Dialogo di Pittura": A Translation with Commen
of positions which have a continuous quantity, and continuous quantity
tary', p. 335.
is divisible to infinity. Therefore, infinitely different points show that every
human action is in itself infinite', Leonardo da Vinci, Treatise on Painting,
60 See K. W. Forster's excellent introduction to Aby Warburg, The Renewal
of Pagan Antiquity, trans, by D. Britt, Los Angeles, 1999, pp. 1-75. para 361.

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