Art and Intention 1

Art and Intention

Melissa Flanagan

ART/101

October 16, 2010

Delbert Bowers
 Art and Intention 2

Michelangelo David, 1501-1504

This sculptor was carved from a giant 16ft. high block of marble that had been quarried 40

years earlier. They ended up moving it out of the Opera del Duamo, it took 40 men 4 days to

move it 600 yards to the Piazza Della Signoria. It then took 20 more days to raise it onto the

arringhiera. Before the piece was moved everyone in town thought that the sculptor was a

triumph in its own right. After it had been moved, its politics hounded it. Guards eventually had

to be hired to guard the sculptor because at one point stones were getting thrown by the

supporters of the Medici because the sculptor was totally nude, a group of citizens was objecting

its nudity. Soon after, a skirt of copper leaves was prepared to spare the general public.

Today the sculptor stands in its full nudity and we no longer value the piece for its politics but

rather for its sheer authentic beauty and accomplishment.

 Art and Intention 3

Marcel Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Stairs

This piece of art by Marcel Duchamp was made to capture a figure in motion. When revealed

the audience felt that the artist was mocking them, one art critic described his work as “an

explosion in a shingle factory.” An art magazine had offered a reward or ten dollars to the first

person who could find a woman in the painting.

The artist was actually questioning the boundaries of art and asking the viewers to do the

same. Today few people are shocked by abstraction art.

By looking at this painting I can see what the artist was trying to capture, but I do not see a

woman. I believe art is truly amazing and more amazing to find out what the artist is actually

trying to say or show.

 Art and Intention 4

References

Sayre, H.M. (2010). A world of art (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ : Pearson Education.