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View Full Version : Eye to Eye With Michelangelo's Moses Creates Emotional Peak



skywizard
5th May 2014, 14:56
I hope this is the right forum, if not mods. please move.

http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/michelangelo-moses-670.jpg
Figure of Moses from Tomb of Pope Julius II, San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome, Italy.


They are stony eyes, but they can arouse a peak of emotions in those staring at them.

An eye-to-eye meeting with Michelangelo's Moses triggers the highest emotional responses, says a study which measured the emotional and cognitive engagement during the observation of a sculpture masterpiece.

Previous researchers have investigated the emotional impact produced by great works of art; but such studies were all based on surveys and lab experiments.

Portraits of Michelangelo suggest he was nowhere near as beautiful as the works of art he produced. Discovery News' Rossella Lorenzi, in Florence, Italy, unmasks his new face.

"Our research is the first ever that collects brain activity during the observation of a sculpture in its original setting," Fabio Babiloni, professor of physiology at the University of Rome Sapienza, told Discovery News.

To assess the cerebral and emotional reactions a sculpture can trigger, Babiloni and colleagues examined a group of 20 healthy subjects. For each onlooker the researchers, in collaboration with the university spin-off Brainsigns, simultaneously collected the neuroelectrical brain activity (through EEG), heart rate (HR) and galvanic skin response (GSR), which basically measures sweat gland activity of the skin.

"While the emotional engage is described by mixing the HR and GSR, the cognitive factors are indexed by the estimation of the EEG asymmetry over the prefrontal cortex," the researchers wrote in a paper which will be presented in August at the International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society in Chicago.

Basically, relatively greater left frontal activity indicates a propensity to engage a stimulus, while relatively greater right frontal activity shows disposition to withdraw from it.

It emerged that cognitive and emotional responses triggered by the contemplation of Moses vary in relation to the different points the sculpture is viewed.

"Emotions raise to very high levels when observers meet the statue's eyes," Babiloni said.

Part of Pope Julius II's tomb in the basilica of St. Peter in Chains in Rome, Moses is an imposing marble statue carved in a niche. Michelangelo, who worked on the tomb project for 40 years, between 1505 and 1545, considered it his most accomplished, life-like creation.

Legend has it the sculpture produced deep emotions in the artist himself.

As he finished it, Michelangelo is said to have struck the right knee with a hammer and said, "Now speak!"



Source: http://news.discovery.com/history/art-history/eye-to-eye-with-michelangelos-moses-creates-emotional-peak-140504.htm



peace...

ronin
5th May 2014, 15:01
looking into those eyes i saw wisdom and sadness.

Cearna
6th May 2014, 02:45
I saw this statue in 1973, and I was almost dumbstruck, never has a statue spoken to me like this one did. I have seen the Pieta and many of his other statues, and amazing though they are, this one, has such a presence that I expected to see the muscle move any second, the veins on his body seem to ripple, the whole statue is alive. He definitely read the marble, and had time enough to be able to feel all that was in it, and brought to the beholder. I personally feel, it is the most amazing piece of artwork I have ever seen, his David to me doesn't reach the Soul in the way this does. I still feel the awe of seeing, even this much further along in time.

shamanseeker
6th May 2014, 16:03
I think I'm right in saying that Michelangelo's nose was broken and probably mainly responsible for his ugliness.

Although I live in Italy, I've never seen his Moses in the flesh but I was moved to tears when I saw his Pietà (the statue of the Madonna sitting with Jesus' body lying across her lap) and which luckily was still without the protective glass around it. I love art but never has a masterpiece moved me to this extent. I hated St Peter's and even a lot of devout Italian Catholics find it cold and without positive energy but Michelangelo's statue was something else and he must have been an amazing person.