Venus De Milo Vs Michelangelo

When we think about sculptures we usually look back to ancient Greek and some of its famous sculptures like the statue of Zeus or the Discus Thrower. Ancient Greek was where sculptures seem to originate and influence later periods. Like the Renaissance in Europe. Renaissance was the “rebirth of classical Greece and Rome”(Hoeschen) which makes sense regarding the fact that the renaissance sculptors seemed to draw inspiration from the classical art of Greece and Rome. For instance a great example would be Ancient Greek Artist Antioch’s famous Venus de Milo and later Greek influenced artists Michelangelo from the renaissance famous Pieta. I will explain how the Renaissance artist took the ideas of the Greek, but seemed to change the subject matter

Michelangelo’s Pieta consist of Virgin Mary holding Christs dead body after his crucifixion. While the Venus de Milo was a statue of Aphrodite who is half nude and half covered by a drapery. Both sculptures are made of marble. However, according to restoration experts, “the sculpture was carved from essentially two blocks of Parian marble, and is made up of several parts which were sculpted separately before being fixed with vertical pegs”. While Michelangelo’s Pita was carved out of one piece of marble that he claimed “was the most “perfect” he ever used.”(italianrenaissance.org) both pieces were also very detailed and support the characteristic of making the humans look realistic. The detail in Virgin Mary’s face as well as Christ body along with Aphrodite’s body detail is extraordinary. As far as body scaling to life size both statues were a bit bigger. Virgin Mary’s body is bigger that it should be, as her head seems to be smaller compared to her body. They say he did that so that she would be able to support Christ on her lap. While the Venus de Milo “stands some 6 feet 8 inches tall, without its plint”(VisualartsCork) which is a bit bigger than a typical woman. Moving on to details, in both faces of Virgin Mary and Aphrodite we can see the perfect and young characteristics both artistic periods focused on. On the Pieta, Virgin Mary looks very young to be the mother of a 33-year old Christ. Michelangelo claimed that “woman who are chaste retain their beauty longer”. Aphrodite was the goddess of physical love and beauty so her sculpture made her look flawless. Along with their young faces they had the look of little emotion. In the pieta Virgin Mary’s emotion could be seen as either sad, sorrow, or a quiet acceptance of her son’s death. As far as nudity it was represented in