80 pages • 2-hour read
The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Novel of Michelangelo
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Symbols & Motifs
The David
Michelangelo’s David is one of his most famous works. In The Agony and the Ecstasy, the statue is imbued with multifaceted symbolism, signifying different things to different people. For Michelangelo, the statue is a symbol of his ambition and his nationalism. Having enjoyed success as a sculptor in Rome and under Lorenzo de’ Medici, he seeks the approval of his fellow Florentines. He wants to elevate the city of Florence through his work, and the David is a symbol of how he hopes to position himself as the city’s foremost artist. By winning the competition for the Duccio marble, he will effectively prove himself superior to his fellow artists. Much in the way that Brunelleschi and Ghiberti shaped the identity of Florence through their competitions for the baptistry doors and the dome of the cathedral, he hopes to enter himself into the history of the city by creating a statue that represents the Florentine people. His willingness to rush home from Rome shows the importance of this opportunity to Michelangelo. He works in an exhaustive manner, never able to do less than his very best. His rush to return to Florence to win the competition is a symbol of his desire to return triumphantly to his hometown and announce himself as Florence’s foremost artist.
For the city officials who launch the competition, the David is a symbol of atonement. Following the death of Lorenzo de’ Medici and the rise and fall of Savonarola, Florence has undergone many changes. Savonarola’s stint in charge of the city, in particular, threatened to undermine Florence’s reputation as a hub of artistic endeavor. Under his rule, many priceless works of art were burned. Famous artists like Sandro Botticelli burned their own works, renouncing the art that helped to define the image of Florence on the world stage. The word renaissance means rebirth, and in a symbolic sense, the competition that prompts Michelangelo to create the David is a rebirth after a brief period of repression. The David represents Florence’s recommitment to art and artists, announcing Florence as a viable destination for the world’s greatest sculptors, painters, and more. The David represents an artistic atonement for a city that seeks to put Savonarola’s fundamentalism in the past.
The statue Michelangelo carves is a symbol of Florence itself. Through his carving, Michelangelo plays on the symbolic notion of Florence as a young, rising city that must face challenges from larger, more powerful rivals. As the Biblical David fought against the giant Goliath, the statue of David symbolizes Florence as a youthful force for good against the giants of Milan, Rome, and enemies beyond the Italian peninsula. Michelangelo’s David faces his challenger with a peace, a grace, and a determination that the people of Florence recognize. They want to believe this about themselves, so they immediately buy into the symbolism of Michelangelo’s creation. Though people protest the statue before it is installed, these protests are soon replaced by universal praise and adoration as soon as people see the David in its rightful place. The David symbolizes Florence as it sees itself; the statue symbolizes this national myth. Furthermore, the future troubles in the city threaten the idea of Florence as a republic. During these troubled times, an angry mob breaks the arm from the David. As the crowd recognizes the symbolism of the David, they recognize the broken arm as a symbolic injury against the city itself. They stop immediately, and the riot is brought to a halt, reiterating the symbolic power of Michelangelo’s creation.
Marble
Florence is a city built of beautiful stones, Michelangelo believes, but the cutting and carving of this stone is not treated with respect. Stonecutting is looked down upon by many characters, who view the work as manual labor not suitable for learned or wealthy men. Ludovico, for example, is horrified at the idea of his son working in marble because he sees the work as a slight against the family’s honor. Michelangelo’s firm belief in the beauty of marble exemplifies his unique vision. He can see and appreciate the beauty of the marble, not caring that he must work it with his hands. He views sculpture as the highest artform, even while his fellow artists are more likely to agree with his father than with Michelangelo. In this sense, Michelangelo is battling not just to assert himself, but to champion an unjustly maligned art form.
In a fundamental way, marble is a symbol of Florentine identity. The white marble that adorns the famous cathedrals in the city is quarried in the nearby town of Carrara. The Florentines may look down on the working of stone, but they recognize that the gleaming white marble is instantly recognizable as Florentine. To them, the purity of the white marble symbolizes a young city that is not stained by the past and is trying to create something new in the form of a republic. Florence stands in brilliant symbolic contrast to other cities. When Michelangelo visits Bologna, for example, he can appreciate the city, but the local stonework simply feels wrong to him. Florence and its marble are one, so to be apart from the marble is to be away from home. As such, those who best understand and appreciate marble—such as Lorenzo and Michelangelo—are those best placed to appreciate the symbolic nature of the Florentine mythos.
To construct the façade of the San Lorenzo cathedral, Michelangelo is told to use a different kind of marble. He feels that this is a symbolic affront to Florentine identity and is reluctant to do so. Yet the extraction of the new marble symbolizes the purity of Michelangelo’s love for art. He has connections to the people of Carrara and to the stone cutters and quarriers of the town, yet when he sees the purity of the marble in Pietrasanta, he feels that he must carve it. The marble is the most important consideration, not the politics of the situation nor his existing relationships with the stone cutters. He extracts the marble, at great cost, only to be betrayed by the failing funds of the Vatican. The yearning to sculpt this pure marble—only to be undone by politics—symbolizes Michelangelo’s tense relationship with his patrons. He is utterly committed to his art at the expense of everything else, while those around him are more invested in politics, finance, or history.
The Bonfire of the Vanities
Savonarola’s Bonfires of the Vanities were public burnings of objects considered sinful or immoral, organized in Florence in the late 15th century by the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola. Items such as cosmetics, art, books, and luxury goods were thrown into the fires as part of his religious campaign to purify the city and reject worldly temptations. The Bonfires depicted in The Agony and the Ecstasy symbolize the religious fervor that sweeps over Florence. The city may be famous for its artwork and the artistic innovations that define the Renaissance, but the people of Florence are willing to burn their artworks and symbolically set fire to their own identity due to their momentary religious fanaticism.
The Bonfires are not fueled only by monks and religious fanatics. Savonarola’s sermons are very convincing, to the point where famous artists begin to denounce their own work. Michelangelo watches as his fellow apprentices defect to Savonarola’s cause. He watches with horror as the famous painter Sandro Botticelli burns his own drawings, denouncing his artwork as sinful. Michelangelo’s own brother is also involved, though Michelangelo ignores his brother’s moralizing lectures. The result is that the Bonfires represent a road not taken for Michelangelo. Having been exposed to the cosmopolitan humanism of Lorenzo de’ Medici at an early age, Michelangelo is not swayed by Savonarola’s reactionary views. He stares into the Bonfires, appreciating their symbolic vindication of his artistic choices.
After Savonarola is overthrown, Florence emerges from a state of religious fanaticism. The post-Savonarola Florence seeks to return to its prior identity as a hotbed of creativity. The works created by Michelangelo, Leonardo, and other artists during this period are a symbolic rebuke of Savonarola. By commissioning great works—often those that might be considered pagan or controversial (such as Michelangelo’s nude bathers)—Florence is able to symbolically distance itself from the fanaticism of the Bonfires. The artworks produced during this period are, in effect, the symbolic repudiation of Savonarola, yet the image of the Bonfires lingers in Michelangelo’s mind. Whenever he encounters reactionary forces, such as the censorious members of the Italian Inquisition, he is haunted by the image of the Bonfires of the Vanities. For Michelangelo, the Bonfires are a symbolic, haunting reminder of the need for artistic expression, free from censorship.
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