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The Pieta in print had amazed and impressed me. But when I interfaced her at Vatican encased within the safer recluse of a bullet proof glass box in the St Peter's, She disappointed me. At that moment I could not understand the reason why. The scheme of a solid come seemed befitting. The carving showcased a wonderful dexterity with the chisel that one hardly comes across. The seventeen year old Florentine model who impersonated the Virgin seemed to be an image of heavenly innocence - and she betrayed an exquisite beauty. Every fold of her drapery was nattily arranged and well carved. Her right palm held the dead son with such a loving care that makes one weep over her sorrow.
Looking at it, I felt that Michelangelo perhaps wanted it to be viewed from a restricted angle and not as a whole that could be walked around. It seemed that he wanted it to be placed on a high pedestal or pediment and be viewed from below to create a breathtakingly imposing sight. But the purpose is lost because of its wrong positioning right at the eye level at the elbow's distance that has visually dwarfed its size. I understood the reason why my teacher Ramkinker did away with the pedestal in his Santhal Family and Sujata. He wanted both to be viewed as a whole and be walked around as site specific pieces. Sujata is a dryad, a wood nymph. Sujata, surrounded with the sylvan eucalyptus trees, echoes their form in her elongated and twisted body, and the circuitous roots at the end of her saree touching her feet imparting a sense of movement.
Exhibiting sculpture in the gallery poses certain problems. As sculpture exists in its own right as a free standing piece, every exhibit needs its spatial view point to impart the intended effect. Those who exhibit sculpture, must take into account how each and every piece has to be seen by the viewer. A painting in a gallery wall is aligned to the eye level as the painted images stay put. But a sculpture with a body, volume and mass, offers the kinetics of bianary vision and needs a guided viewing. Pedestals used for placing sculpture should match the piece in all specific dimensions, otherwise the purpose of exhibiting sculpture will be lost.
Giacometti's walking girl, a pencil thin attenuated figure, placed much above the eye level on a high pedestal in Houston's Sculpture park in the city's gallery district, seemed to me the image of alienation of modern age. The open space around her virtually represents void through which an individual has to walk. The height of the pedestal seemed mathematically calculated, the patination of the body matched the tropical greenery and environment as a whole, helped to impart the intended meaning there in. Sculptors experimenting with new forms and materials must also plan the positioning and placement in the gallery or outdoors as a part of the composition.
- Dr. Sovon Som
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