For our last class of the Holiday session, Art in Action students learned that Michelangelo once made a snowman! It’s recorded by the art historian Giorgio Vasari that “one winter, when a great deal of snow fell in Florence, [Piero de’ Medici] had him make in his courtyard a statue of snow, which was very beautiful.” According to the 15th-century art historian Giorgio Vasari, the snowman Michelangelo made wasn’t just any snowman. It was possibly the greatest snow sculpture in the history of the world.
In early 1494, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was an up-and-coming young artist under the patronage of Piero de’ Medici. It was more than a decade before Michelangelo would create his world-famous sculpture of David, and he was not quite 20 years old – yet even at this young age, Michelangelo was supremely talented. That winter had been an unseasonably cold one in Florence. The mild weather had changed to freezing winds and ice, of the likes that wouldn’t be seen again until the intensely cold European winters of 1550–1700. Then in January, something unexpected happened in Florence – a snowstorm descended that left the city covered in snow! This wasn’t the usual light dusting of a cold Florentine winter; this was the sort of snowfall more suited to us hearty Canadians. Evidently not one to waste an opportunity of free art materials that had fallen from the sky, Piero de’ Medici sent his young artist out into the snow-covered courtyard with instructions to make him a snowman. It’s a task Michelangelo apparently took to heart. Nothing else is known about the snowman. All that is known for certain is that it happened; it was very beautiful; and like all snowmen that are made from snow, it melted. Artist Aldo Torcchio depicted what he thought the scene and snow sculpture might look like.
Art in Action students were very enthusiastic to begin their own snowmen creations – creations that would not be subject to the sun’s melting rays. Working with oil pastel resist techniques, watercolours, and a variety of acrylic paints and different size brushes and sponges, students did a magnificent job developing their own snow sculptures and snowy scene. Take a look at these great snowmen, full of mystery and maybe a bit of magic on a snowy wintry night…
Great work everyone!