Michelangelo, italian’s symbol in the world

September 28th 2017

In the marble quarries of the Apuane, in the same places where Michelangelo lived for eight months to choose marbles for the Giulio II monument for the Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican, the contract has been signed between the Bazzanti Sculpture Studio of Ferdinando Marinelli Jr. and Dr. Wei He, president of the He University of Shenyang.
The agreement is for the realization of a monumental work in marble: the original replica of Michelangelo’s masterpiece, the David of Florence.
The first step will be to find the giant Carrara marble block; sculptors of the Bazzanti Sculpture Studio will have to examine many extracted blocks of the right size: they will have to understand by looking at the stains on the surfaces if there are internal streaks and if they continue inside the block, and if they have internal cracks that could compromise the work.
The choice will not be easy because only a perfect block will be the one from which the masterpiece will be created.
Among the many castings made on the original masterpieces in the Gipsoteca of Fonderia Artistica Ferdinando Marinelli of Barberino val d ‘Elsa in Tuscany, the David has a special place.
This mold was executed by Ferdinando Marinelli Sr., grandfather of the current owner, in 1930 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, with the permission of the Italian Government. And it has been studied and praised by Dr. Pina Ragionieri President of Casa Buonarroti of Florence.
Dr. Wei knows that when is used as a model for the marble sculpture a mold made from another mold, the sculpture loses the freshness of detail and anatomy.
Wei He University has the main purpose to make replicas in the ways and with the techniques with which Michelangelo executed them, and for this reason he chose the Bazzanti studio founded in 1822, and the plaster original mold of Fonderia Marinelli.
The positive plaster model will be brought from the Marinelli’s Foundry to the Studio and from this will be sculpted the replica with the classic technique “of points”.
Dr. Wei He wants to make sure that the work will be performed by artists who will completely sculpt it without the use of any modern technology or robot, as Michelangelo did in the XVI century. And he requires that even the “Sbozzo” of the big block will be executed completely by hand. Only in this way it will be possible to repeat the artistic miracle that Michelangelo has succeeded in doing.

Michelangelo’s marble drawing autograph design with some marble blocks that he choosed in Carrara quarries.

Original plaster Michelangelo David’s mold of the Fonderia Artistica Ferdinando Marinelli Gipsoteca.

Ferdinando Marinelli Sr. at the “Accademia di Belle Arti” of Florence while doing the negative mold on the Original marble Michelangelo’s David.

The contract has been just signed on a marble block in the Carrara quarry between President Wei He and Ferdinando Marinelli.

Partecipating at the signature, The Mayor of Barberino Val d’Elsa, The President of the Cultural Commission of the City of Carrara, Ferdinando Marinelli, the Consul General of PRC, Dr. Wei He and the interpreter.

The Committee at the Carrara Mayor’s office.