The Sculptor's Funeral is the only podcast dedicated to figurative sculptors living and working today. Art history, tech talk, news, and interviews for the figurative sculptor working in the Western European tradition of figurative sculpture, along with a social media forum and listener mail/questions/comments make this podcast required listening for any sculptor who knows the Fine Arts aren't dead, they just smell a little funny.

 Michelangelo's path to immortality continues to twist and turn in this episode, detailing his time in Florence working on the New Sacristy, a commission for which he worked Day and Night, and from Dawn to Dusk...

Direct download: Episode_51_-_Michelangelo_and_the_New_Sacristy.mp3
Category:renaissance -- posted at: 12:00am EDT
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Episode 50 - Michelangelo and the Tomb of Pope Julius

Just because you are the immortal genius Michelangelo doesn't mean you have it easy... This episode explored the trials and tribulations of the commission for the Tomb of Pope Julius II, the the lavishly extravagant commission of the century - that was never meant to be.

Direct download: Episode_50_-_Michelangelo_and_the_Tomb_of_Pope_Julius.mp3
Category:renaissance -- posted at: 12:00am EDT
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Episode 48 - "THE" David

...You know which David. You know who created it. But do you know why it was created in the first place, or how it ended up becoming one of the most famous works of art on earth? And what's with the big head?? The Sculptor's Funeral Podcast digs into the David's origins to get a better understanding of Michelangelo's masterpiece, and debunks a few myths along the way.

Direct download: Episode_48_-_THE_David.mp3
Category:renaissance -- posted at: 12:00am EDT
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Episode 47.6 - Michelangelo, Man and Myth Redux

Happy New Year from The Sculptor's Funeral, everyone! Here's the introduction to Michelangelo episode which aired a year ago - good prep for next week's all new episode about his David.

Direct download: Episode_47.6_-_Michelangelo_Man_and_Myth_Redux.mp3
Category:renaissance -- posted at: 12:00am EDT
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Episode 47 -v Verrocchio

The greatest sculptor in Florence between the time of Donatello and the rise of Michelangelo, Andrea del Verrocchio explored figurative composition like no sculptor before him - but his greatest contribution to art might be in the painters he taught  - from Ghirlandaio and Signorelli, to Leonadro da Vinci himself.

Direct download: Episode_47_-_Verrocchio.mp3
Category:renaissance -- posted at: 12:00am EDT
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New kid on the Florentine block Luca Della Robbia didn't have to reinvent the wheel in sculpture, like the sculptors of the generation before him had to; instead, he started with those new wheels and invented the bicycle. Learning lessons from not just sculptors, but from painters and even potters, Luca developed a style, and a genre, all his own. And he did it with Dolcezza.

Direct download: Episode_44_-_Luca_Della_Robbia.mp3
Category:renaissance -- posted at: 12:00am EDT
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Episode 43 - Donatello among the Medici

Cosimo de' Medici - Cosimo Pater Patriae, Father of the Country -was one of the wealthiest, most powerful and most intelligent men in Europe, and had a cantankerous, stick-in-the-mud sculptor as a best friend. This episode explores what made the Medici the Medici, and how a collaboration between secular power and the Renaissance Avant-Garde led to Donatello's striking and controversial David.

Direct download: Episode_43_-_Donatello_among_the_Medici.mp3
Category:renaissance -- posted at: 12:00am EDT
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Episode 41 - Orsanmichele

Orsanmichele is the unique name of a unique church in Florence, a site many consider to be the most significant in Florence for early Renaissance sculpture. In this episode, we explore the changes in sculpture that took place when sculptors began working not for the glory of God, but for the glory of Guild...

Direct download: Episode_41_-_Orsanmichele.mp3
Category:renaissance -- posted at: 12:00am EDT
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Episode 39.5- Donatello Redux

Donatello - the greatest sculptor of the the really Florentine Renaissance. But why? And how is it that so few of us today know anything about him? The Sculptor's Funeral explores the nature of his genius to show how Donatello practically invented the aesthetic of early renaissance sculpture.

Direct download: Episode_39.5_-_Donatello_Redux.mp3
Category:renaissance -- posted at: 12:00am EDT
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Episode 39 - Lorenzo Ghiberti and the Gates of Paradise

"They are so beautiful that they would do well for the gates of Paradise." That's a pretty high compliment, just for a set of decorative bronze doors - but when we find that the doors took 27 years to make, and the compliment is from the mouth of Michelangelo, perhaps there's something to it...

Direct download: Episode_39_-_Lorenzo_Ghiberti_and_the_Gates_of_Paradise.mp3
Category:renaissance -- posted at: 12:00am EDT
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Episode 38 - The Baptistery Competition

Contests and competitions between artists have been around for as long as art has. But the most famous competition of all time was between sculptors - two giants of the early 15th Century  - and heralded the start of the Florentine Reniassance. But who won? Ghiberti or Brunelleschi? Decide for yourself who is the better sculptor...

Direct download: Episode_38_-_The_Baptistery_Competition.mp3
Category:renaissance -- posted at: 12:00am EDT
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Episode 37 - Renaissance Sculpture's False Start

 

The Sculptor's Funeral Podcast Returns for the Second Season!

Episode 37 - Renaissance Sculpture's False Start: Ask an art historian for the date of sculpture's  official kick-off in the Florentine Renaissance, they might tell you 1401. Or, they might tell you 1260. Both answers are correct. How can this be? It turns out that early advances in sculptural traditions away from the Gothic idiom had a good early start - which was then abruptly killed off, by a destructive force you'd want to avoid like the Plague...

Direct download: Episode_37_-_Renaissance_Sculptures_False_Start.mp3
Category:renaissance -- posted at: 12:00am EDT
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Episode 10 - From Apprentice to Academy

Whether it's at a university degree program or in a small private atelier, most figurative sculptors today train at schools, rather than as apprentices to professional sculptors. But what was the first art school in Europe? why was it created? Your host Jason Arkles details the history of the rise of the academy as a way to train artists in a more varied, eclectic, and intellectually challenging program than traditional apprenticeships allowed.

Direct download: Episode_10_-_From_Apprentice_to_Academy.mp3
Category:renaissance -- posted at: 12:00am EDT
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Episode 09 - Giambologna

Giambologna's remarkable and prolific career is the missing link between the Renaissance and the Baroque, between Michelangelo and Bernini, and between medieval and modern conceptions of how a sculptor's career is conducted. So many elements which Giambologna pioneered in his work - casting works in editions, jobbing out technical aspects of sculpture to specialists, and the decorative, small scale female nude for popular consumption - are still with us today.

Direct download: Episode_09_-_Giambologna.mp3
Category:renaissance -- posted at: 12:00am EDT
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Episode 08 - Cellini, in his own words

The sculptor of the famous Perseus and Medusa, Benvenuto Cellini, might have been a one-hit wonder if it were not for his other masterpiece, his Autobiography - the first from an artist. In his book, Cellini details the construction and casting of his Perseus - a precious firsthand account of a Renaissance sculptor at work - as well as his exploits as a nasty, brutish, jealous, pandering thug who murdered and raped his way through life. Your shameless host Jason Arkles brings the Autobiography to life in a dramatic reading, complete with cheap sound effects and silly voices.

Direct download: Episode_08_-_Cellini_in_his_own_words.mp3
Category:renaissance -- posted at: 12:00am EDT
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Episode 06 - Michelangelo, man and Myth

The Divine Michelangelo - The man could do no wrong. ...At least, according to Michelangelo. One of his lasting legacies, apart from his art, is the mythology about his life and work that he himself perpetuated through the commissioning of a biography. But legends aside, Michelangelo still is one of the gresatest artists ever to have lived. This episode discusses his early years as an artist, his training and his influences, his early successes and even his (gasp!) mistakes. he was only human, after all (despite rumors to the contrary).

Direct download: Episode_06_-_Michelangelo_Man_and_Myth.mp3
Category:renaissance -- posted at: 12:00am EDT
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Episode 04 - Alberti and De Statua

If you sculpt, you probably have a small library of how-to sculpture manuals. Sculptors writing about sculpture goes way back - but how far back? In this episode, Host Jason Arkles discusses the f sculpture manual that was written during the early renaissance by the original Renaissance Man, Leon Battista Alberti. A personal friend of Donatello, Brunelleschi, and Ghiberti, Alberti's treatise on the science and practice of sculpture during the early Renaissance show us just how much in common we have with the past masters- and how much we might be able to learn from them.

Direct download: Episode_04_-_Alberti_and_De_Statua.mp3
Category:renaissance -- posted at: 1:26am EDT
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Ep.02 - Donatello, an Introduction

In this episode, The life and work of Donatello are discussed, in relation to his influence for all European sculpture which followed. Host Jason Arkles makes a case for Donatello as being the single most influential sculptor in the last 700 years.

Direct download: Episode_02_-_Donatello_an_introduction.mp3
Category:renaissance -- posted at: 1:03am EDT
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