Description
The Crouching Boy, sculpted in the 1530s, emerged in the aftermath of a turbulent period in Italian history marked by the sack of Rome by Emperor Charles V’s forces and the fall of the Florentine Republic, leading to the return of Medici rule. This era of political and social upheaval deeply influenced Michelangelo’s artistic expression, lending his work a heightened emotional intensity.
The sculpture bears a rough, unfinished surface, with visible chisel marks and only lightly defined features on the face, hands, and feet. While some interpret this as evidence of an incomplete work, it aligns with a deliberate approach Michelangelo adopted in his later years-an aesthetic choice that embraced the unfinished form as a means of conveying emotional rawness and inner struggle. This technique, influenced by Donatello, became one of the many ways Michelangelo redefined the expressive power of sculpture.
