X: The Artist's Hand
The Rape of Prosepina Bernini, 1622 Balloon Dog Koons, 2008 The discussion of “the artist’s hand” in the history of art has been a lengthy one with ever-changing opinions. Sculptors in particular deal with the inevitability of requiring studio assistants to complete their projects and it is this assistance that becomes the subject of scrutiny for many. I find that there has been an obsession with how works of art are made throughout time. Up until relatively recently there has been an effort to promote the illusion that every statue attributed to a particular artist was carved in its entirety by the sculptor themselves. The value of Bernini’s statues came from his personal supposed superhuman ability to render human flesh but in reality it wasn’t necessarily Bernini doing all of the carving. Does this shattering of the illusion devalue many works prior to the 20th century? I think not. Artists are very much like composers and conductors rather than the player of
