Monday, November 28, 2011

Renaissance Man




In college I took a class in art history, and we of course covered the Renaissance in some detail. One day, the professor was going on about the idealized artistic male body of Renaissance art. Michelangelo in particular used highly muscular male models, and for him the muscled body of a man personified beauty and perfection. The professor noted that Renaissance art had rediscovered classical Greek art which celebrated very muscular, very athletic, and essentially perfect looking male bodies. As class was concluding, the professor lamented, almost to himself, that modern art was lacking in its appreciation of the muscular, athletic male body. This elicited a considerable amount of snickering among my classmates. But in my mind, I immediately thought of wrestling as a celebration of just these same traits. Here are some pictures from a NRW match moments after Dave Calbrese crotch lifts fellow lanky wrestler Flash. Unfortunately the quality of the photos is not as good as I would like, but the muscular, athletic male body clearly is on display, from the bulging biceps, flat abs, trim waists, and particularly Calbrese's powerful thighs. The wrestler in action is a true work of art.

EDIT: This link shows that Dave Calbrese is someone Michelangelo would have been proud to work with.

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