- Sep 22, 2013
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Michelangelo's sculpture David is an homage both to the legendary Hebrew King David and the elegance of the basic human form in a stance typifying confidence and composure and primal beauty. It's basic and symbolizes the human mind itself.
We also know of Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, a symmetry elegy to the form and function of the elegant human physique and why it symbolizes perfection and structuralism and leads us to intimations of deformity and corruption.
The modern-day fictional comic book super-villain Serpentor, a genetically-enhanced super-emperor from the American paramilitary fantasy-adventure franchise G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (Hasbro/Marvel), can be contrasted to Michelangelo's David and Leonardo's Vitruvian Man. Serpentor, unlike David and the Vitruvian, typifies rage and fury and is therefore an 'embodiment' of anarchy and violence.
Because modern man is so preoccupied by customs and etiquette in a world geared by networking and contracts (e.g., European Union, NATO, Wall Street, World Bank, etc.), we think a great deal these days about the 'aesthetics of anarchy' or global disorder and hence anarchy and violence (e.g., terrorism).
Serpentor is therefore a 'modern David' reminding us to contemplate the yoga-like 'aesthetics' of violence/anarchy as it pertains to human consciousness.
{Michelangelo's David}
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During the Renaissance, artists such as Michelangelo and da Vinci thought a great deal about the deep significance of form and beauty and of the elegiac poetry of the contours of creation/genesis. There were many religious paintings made during this period. Leonardo's Vitruvian Man serves to remind us how this great period in art symbolized a human fascination with symmetry and physique. This was a more 'classical' age when governance and citizenship were contemplated by poets and philosophers (a legacy of Ancient Greece).
{Leonardo's Vitruvian Man}
As the world evolved, so did human psychology. The films of Alfred Hitchcock (e.g., Psycho - 1960) explored the 'aesthetics' of complete madness, conspiracy, murder, and terror. American horror films became prominent soon thereafter and fictional ghouls such as Leatherface and Candyman became household names/symbols of a human contemplation of complete mental and physical breakdown. As comic books became popular, outlandish fantasy-adventure characters such as G.I. Joe's Serpentor came into the spotlight and delighted fans interested in the contours and contemplation of complete anarchy and terror/terrorism --- of what truly comprised 'social villainy.'
Serpentor is genetically-enhanced and resembles a brutish large man with a snake-skin outfit/shell complete with snake-head helmet/head-cover and armor and sometimes two live snakes draped around his neck as a sign of honor and power. Serpentor represents power itself and the obsession with power and how power leads to bloodlust and madness and moral ugliness. With Michelangelo's David, we contemplated wisdom/leadership; with Leonardo's Vitruvian Man, we contemplated functionalism and fitness; with G.I. Joe's Serpentor, we contemplate wrath, fear, and the macabre.
Serpentor leads us to characterizations of extreme violence geared towards torture and cruelty --- e.g., decapitations, dismemberment, gorging of the flesh, ripping of skin, breaking of bones, burning of the body, biting of the teeth, the wicked tongue, lacerations of pride, and the frailty and corruptibility of the flesh itself! We think about the reality of ugly violence and destruction in a world complicated by terrorism and urban crime. We think about the realism of graphic violence and why images of graphic violence appeal to audiences fascinated by this modern age spotlight on the 'immolation aesthetic.'
So is Serpentor a totem of evil? I believe he is, which is why I compare him to anarchy-oriented fictional modern folk-villains such as Pinhead and the T-1000. Serpentor perfectly captures our modern curiosity about the 'shape' of fear and pain.
====
{Serpentor}
We also know of Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, a symmetry elegy to the form and function of the elegant human physique and why it symbolizes perfection and structuralism and leads us to intimations of deformity and corruption.
The modern-day fictional comic book super-villain Serpentor, a genetically-enhanced super-emperor from the American paramilitary fantasy-adventure franchise G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (Hasbro/Marvel), can be contrasted to Michelangelo's David and Leonardo's Vitruvian Man. Serpentor, unlike David and the Vitruvian, typifies rage and fury and is therefore an 'embodiment' of anarchy and violence.
Because modern man is so preoccupied by customs and etiquette in a world geared by networking and contracts (e.g., European Union, NATO, Wall Street, World Bank, etc.), we think a great deal these days about the 'aesthetics of anarchy' or global disorder and hence anarchy and violence (e.g., terrorism).
Serpentor is therefore a 'modern David' reminding us to contemplate the yoga-like 'aesthetics' of violence/anarchy as it pertains to human consciousness.
{Michelangelo's David}
====
During the Renaissance, artists such as Michelangelo and da Vinci thought a great deal about the deep significance of form and beauty and of the elegiac poetry of the contours of creation/genesis. There were many religious paintings made during this period. Leonardo's Vitruvian Man serves to remind us how this great period in art symbolized a human fascination with symmetry and physique. This was a more 'classical' age when governance and citizenship were contemplated by poets and philosophers (a legacy of Ancient Greece).
{Leonardo's Vitruvian Man}
As the world evolved, so did human psychology. The films of Alfred Hitchcock (e.g., Psycho - 1960) explored the 'aesthetics' of complete madness, conspiracy, murder, and terror. American horror films became prominent soon thereafter and fictional ghouls such as Leatherface and Candyman became household names/symbols of a human contemplation of complete mental and physical breakdown. As comic books became popular, outlandish fantasy-adventure characters such as G.I. Joe's Serpentor came into the spotlight and delighted fans interested in the contours and contemplation of complete anarchy and terror/terrorism --- of what truly comprised 'social villainy.'
Serpentor is genetically-enhanced and resembles a brutish large man with a snake-skin outfit/shell complete with snake-head helmet/head-cover and armor and sometimes two live snakes draped around his neck as a sign of honor and power. Serpentor represents power itself and the obsession with power and how power leads to bloodlust and madness and moral ugliness. With Michelangelo's David, we contemplated wisdom/leadership; with Leonardo's Vitruvian Man, we contemplated functionalism and fitness; with G.I. Joe's Serpentor, we contemplate wrath, fear, and the macabre.
Serpentor leads us to characterizations of extreme violence geared towards torture and cruelty --- e.g., decapitations, dismemberment, gorging of the flesh, ripping of skin, breaking of bones, burning of the body, biting of the teeth, the wicked tongue, lacerations of pride, and the frailty and corruptibility of the flesh itself! We think about the reality of ugly violence and destruction in a world complicated by terrorism and urban crime. We think about the realism of graphic violence and why images of graphic violence appeal to audiences fascinated by this modern age spotlight on the 'immolation aesthetic.'
So is Serpentor a totem of evil? I believe he is, which is why I compare him to anarchy-oriented fictional modern folk-villains such as Pinhead and the T-1000. Serpentor perfectly captures our modern curiosity about the 'shape' of fear and pain.
====
{Serpentor}
