Renaissance Hand
by Dan Delcollo

My Renaissance Hand is one of my pieces that I am most proud of.  I spent a long time thinking and planning out the project before I began and it was one of the most complex and long term projects I have completed.  I started out with an idea of making a welded sculpture anatomical hand after staring at bones all day in physiology class.  I studied photos, models and sketches in order to get the dimensions of each bone right and while they are not exactly perfect, they are at least to scale.  I made each bone separately and carried them around in a box disassembled while I struggled with the pose that I wanted for the hand.  I wanted to try and find something non-threatening for a pose.  While it is a skeletal hand, I didn't want it to be scary or Halloweenish.  But I also didn't want it to be a goofy or silly pose like a "thumbs up", "peace" or "hang loose".  In the end I decided that a relaxed point was a natural, non-threatening pose.  I used the "hand of God" reaching out to touch Adam on the Sistine Chapel as my pose, as painted by Michelangelo, hence the name "Renaissance"