The Groove Issue 117 - 3 Steps for Producing Iconic Work
3 STEPS FOR PRODUCING ICONIC WORK
A few weeks ago, my kids (ages 14 and 12) asked me: “Who do you think people will remember for their creativity and positive contributions to the world in five hundred years? Or in one thousand?” In other words: who is truly producing iconic, immortal, profoundly influential work? This caught me off guard; what a difficult question!
While I personally have a tiny handful of modern-day heroes, like Steve Jobs, whose most iconic product I hold in my hands almost all day long and consider a miracle of science, art, and technology, I am not even sure if Jobs will make the 500-year cut.
I thought about the lives of many artists of the Renaissance, four of which are so iconic that 500 years after their deaths we still call them by their first names: Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael. I then realized the latter hadn’t received much coverage in The Groove, which is a mistake that I’ll correct today.
You may be thinking, what do I need to learn from Raphael? Besides, I’m not an artist! Or I don’t care about history! Fair enough.
But what he did and the way he became iconic deserves attention by anyone who’s serious about producing excellent, transcendental work.
Think for a second about the context: there was no Twitter to pick fights on, no sex tapes to be “leaked,” no reality TV to clown on. Yet, five centuries later, we are still talking about Raphael.
Be Immersed in The Moment
Raphael’s self-portrait, 1506. Oil on panel.
Someone whose work gains iconic status is: 1) prolific, 2) produces things that are executed with excellence, 3) is connected to cultural factors of the moment while, 4) moving the needle at the same time.
Raphael Sanzio was first trained by his father, who was a court painter in the small city of Urbino in the foothills of the Northern Apennines. Having lost both of his parents by the time he was 11, Raphael continued painting as an assistant to Umbrian master Pietro Pierugino, and in 1500, at the age of 17, he started doing his own thing.
Becoming a nomad was part of his life’s training, as he lived in several cities in Northern Italy and then moved to Florence where he evolved and assimilated the influence of Florentine art, while trying to develop his own style.
There he met Leonardo Da Vinci and was blown away by the dynamism of his compositions and pushed himself to add more of this in his own work.
But the big shift happened when he moved to Rome in 1508 and Donato Bramante, the architect of Pope Julius II, invited him to see the Sistine Chapel while Michelangelo Buonarroti was painting the ceiling. Raphael was flabbergasted and in complete awe of Michelangelo’s frescoes.
By this time, Raphael had been fully immersed in the most active and important cultural circles in Italy and had direct contact with the best artists of the time, but as skilled as he was, he still wasn’t producing innovative, iconic work.
Write Down Your Narrative
The Transfiguration, 1516–1520. Tempera on panel.
From an unforgettable marketing campaign to a significant art exhibition, storytelling is radically important if you want your contributions to be enduring.
Raphael worked tirelessly, had many assistants, and never shied away from putting in the work, as reflected by the many hundreds of sketches, prints, paintings and architectural projects he carried out before his untimely death at 37. Absolutely everything he left tells a story.
Although we don’t have his notebooks, Raphael was known for always representing his scenes as complete narratives, as if they were written out. They were carefully planned, and the expansiveness of the big picture was as relevant to him as the richness of the small details.
What do you really want to accomplish with your work? What do you want to convey with what you put out in the world? If you don’t have a clear narrative and intention, randomness won’t help you attain memorable status at all.
Make New
Sistine Madonna, 1513-1514. Oil on canvas
To innovate is nothing more than to make old things new. This is necessary if you have the desire in your heart to produce something that will positively influence and be remembered by generations to come.
For a little bit, Raphael felt the need to copy Michelangelo’s bodies; he got obsessed with anatomy books and began drawing buff arms and torsos, trying to mimic the energy and genius of the latter in his own paintings. But this didn’t work, and Raphael thankfully realized that this wasn’t his style either as there was no innovation in what he was doing either.
The new came when Raphael added the idea of enriching his works with the variety and inventiveness of his perspectives, buildings, and landscapes. He had a graceful way of dressing his figures, so that sometimes they disappeared in the shadows and sometimes stood out in the light; a way of creating lively and beautiful heads for women, children, young and old men alike.
Giorgio Vasari wrote that Raphael had “the gift of painting the sweetest and most gracious expressions on faces,” and after his big revelation in Rome he continued to add even more majesty, grandeur and otherworldliness to his characters.
Using all these elements, Raphael created his masterpiece: The Sistine Madonna, commissioned by Pope Julius II and finished in 1514.
Everything in this painting is iconic: the extraordinary execution, the narrative, the details, but more importantly, the heavenly quality and tenderness of his characters that became Raphael’s innovation to painting in the 14th century.
While this Madonna has moved philosophers and writers ranging from Dostoyevsky to Tolstoy and artists like William-Adolphe Bouguereau, the now super-famous cherubs on the bottom seem to be the ones who have reached maximum iconic status. This chubby, charming duo are immediately recognizable and have been reproduced in every imaginable product, painted on the walls of shops and restaurants around the world, and were part of the inspiration for the 1967 Fiorucci’s logo.
Remarkably, decade after decade, century after century, Raphael triumphed against all odds. He lived in a time where his two rivals were not only more skilled but also whose careers doubled or tripled the length of his. But he searched and found his thing and shared it with the world, and the world loved it.
While not everyone will be remembered in 500 years, it is well worth being motivated by Raphael’s epic career. If you’re doing the work anyway, why not aim for iconic status?
UNLEASH YOUR CREATIVE GENIUS
I’ve put together a free webinar for those of you who are not members of my online course, Jumpstart.
If you’d like to watch it, please register here (it’s on auto-repeat every 15 minutes once you have registered).
HOW CREATIVITY RULES THE WORLD
My book was chosen by the Next Big Idea Club as one of the top books of creativity of 2022!
Have you gotten yours yet? Or better, give it to someone as a Holiday gift?
It’s in three formats: hardcover, eBook and audiobook.
TEDX TALK
Have you already watched my TEDx Talk: “NFTs, Graffiti and Sedition: How Artists Invent The Future”?
I share three lessons I have learned from artists that always work for anyone in their careers. Watch it here.