You Are a Piece of Work!

This is Michelangelo Buonarotti’s masterpiece sculpture, “David.”

From head to toe, David stands more than 14 feet tall.  He was carved from a single block of marble using only a hammer and chisel over a three-year period from 1501 to 1503.

Imagine that.

Did you know that marble can have veins that are not visible from the outside?  There can be flaws and weaknesses.

And even with modern tools, mistakes happen.  How many times must he have hit his thumb with that hammer? How many times did he mis-strike and take something off that he hadn’t intended to?

How many flaws in the marble did he discover that forced him to adjust his plans to suit the strengths and weaknesses of his medium?  How many times might other unforeseen factors have wandered in and frustrated his progress, but scrapping it all and starting over was simply not an option.

Despite all those probabilities, when we look at this sculpture, all we see is a masterpiece.  Each of those flaws, those mis-strikes, and those bad days become sculpting strokes carving out what ultimately became this precious work of art.

Think about that.

You have only failed when you have stopped trying.

 

 

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October 24, 2019

Beautiful! Everyone needs to see this.

October 24, 2019

@thelastdonut thank you.

October 24, 2019

Applause!!

October 24, 2019

@snarkle thank you.

October 24, 2019

High five!! I love that statue.  One of my favorites. Never give up

October 25, 2019

@thespiritwithinme, thank you!

October 24, 2019

That David statue is one of my favorites…Even as a kid I couldn’t understand why there were no clothes on him but then I remembered art has special rules.

October 26, 2019

I love this.  At Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in the eighties there was a life-sized replica of David in a hall. I walked around a corner with my mom who was visiting and we both looked up and saw this at the same time. It was ….wow….my mama being the feisty little Sicilian woman that she was…I think she was around 50ish at the time….looks and declares, “Meengya!!!” And we both burst out laughing!  (I’m not certain of the spelling of the word, or even the meaning. It was in Italian or her dialect,  but I got the gist of the meaning from how she said it!)

October 26, 2019

@catholicchristian those are the best memories.

October 28, 2019

How inspirational :).