Rockfest Day 18 - Masterpiece

Michelangelo Buonarroti is considered by many to be the greatest artist that ever lived. His works encompass all art forms including frescos, paintings, and sculptures. One of his most famous of course is the fresco he created on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican in Rome.

The work is a masterpiece. It took Michelangelo more than 4 years to complete the Sistine Chapel ceiling. During that time he was very jealous of its privacy – only allowing Pope Julius II to climb the scaffold to see it. The work includes images from the Book of Genesis – from the creation of light, the creation of Adam and Eve, their fall from grace, and the flood, David and Goliath, Christ’s ancestors and so much more. The world knows of Michelangelo from his Chapel ceiling but it is not what brought him his early fame.

It is two of his earlier works for which the art world of his day really began to sit up and take notice. From 1498-1500, before he was even 25, Michelangelo created what some still consider one of his greatest works. And it still sits in the same spot today in Saint Peter’s Basilica as it did 500 years ago following its completion. The Pieta`.

The sculpture is of Mary holding a dead Christ across her lap. It is a stunning masterpiece. From the folds in the clothes Mary is wearing to the muscles and flesh in the nude body of the Christ it is almost impossible to imagine the work is made from marble. It is the only work Michelangelo ever signed.

Georgio Vestri, an Italian artist and biographer of Michelangelo’s day, wrote at the time “It is certainly a miracle that a formless block of stone could ever have been reduced to a perfection that nature is scarcely able to create in the flesh.” Following the Pieta`, Michelangelo was commissioned to create perfection once again; this time with the statue of David.

Michelangelo was given a massive block of stone – 19 feet high – from which he was to bring David to life. And that is precisely what he did. Michelangelo did not so much carve David out of the giant stone block as set him free him. It took 3 years for David to be fully realized.

David was and still is one of the most important works he ever created. No one would think it anything other than a true masterpiece. It stood in a Florence square for ages, until it was brought indoors to protect it, as a symbol of strength, duty and faith – and human form. David’s only indentifying features are the sling over his shoulder and the small stone in his right hand.

Michelangelo had an interesting approach to sculpting. He once wrote in a letter that sculpting was “taking away” from that which was already there. It might take him years to choose just the right piece of marble for a particular sculpture. Where some saw only a giant chunk of white rock, Michelangelo saw a shepherd boy facing down a giant. Where others saw only cold, hard marble Michelangelo saw a mother grieving over her son’s broken body. Great artists have great vision.

The Artist that created you and me, and Michelangelo, has that vision. When I look in the mirror I see nothing but a giant hunk of marble, hard, full of flaws and not what I want it to be. But when my Artist looks at me He sees something completely different.  He sees perfection.  He sees the heart, the love and the beauty that He created in me and that only He can release. He sees a masterpiece.

Just as the patrons viewing Michelangelo’s masterpieces do not dwell on his many stops, starts and re-dos during a project. Just as they do not see the rubble that he had to chisel away to release his figures from their stone prisons, God does not see our flaws and faults. “As far as the East is from the West” God casts our transgressions from us. (Ps. 103:12).

Where we see only a blank slate God sees all our potential and what we can become. He is waiting to create His work in us and all we have to do is ask. He is the original Artist and we are His masterpiece. There is nothing more stunning than that.
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