Tuesday 8 February 2011

Michelangelo deals with a clients nonesense


Michelangelo is visited by a client to see David being created and thinks he's got something to offer:

Piero Soderini saw the statue, and it pleased him greatly, but while Michelangelo was giving it the finishing touches, he told Michelangelo that he thought the nose of the figure was to large. Michelangelo, realizing that the Gonfaloniere was standing under the giant and that his viewpoint did not allow him to see it properly, climbed up the scaffolding to satisfy Soderini (who was behind him nearby), and having quickly grabbed his chisel in his left hand along with a little marble dust that he found on the planks in the scaffolding, Michelangelo began to tap lightly with the chisel, allowing the dust fall little by little without retouching the nose from the way it was. Then, looking at the Gonfaloniere who stood there watching, he ordered:
'Look at it now.'
'I like it better.' replied the Gonfaloniere: 'you've made it come alive.'


From: Giorgio Vasari, The Lives of the Artists (Oxford World's Classics). page: 427

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