Seeing the Real Thing Made Me Gasp
posted on 15 February 2011 | posted in
Arts and Entertainment
Replicas and pictures of some works of art make masterpieces commonplace. Da Vinci’s “Last Supper” or “Mona Lisa”, Munch’s “Scream”, and Wood’s “American Gothic” are examples of works everyone recognizes and many artists re-invent.
Heck, I even see Banksy prints everywhere I go these days too.
Likewise many of Michelangelo’s works are overly familiar, copied in everything from posters to greeting cards to miniature replicas. I have always been fond of his works, and read the gripping historical novel The Agony and the Ecstasy (Irving Stone) on my way to Italy, I did not have high expectations of seeing Michelangelo’s paintings and sculptures. As a child, I had already seen the “Pieta” at the 1964 World’s Fair and I did not find it especially gripping when I visited it at St. Peter’s in Rome. The paintings in the Sistine Chapel were surprisingly distant, especially the Creation of Man, way, way up on the ceiling. I was neither terribly disappointed nor terribly inspired. But then we went to Florence. We visited replicas of the David, outdoors, overlooking the city. Finally we went to the Accademia Gallery, and first we say the pieces that were never completed, that are like prisoners emerging from marble. We walked down a seemingly gloomy hallway with a lit atrium at the end. Nothing prepared me for the stunning beauty of the David! Walking into his – definitely not “its” – presence made me gasp. Other viewers responded audibly in similar fashion, astonishment on their faces. How could the original of such a famous piece be so astounding? I cannot say beyond telling that walking into that atrium was one of the most wonderful and beautiful experiences of my life. Returning then to Rome, seeing the “Moses” at the church of St. Peter in Chains was nearly as special but its setting is not as sparkling.
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