Coming to your senses #3

I was reading in chapter 16 today in preparation for monday's class about sculptures. I liked the differences it talks about between painting and sculpture and the experience that you can have when comparing the two different styles. It says, " Painting has lots of advantages over sculpture. I mean, you can't represent the sky in sculpture; you can't represent a piece of liver on a plate, the color, the wetness. You can't do it. And yet, the big advantage that sculpture has over painting is that it can have innumerable, unending numbers of points of view. You stand dead in front of the middle of a painting; you don't go around to the side and the back to see." I agree with that, Sculptures are unique in that their physical reality is so apparent and immediate.
I also liked reading the section about Michelangelo Buonartti, "il divino". I think Benedetto Varchi shares with us well the general feeling that many had towards Michelangelo when he spoke at his funeral. He says, " This is a phenomenon so new, so unusual, so unheard of in all times, in all countries, in all history that... I am not only full of admiration, not only amazed, not only astonished and startled and like one reborn---but my pulse flutters, my blood runs cold, my mind rells, and my hair stand on end, so moved am I by... trepidations." The word terribilita, which describes his works means, "awesome mightiness". Michelangelo truly did amazing things with the talents he had and shared that with many people. As I was reading this section I thought about why he was so great and the idea came to me that a part of it was that he did things that nobody could. He was unique and valuable to many because his talents, which could help so many, were his and only his. I think thats kind of like an athlete who is so valuable and popular because of what he can do and no other. People like that and are drawn to that. I think that all of us have that great potential but may have to find that and connect with it.