Saturday, October 4, 2008

Michelangelo and the Flaw Stone


We admire perfection and it is always inspirational to see everything is perfect in life.

Often quick to reject thing which has flaw, we don’t realize that, in working around the flaws, some of the world’s most perfect masterpieces were created.

A massive, solid piece of Carrara marble lying unused in a field for 40 years.

The marble had been abandoned and forgotten.

A large gash scarred its side.

Today, that same piece of marble is visited by millions of people all over the world.

The abandoned and scarred stone was transformed into one of the world’s greatest masterpieces.

In 1501, Michelangelo Buonarroti won a commission from the Florentine elders to work on the flawed block of marble.

Other sculptors assumed the block would break under the strain of the huge gouge in its side.

Yet Michelangelo was able to see behind the ruined surface something that no one else could see.

With chisel and mallet, he worked around the flaw.

Weeks, months and years passed, as the master hammered and sculpted the scarred stone.

Finally, there emerged from under his skillful hands the figure of a man which was said to be so perfect that it lacked only life itself.

After 4 years of painstaking carving, Michelangelo was able to release the beautiful image of “David” from flawed marble.

In doing so, the transformed the block rejected by others into the most striking sculpture in Florence.

David’s eyes are watchful…the veins in his hands and arms reveal his strength…a stone rests in his right hand, his body, seems a reservoir of energy, standing poised for action.

When asked how he accomplished such an incredible transformation, Michelangelo said that David was already in the piece of marble…he merely removed everything that wasn’t David, including the flaw.

In the same way that Michelangelo saw David in a block of stone, then, chiseled away the flaw and the excess until David appeared, envision yourself, your life as you wish it to that image.

In doing so, you will discover that inside every person, even the scarred ones, there is a masterpiece waiting to be brought to life.

By SkyQuestCom.com