Impressions

I've always found sculpture something of a miracle. How does an artist turn a hunk of stone into a human body so real that I stand staring, waiting it to breathe? How does he create the swirl of garments in movement, the delicate lift of a finger, the desperation on a mother's face as she tries to keep her daughter from being seized (third picture, Mom's in the lower corner), the cruelty of the abductor?

Standing in the vast beauty of St. Peter's or Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome or the Duomo in Florence, I tried to imagine the process of creation that made these structures possible. So many types of work: clearing the land, moving and shaping the stones, raising the edifices--over decades or centuries--and then the ornamentation, using every decorative art known. Thousands of artists and artisans and craftsmen whose names we'll never know, as well as Michelangelo and Bernini, must have given their entire lives to this work; whole towns must have been supported by it. Is there anything like this process going on today, any buildings that incorporate so many arts and skills?

The variety of patterns and textures in the museums and churches stunned me. Sometimes I would just stare at an intricate design on a floor for five minutes, and then move a few feet to a different pattern. Then I would raise my eyes to a fresco framed in seven layers of gold or marble. I never knew marble came in so many patterns and colors. I never knew that much marble existed. (I can't find the right pictures to show this--see the niche of St Peter above.)