
How Imperfections Could Bring Down Michelangelo’s David - rmason
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/magazine/davids-ankles-how-imperfections-could-bring-down-the-worlds-most-perfect-statue.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0
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sp527
The author's description of first encountering the statue is carelessly
grandiose. Do people actually have these kinds of reactions to things that are
so static and overt? In order to find nuance in something like that, you
either need to have extensive background context and deep insight into the
mind of the artist or else your pontifications at some point say more about
you than the art. Once that happens, you run the risk of sounding some
combination of pretentious and disingenuous.

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Dwolb
Have you seen David in real life?

I'm not artistic at all nor do I understand artistic nuance.

I can say there was something striking about going into that museum in
Florence, seeing other massive blocks of started-on marble in the corridor,
and finally arriving at David.

No, I didn't get the nuance then nor do I get it now, but I remember the
awestruck feeling I got seeing the statue for the first time.

It's probably a personal perspective I'd guess.

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sp527
Awestruck is one thing, but I think you need to actually read the author's
recounting of his own experience (which from sounds of it is furthermore many
years in retrospective) to understand why I'm calling him out on it.

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zorpner
There's a reason that so much Enlightenment-era philosophy is devoted to
trying to understand aesthetics/artistic genius, and it's that the human
response to art can be truly profound. His description is no more hyperbolic
than thousands of others, and the fact that you haven't experienced these
reactions doesn't have any bearing on how others experience art.

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anonEuropean
A nice reflection of modern Europe at the end. The German Super-manager of an
Italian institution...

[Edit: Some people do not approve of the inconvenient truth, but are all too
happy taking advantage of it.]

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danmaz74
Europe is also full of Italian Super-managers working in other countries.
Actually, I wished there were more highly skilled people coming to work in
Italy (currently there are many more highly skilled Italians going abroad).

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gsmethells
Someone should take laser precision measurements in case we need to 3D print
another David. Can you 3D print marble?

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beisner
One of my professors was involved in the first real attempt at this back in
2000! [http://graphics.stanford.edu/papers/dmich-
sig00/](http://graphics.stanford.edu/papers/dmich-sig00/)

~~~
gsmethells
That is awesome!

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5xman
Well, just after I read this, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake hits very close to
Florence. Fortunately, David survived. "Amatrice, Accumoli and Arquata del
Tronto. Three towns north of Rome reduced to rubble by an earthquake today.
People dead. Lives ruined" ([https://oilandmarble.com/2016/08/25/earthquake-
in-italy-why-...](https://oilandmarble.com/2016/08/25/earthquake-in-italy-why-
you-must-travel-now/))

