It is so beautiful I will not use the picture I foolishly took: The David. I am not an artist or an expert and have learned to trust guides, so I will not even say much about Michelangelo’s masterpiece.
I only know I do not wish to own it.
That was not much to learn, but something. Beauty cannot be owned or even created. Beauty can be discovered the way Michelangelo, a great explorer of beauty, found The David locked in stone.
So he tell us.
We have a lovely little house, actually called a villa, in a sort of Italian style, mixed with California as understood by a Texas builder. This is not nearly so bad as it sounds as it all works in Houston. However, David, a massive monument to genius would tower over our sort-of-villa and expose all the flaws of the house. We are not up to The David.
Our humble little section of Houston, if I can say it, is also not right for The David. We need our own wonderful art and we should not put off making it by appropriating too much of someone else’s stuff. We are not too good for The David, we are too Houston for The David.
Besides there is nothing more Florentine than this statue which once stood facing Rome defiantly. The political power of the pontiff would not crush the aristocrats of Florence. If Houston had The David we would take up space that might be used for our own Sam Houston-Mexican-First Nations-Global blend of art and culture. The David is beauty discovered there and our job is to discover here.
When I first saw The David, I was gob-smacked, too ignorant to “get it,” but just sensitive enough to be punched in the mind with the beauty. I stood there trying to understand or grasp or get it and knew I should just look for a bit. Beauty was there and if any ended up in the eye of this beholder (me) this was only because beauty came from David to me. My mind reflected what was there, what Michelangelo had discovered and uncovered in the rock.
The next thing I did was a mistake. I rushed off the gift shop and started looking for a mini-The David to buy. Somehow, stupidly, I thought if there was beauty, the thing to do was own it. The sheer not-beauty of the fakes deterred me from a purchase, until I realized my error. The beauty was there, but not for me.
In a different context, there is nothing wrong, I suppose, with a print or a copy of a beloved piece of art. The print is an icon of the icon of beauty, the beauty a bit faded, but if done well enough still can be a window to the beauty of heaven. Still, though I treasure some of my prints (at least as learning tools), I wonder often if supporting my artist friends with something original, new, and beautiful is not best.
Even then it is not beauty I own or could ever own.
This much is true. The stars are out tonight, pouring beauty down and nobody can own them. They are God’s and God let’s us marvel, wonder, and enjoy. Beauty not bought inspires love. This love powers us toward doing good for the sake of the beloved.
There is just now for me only the memory of The David. I may never see that glorious art again in this life. The glorious thing is that someone is there now, seeing, loving, being inspired. The David was not mine ever, thank God.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In