So now, from this mad passion Which made me take art for an idol and a king I have learnt the burden of error that it bore And what misfortune springs from man's desire... The world's frivolities have robbed me of the time That I was given for reflecting upon God.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the dangers of allowing passion for art to distract from spiritual reflection.
Michelangelo expresses a deep regret about how his intense passion for art, which he revered almost as an idol, led him astray from contemplating deeper spiritual truths and his relationship with God. He acknowledges that this obsession has not only caused personal misfortune but has also diverted his time away from meaningful reflection, highlighting the tension between worldly desires and spiritual fulfillment.
In practice
During a lecture on the importance of balance in life, I quoted Michelangelo to illustrate how passions can distract us from spiritual growth.
The art of creation lies in the gift of perceiving the particular and generalizing it, thus creating the particular again. It is therefore a powerful transforming force and a generator of creative solutions in relation to a given problem.
The best artist has that thought alone Which is contained within the marble shell; The sculptor's hand can only break the spell To free the figures slumbering in the stone.
Art lives on constraint and dies of freedom.
If it be true that any beautiful thing raises the pure and just desire of man from earth to God, the eternal fount of all, such I believe my love.
Every beauty which is seen here by persons of perception resembles more than anything else that celestial source from which we all are come.
There is an angel imprisoned in it and I must set it free.
I like my music with the rinds and the seeds and pulp left in.
The non-artists among us are always terribly busy, but finally disappear without a trace.
Artists don't make objects. Artists make mythologies.
But it was the singing that pulled me in and split me wide open.
Each of his phrases was rather like a little ancient island, inundated by a miniature sea of whiskey.
To me, there are things you're good at and things you're not so good at. For some reason, I'm good at darker characters. It has to do with how you look.
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