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.
In art there is only one thing that counts: the bit that cannot be explained.
He wanted to cry quietly but not for himself: for the words, so beautiful and sad, like music.
I believe that basically you write for two people; yourself to try to make it absolutely perfect; or if not that then wonderful. Then you write for who you love whether she can read or write or not and whether she is alive or dead.
I adore wearing gems, but not because they are mine. You can't possess radiance, you can only admire it.
Drawing is . . . not an exercise of particular dexterity, but above all a means of expressing intimate feelings and moods.
The calling of art is to extract us from our daily reality, to bring us to a hidden truth that's difficult to access - to a level that's not material but spiritual.
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