When a Sculptor Started to Paint

Michelangelo was born to sculpt. He once commented that he could taste the tools of a stonecutter in the milk of his wet nurse. He’d sculpted a mature work by the age of twenty-one. By the age of thirty he had produced the still-stunning masterpieces Pieta and David.

When Michelangelo was in his early thirties, the pope invited him to Rome to complete a special project. Pope Julius II initially asked him to sculpt a papal tomb but then changed his plans and invited him to paint a dozen figures on the ceiling of a Vatican chapel. The sculptor was tempted to refuse. Painting was not his first passion, and a small chapel was not his idea of a great venue. But the pope urged him to accept, so he did. Some historians suspect a setup. Jealous contemporaries convinced the pope to issue the invitation, certain the sculptor would decline and fall into the disfavor of the pontiff.

Michelangelo didn’t decline. He began the work. And as he painted, his enthusiasm mounted. Four years, four hundred figures and nine scenes later, Michelangelo had changed more than the chapel; he’d changed the direction of art. His bold frescoes rerouted the style of European painting. He is immersed himself in the project that he nearly lost his health. “I felt as old and as weary as Jeremiah,” he said of his state. “I was only thirty-seven, yet my friends did not recognize the old man I had become.”

What happened? What changed him? What turned his work of obligation into an act of inspiration? The answer might lie in a response he gave to a question. An observer wondered why he focused such attention on the details of the corners of the chapel. “No one will ever see them,” he suggested.

Michelangelo’s reply? “God will.”

The artist must have known this passage: “Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people” (Eph. 6:7 NLT).

Potential Uses: Taking what the enemy means for evil and turns to good; Following God’s

will even when it looks like it doesn’t make sense; Working as if your

work is for the Lord

File Under:God’s Will; Enemies

Source:Book, Cure for the Common Life