Article April 7, 1906 Issue

A Lesson in a Stone

WILLIS VERNON COLE.

During that glorious period when the Italian renaissance was awakening the slumbering consciousness of the Dark Ages into a new birth of art and science, there lay in the picturesque streets of beautiful Florence a huge, unsightly stone. Misshapen by some unskilled craftsman's hand, it had been long since abandoned, a byword to the whole community, a blemish to its harmonious surroundings.

In passing one day, it dawned upon the city's ruler, as he gazed, that this block of marble possessed great possibilities. Something whispered that beneath the uncouth exterior, which presented so sorry an aspect to the casual observer, lay something valuable, and he summoned the great Michael Angelo from his studio. The intuition of the ruler was corroborated by the genius of the sculptor, and the enthusiastic young Michael was commissioned to utilize the block,—chisel a statue to adorn the city.

After several years of heroic labor the work was accomplished, and the citizens were one day surprised to behold a figure of the rarest beauty issue forth from the studio of the inspired artist. Perfect in form, outline, and proportion. embodied in the purest marble, the statuesque figure of the youthful David stood glistening in the sunlight, and amid the applause of the enraptured multitude the beautiful sculpture, destined to be one of the masterpieces of the world, was pedestaled in the city's fairest situation. The disfigured and tarnished marble had yielded to genius and understanding.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

A Lesson in a Stone

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access