Michaelangelo's David

Despite being the subject of some bad jokes and questionable ads, Michaelangelo's David is considered to be the most superb masterpiece of the High Renaissance. Michaelangelo was originally hired to sculpt it for the facade of the cathedral in Florence. But when he completed it in 1504 , it was considered too extraordinary to be placed high up on the church where it could not be seen. Today it's displayed in the Galleria deli'Accademia. I hope to see it in person someday.

In 1991 a deranged painter attacked it with a hammer, breaking one of David's toes.

A decade before that I was in my kitchen baking a pie when I had a phone call from the mother of a friend of one of my children. He had told her (and I quote) "Mrs. C has a book on her coffee table with pictures of naked men in it."

Now, mind you, besides having my own precarious consulting career, I was the wife of the minister of the Methodist church. What did I do? I laughed and apologized, saying that her son was right but that it was a book of the works of Michaelangeo - with David on the front.

She replied, "Who?"


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