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William E. Wallace, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Art History and Archaeology in Arts and Sciences
"Michelangelo was the greatest sculptor of the sixteenth century, as Donatello was in the century before him and Bernini was in the century after him. We admire the products of his genius but we less frequently pause to consider the magnitude of the tasks he undertook, the problems he encountered, and the setbacks -- even failures -- he may have suffered. The Rome Pieta and the David, for example, are stunning accomplishments that obscure the more mundane facts of their creation. We tend to overlook that they were fashioned from raw and resistant stone, by hands that were strong and dexterous but also were occasionally tired or bruised. Before these sculptures became the sublime marvels we admire today, they were inert and spiritless material.
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"Marble carving is hard work, loud and dirty. Every blow of hammer to chisel is a collision of metal against metal striking stone. Marble chips fly in all directions; the dust lies thick. Modern stone workers wear goggles; Michelangelo did not. He had to see the stone, to see each mark, to make tiny adjustments to the angle of his chisel and to the force of his blow. He could not afford to slip. One wrong stroke could break a finger, an arm, or worse. A figure comes alive only after thousands and thousands -- tens of thousands -- of perfectly directed hard and soft blows. Marble carving is difficult and unforgiving."
(Excerpted from the text.)
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