Tender Loving Care of Michelangelo's David.

The copyrighted image depicts curator Cinzia Parnigoni. maintaining Michelangelo's famous statue of David in Italy. http://www.onalim.it/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/cinzia-parnigoni-david-michelangelo.jpg

There are many points of focus in this image. Of course, there is the curator herself in perspective, tiny in comparison to the gigantic statue. I suppose the foreground must be the giant, out-sized, and venous right hand of the statue. Of course, nearby is the not so private “private part” of David. In the background is the magnificent arch and dome under which this statue is displayed to the public.

The image is framed in such a way as will make the viewer aware of two different levels of expertise. There is the incredibly lifelike hand of the statue as rendered by Michelangelo. And, there is the relatively small image of Cinzia Parnigoni on scaffolding exercising her exquisite talents as a curator who is responsible for preserving the genius of Michelangelo.

The main object, aside from the details of the statue, is the scaffolding. This serves to provide perspective and scale.

The person shown on the scaffolding is the curator, Cinzia Parnigoni.

I learn from this picture that the image of King David of Judah is highly honored and important. The fact that it is so carefully preserved and so magnificently displayed gives testimony to the enduring importance of the Davidic legend in Western Civilization. This statue is hundreds of years old, and it commemorates an actual historical person who lived thousands of years ago. When you combine the 3,000 year old story, with the 500 year old statue, along with the current day curator working hard at such a dangerous height in order to maintain the statue, it is like having in one image a commentary on the entire course and development of Western Civilization.

This image has a lot to say about the definition of expertise at many levels. Expertise is defined as the ability to invoke the sublime, of course. However, one can also break it down to include the narrative expertise of the story tellers of ancient Judah without whom the concept would never have existed. Next, there is the anatomical expertise of the sculptor, Michelangelo who was able to embody the primary character of the story in three dimensions of stone. And, finally, the not inconsiderable expertise of Cinzia Parnigoni., and all the others like her over the last centuries who have maintained this statue in pristine condition.

In this image, expertise looks like perfection – the perfect story, the perfect character in the story, the perfect embodiment of the character without flaws, and the absence of deterioration due to expert curation.

This image causes me to challenge ideas about what constitutes expertise. My idea of expertise is that itis the result of a creative process in which each generation stands upon the shoulders of the previous generations. Expertise is not just one individual who stands out. Expertise is the current manifestation of a multi-generational creative effort. The saying “You didn't build that.” applies at each level as to that which came before. Even the original authors of the perfect story were very likely influenced by the Greek legend of Perseus from the Mycenaean Civilization of the second millennium BCE. For example, consider the image (below) of the Medusa/Perseus legend in comparison to a similar image ofDavid and Goliath.

Cellini

Rubens

One might even say that the story could have been influenced by the earlier story of Sisera and Jael. Would Florentine noble men have wanted a nude statue of Jael crushing Sisera's skull? Why not?

Artemisia Gentileschi

As for the sculpting expertise of Michelangelo, he must have spent many years studying the sculptures of the Greek classical age in which similar expertise was achieved and then abandoned two thousand

years before him. Finally, the expertise of the curator was taught her by her predecessors.

No one's expertise springs fully grown and Godlike out of the half-shell like Venus.

Alexandre Cabanel, “The Birth of Venus,” (1863)

The iconic status of the image of David in Western culture begs the question whether expertise is a culturally defined.

Would the chief of a Hawaiian tribe in 1500 CE been the slightest bit interested in this type of expertise? Would other cultures and times have acknowledged this as an important work of art, or as any sort of expertise? Would other cultures have even wanted to emulate this expertise?

Sculptors of the terracotta army produced in China in the 3rd Century BCE certainly display the talent to produce such a sculpture. But, perhaps they had absolutely no interest developing public monumentsthat they might consider to be individualistic, narcissistic and homoerotic art. The loving detail devotedto the representation of David's private parts would have seemed shocking and perverted to the Chineseand Pacific Islanders, as well (although perhaps not to so much to pre-Columbian artists of the ancient Aztecs).

Art evolved away from realism in ancient Greece, in modern Europe, and in many other areas of the world. In our post modern era, would anyone bother to acquire the expertise to produce another such statue? Why not?

The biggest question that this image raises for me is its impact on the expertise of the historiographer

and the critic of modern culture.

Was the original story more than a legend? If it was a legend (or even if it was uniquely treasured oral history), what agenda was served by the transmittal of the original story? What agenda motivated the City of Florence to commission this heroic statue? Would that agenda have been served by a gigantic statue of Moses? Why not? And finally, why is the statue maintained today at great cost and presented to the public in a venue so magnificent? What agenda is served today by the perpetuation of the Davidic legend?

Additionally, why is David depicted having an uncircumcised penis? Is this a sign of antisemitism? Isn't that a bit like depicting Mohammad with a beer in hand while eating a pork chop? Why would Florentine nobility want to pervert the memory of David by making such an obvious display of an uncircumcised penis? It's not a small thing! (Pardon the pun.)

Michelangelo, David (1505)

Works Cited

Alexandre Cabanel, “The Birth of Venus,” (1863) at the Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Accessed July 3, 2015 atwebsite https://www.artsy.net/artwork/alexandre-cabanel-the-birth-of-venus/zoom

Cindy L Riemersma. “A Glimpse at the History of Art” June 1, 2012 accessed July 3, 2015 at website https://onemindmanydetours.wordpress.com/tag/renaissance/, and https://onemindmanydetours.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/cellini_benvenuto-perseus_with_the_head_of_medusa.jpg

Isabella “Cinzia Parnigoni, the restorer of Michelangelo’s David” (25 Dec 2013) accessed July 3, 2015 at website http://www.onalim.it/en/2013/12/25/cinzia-parnigoni-la-restauratrice-del-david-di-michelangelo/ and http://www.onalim.it/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/cinzia-parnigoni-david-michelangelo.jpg

Peter Paul Rubens. “David Slaying Goliath.” accessed July 3, 2015 at website http://www.artbible.info/art/large/363.html, and http://caravaggista.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/david_hfd_goliath.jpg

Scott Freeman. “Art & Church History: The Uncut Version” (June 22, 2013) accessed July 3, 2015 at website https://artandlifenotes.wordpress.com/2013/06/

Simon Abrahams, “Artemisia Gentileschi’s Jael and Sisera” (1620) accessed July 3, 2015 at website http://www.everypainterpaintshimself.com/article/artemisia_gentileschis_jael_and_sisera_1620 and http://everypainterpaintshimself.com/article_images_new/ArtemisiaJaelSiserax1R.jpg

“The Ark of Grace” accessed July 3, 2015 at websitehttp://thearkofgrace.com/2013/10/29/david-1501-1504/ and http://thearkofgrace.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/David-1501-1504-d-9.jpg