Handling Criticism the Michelangelo Way
From the post:
I had a chance to visit Florence, Italy earlier this month and visited the Galleria dell’Accademia Museum, the home of Michelangelo’s David. The presentation of David was captivating and awe-inspiring. The famous sculpture contained such incredible detail and every chisel and angle contributed to the exact message that the artist wanted to convey. It just worked on so many levels.
As I sat there, I remembered some of the backstory of David. The piece of marble was deemed of very high quality and for a long time awaited its artist and its ultimate use. Eventually, the job landed with Michelangelo and the target was determined to be a young, naked David from the Bible about to go into battle.
Michelangelo preferred to do his work in private and even shielded himself during David to avoid any would-be onlookers. Then one day well into the final product, along came Piero Soderini, an official of some sort who was a sponsor of the work. Soderini, the story goes, commented that the “nose was too thick.” We’d like to think Michelangelo would know better than Soderini about this and that the nose was not really “too thick.” However, it put Michelangelo in a dilemma.
Have you ever had this dilemma?
What was your response? (write it down here)
Now read the post for how Michelangelo responded….original post.
I am going to try to use the Michelangelo response to criticism in 2012!
How about you?