God was not a professional – sculpture observation 1

We don’t know the names of many sculptors from the middle ages. Gieselbertus, my hero, had some cheek when he carved his name at the foot of Christ in Autun. That’s confidence. In smaller churches, the sculptors are anonymous. Possibly they were carved by the local mason or maybe even a neighbour who happened to be crafty. “Ask Francois, he’s always makin’ stuff” The figures in these sculptures are unsophisticated and they’re not perfect – but therein lies their charm. They’re like us. They look like someone we know. This Jesus is a little pudgy and could stand losing a few pounds. Another looks like Uncle Al or that rotten Degmatitch kid who lived up the street. I saw an apostle who looked like our old janitor at school. This observation leads me to a proposition. Perhaps because these unknown sculptors were amateurs, maybe not so technically proficient; they sometimes made mistakes. These mistakes made their sculptures look like US, because we also have mistakes. We’re not perfect.

A professional sculptor – your Michelangelo, for example – was so skilled and could so accurately sculpt the visions in his head that he didn’t make mistakes. Also, he was an artiste and interested in beauty. The figures in his sculptures are ideal versions of people without any little slip-ups along the way. He never said, “Oops, guess St. Stephan had a weak chin.” or “I’m quite sure Pieta actually had a receding hairline. Although Michaelangelo knew what he was doing and his sculpture is sublime, I’ve never recognized our janitor in his work. At the same time, if any of you know a David, I’d like to be introduced.

This leads me to my conclusion that God must be an amateur. Otherwise, we’d all be perfect, and what’s the charm in that?