This is very possibly the finest sculpture of all time.

[sir pball]

And to top it off – Michelangelo was twenty-three years old when he carved this.

[sinkingfeeling]

1. It was much smaller than I thought it would be when I saw it.

[Sneederbunk]

2. Saw it at '64 World Fair.

[Sanity Claws]

4. Same here

It was part of the Vatican City pavilion, if I remember correctly.

[Rhiannon12866]

15. Same here! And before it was damaged.

I was a young kid and that's one of the few things that stuck with me - along with the 7Up fountain where we had lunch and the "It's a Small World" boat ride...

[Farmer-Rick]

3. As Christian religious symbolism and iconography go

This one was made very beautifully.

The artistic effort is amazing but the subject needs a lot to be desired. A dead body in the arms of the grieving mother. I wouldn't want to see it on a daily basis.

[mopinko]

5. and today he'd be canceled by the snowflakes.

[Farmer-Rick]

12. I think today

He would be making secular art. And it would probably gain a following.

Back then, the only way to really make money off your art was to apeal to the rich, and in his society, they were mostly Christian and feudal lords.

[mopinko]

13. true.

i have a personal pet theory about how non-reproducing ppl nonetheless have their genes passed along. they’re very valuable to their clan/tribe in many ways, but i think the biggest way is as artists. art- the original non-zero game.

[Deuxcents]

6. Every November on the beach

We have sand sculptures events that bring people from all over the world. A few years ago, someone sculpted this and it was quite popular because it was done so well.

[Donkees]

7. Apollo and Daphne - Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680)

[Bayard]

10. Wondrous!

[snowybirdie]

8. Saw it in Rome

and photos can't touch the beauty of it. I cried because of this beauty. His David was also amazing.

[ProfessorGAC]

9. It Is Amazing

And as I think "Somebody made that out of a hunk of rock." I'm even more amazed.

[Bayard]

11. Vaguely recalling my art classes

(Believe it or not, I was an art major 40 yrs ago!). Mary is so much bigger than Jesus to depict the mother/child dynamic. The biggest criticism when it was finished is that Mary looks too young.

I remember Michelangelo tried to destroy it.....something about not being happy with the quality of the marble.

Sculpture has been described as removing everything that's not part of the subject.

[Aristus]

14. And that's based on a quote (possibly apocryphal) by Michelangelo himself.

He reportedly said, or wrote, that he started with the slab of marble, and simply chipped away everything that wasn’t David.

[Bayard]

16. That's it!