The Greatness of Michelangelo and Zhuangzi

Two figures, one historical and one fictional, help us see how great artistic creations require the aid of a divine power.

A detail of “Young Slave,” 1530, by Michelangelo. Marble, 101 inches high. Galleria Dell’Accademia di Firenze. Public Domain

What makes someone truly great? How do certain people achieve great things? In order to answer this question, we have to consider what “greatness” means. Here, we are not considering those people or their contributions that are popular. These quickly fall out of favor.

Instead, greatness refers to those people and their contributions that transcend time and place.

This article will explore two examples of greatness. The first is the Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo; the second is a character from the Chinese Taoist text “Zhuangzi,” a woodworker named Qing.

Michelangelo and God’s Hammer

An apocryphal saying is often attributed to Michelangelo:

“Every block of stone has a statue inside it, and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it. I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”

There is no evidence that Michelangelo actually said this. However, some of his poetry suggests that he would agree with the sculptor’s task of freeing the angel imprisoned in the marble:

In order to return to where it came from, the immortal form came down to your earthly prison like an angel so full of compassion that heals every mind and honors the world. ... Nor does God, in his grace, show himself to me anywhere more than in some fair mortal veil; and that alone I love, since he’s mirrored in it. 

In my understanding, Michelangelo is suggesting that he can see the divine on earth imprisoned in earthly things. Yet, even in its imprisonment, the divine spreads healing compassion and honor on earth, and Michelangelo is filled with love when he witnesses this. He is referring to a sacred love, a neoplatonic love.

He continues:

If my crude hammer shapes the hard stones into one human appearance or another, deriving its motion from the master who guides it, watches and holds it, it moves at another’s pace. ... So now my own will fail to be completed unless the divine smithy, to help make it, gives it that aid which was unique on earth.

Michelangelo suggests that he is not sculpting alone: God is helping him. Michelangelo swings his hammer high above his head to sculpt beautiful figures, but these figures cannot manifest themselves without the assistance of a hammer that swings higher than his. Without God, the divine smithy, Michelangelo fails to reach greatness. Michelangelo suggests that he is God’s hammer.

Freeing the Angel

Michelangelo’s process of freeing the imprisoned angels can be seen in the four unfinished sculptures for Pope Julius II’s tomb. The figures come to life as they writhe free from the prison of the cold stone. The smoothness of the sculpted skin contrasts with the rough marble that has yet to be hewn away.

“Young Slave,” 1530 by Michelangelo. Marble, 101 inches high. Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze. Public Domain

The contrast is even greater when the unfinished sculpture is compared to a finished sculpture for the same project. Michelangelo’s sculpture of Moses for Pope Julius II’s tomb is considered one of his best. Having set this figure free with the help of God, Michelangelo supposedly asked the sculpture: “Why don’t you speak?”

“Moses” by Michelangelo in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome. (The horns on Moses’s head are attributed to the Latin translation of the Bible at the time of the statue’s creation.) Jörg Bittner Unna/CC BY 3.0

Michelangelo’s creations appear to be alive and not merely imitative, and this is where his greatness lies. Asking his statue about its silence is ironic because, 500 years later, these creations still speak to us today. Yet, Michelangelo, by his own admission, is not the cause of this greatness: God is. So, when we ask: “What makes someone truly great at something? How do certain people achieve great things?” There is one answer to these questions: God speaks through them.

Qing Frees the Heavenly From the Tree

What are the similarities between Michelangelo’s greatness and that of an Eastern culture? Before communism took over China, greatness was often associated with virtue and spirituality. Taoism, for instance, had a long spiritual tradition in ancient China. The taoist book “Zhuangzi” provides insights into following the Tao, or the way of heaven.

“Zhuangzi From the Book of Ten Sons,” Yuan Dynasty by Hua Zuli. Public Domain

In “Zhuangzi,” there is a story about a woodworker named Qing who makes artistic stands to hold bells. His creations are so beautiful that everyone thinks they are made by gods or spirits. When asked how he creates such beautiful works of art, Qing says:

“I am only a craftsman—how would I have any art? There is one thing, however. When I am going to make a bell stand, I never let it wear out my vital energy. I always fast in order to still my mind. ... My skill is concentrated and all outside distractions fade away. After that, I go into the mountain forest and examine the Heavenly nature of the trees. If I find one of superlative form, and I can see a bell stand there, I put my hand to the job of carving; if not, I let it go. This way I am simply matching up ‘Heaven’ with ‘Heaven.’ That’s probably the reason that people wonder if the results were not made by spirits.”

This text tells us certain things about greatness. First, Qing’s greatness comes from beyond himself. Humbly, he suggests that he has no art himself. To me, his “fast” is a mental one through which he gets rid of all distractions so that heaven can reveal itself to him. In his emptiness—a result of his selflessness—he is filled with the way of heaven. To me, heaven works through two places in this example: It works through Qing and through nature.

When Qing recognizes the heavenly moving through his spirit, he matches it with the heavenly quality he sees moving through nature. In essence, he carves to free the bell stand from the tree. He’s able to judge the tree as superlative for his purpose only after he empties his mind and is filled with heavenly stillness. How else would he match heaven with heaven if he could not himself recognize heaven?

Of course, Qing and Michelangelo differ, but like Michelangelo, Qing allows the divine to work through him. Qing is not responsible for greatness because of his own agency. Instead, Qing’s greatness comes from heaven’s movement through him. Here, perhaps, is an answer to the question of greatness: heaven’s moves through us.

In Pursuit of All Things Great

According to these two examples, how do we pursue greatness? Do we pursue greatness by pursuing God; do we pursue greatness by acting here on earth as we would in heaven? Can we find greatness in finding God and the way of heaven here on earth? Is our greatness a reflection of our selflessness, an emptiness filled with God that allows us to see the divine in the world? If so, what has been great in our lives so far, and how do we hope to be great in the future?

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