Cardinal: But, may I suggest,
in the manner of the Greeks.
Michelangelo: No, in my own manner!
Cardinal: True, no modern artist can
hope to equal the Greeks!
Michelangelo: Why not? Why shouldn’t we equal
them? Surpass them, if we can.
Cardinal: Really, Master Buonarroti,
I had heard you lacked modesty…
but do you claim to be
greater then the Greeks?
Michelangelo: – I claim to be different.
Cardinal: – For the sake of difference?
Michelangelo: Because I am different.
I’m a Florentine and a Christian…
painting in this century. They were
Greeks and pagans living in theirs.
Cardinal: Pagans? Christians? An artist
should be above such distinction.
Michelangelo: And a cardinal, especially one who
pretends to understand art…
should be above such foolishness.
I’ll tell you what stands
between us and the Greeks.
Two thousand years of human
suffering stands between us!
Christ on His Cross
stands between us.
Screenplay, The Agony and the Ecstasy
Just brilliant. Story has it that when Michelangelo completed the sculpture of the Pieta, he overheard people crediting the sculpture to Solari, a fellow artist at the time. So he went back and signed Our Lady’s sach with his name “Michelangelo Buonarroti, Florentine, was making this”…He later regretted this act of pride and vowed never to sign another artwork again. The Agony and the ecstasy truly describes this genius to tee. He genuinely used his talent to live out his vocation as an artist.