The Artistic Mystery...!

Once in a while, we have to divert away from the typical murder mysteries and such to take a look at others in fields such as art. Never considered art as being mysterious? Here is an article from Listverse that may change your mind a tad.

David’s Secret Weapon

Photo via Wikimedia

Controversy surrounds the question of whether Michelangelo’s David was holding a secret weapon, a fustibal, in his excessively large right hand. A fustibal was a sling to hurl stones as far as 180 meters (600 ft).

According to the Bible, David had his sling, five stones, and a shepherd’s staff with him when he fought Goliath. Only the sling is visible in Michelangelo’s sculpture from the early 1500s. But some scholars argue that the straps of the sling connect to an unidentified item in David’s hand, believed to be a handle for the staff which would function like a golf club.

The statue was originally meant to be placed on top of the Florence Cathedral, where the weapon would have been hidden from view. David’s fustibal was visible in other artists’ paintings of the time, which these experts believe influenced Michelangelo’s rendering of his famous sculpture.

However, they think that the staff wasn’t mounted on the handle for political reasons. “A shepherd staff wasn’t fitting with the political meaning of the statue, which became the first public Italian monument,” said art historian Sergio Risaliti. Not all experts agree with this theory, so the mystery of the object in David’s hand remains unsolved.

I reckon we can always find a mystery if we look hard enough. I just honestly never thought of how such a thing of beauty could be part of a mystery, did you ?

Coffee out on the patio again today!