I’ve enjoyed a week of Italian masterpieces, starting at the Uffizi Gallery last weekend.

Yesterday I visited the Casa Buonarroti in Florence, where I had Michelangelo’s incomparable Madonna of the Stairs to myself.  Awesome.

I’ve loved this sculpture since I first learned of it in an art history course.  The artist could paint or sculpt anything, in any style.  He could do a deep bas-relief and he could do the shallowest of carvings, achieving truly awesome results within the depth of a piece of paper.