People from all nations look up at him. Tight-skirted girls who'd cause commotion in the streets go unnoticed as macho men fold their hands. Kamikaze sightseers pause. And students commune with Michelangelo on their sketch pads. David makes the entire congregation feel unfit to dust his pedestal.
People are puny.
You get small as you approach the altar. In the pews the miserable Prisoners sculptures, wading wearily through murky darkness, bend their heads under the hard truth of their mortality. Michelangelo's black bust sits sadly in the corner looking at the floor, ignored by his fans. Tour guides say the Prisoners are coming to life. Julius is history, the prisoners bow their heads, and Michelangelo's chisel is lost.