[LadyMacAlpine]

For the International Stamp Exhibition in Madrid 2000, this stamp was issued, showing the front of the Principal Post Office of Madrid, with the sculpture of "The Bear and the Strawberry-Tree" [Arbutus Unedo L.].

A very nice and well done stamp with a lot of good humour.
Monaco 2000. International Stamp Exhibition in Madrid.

In 1501, when Michelangelo was only 26 years old, he returned to Florence after a long absence. There he produced two free-standing sculptures, the Madonna and Child (1501-1505, Notre Dame, Bruges). The major work of this period is the colossal (4.34 m/143 ft) marble David (1501-1504, Accademia, Florence). Stamp design by Irio-Ottavio Fantini, engraving by Albuisson. The Old Testament hero is depicted as a lithe, naked youth, muscular and alert, looking into the distance as if sizing up the enemy Goliath, whom he has not yet encountered. When sculpting this statue Michelangelo is quoted to have expressed that

"When I saw this piece of marble, I knew immediately that David was inside. My job would be to cut the excess marble away to reveal him".

The statue, which symbolized the fortitude of the Florentine republic, originally stood in the Piazza della Signoria in front of the Palazzo Vecchio, the Florentine town hall. (A copy now stands in the piazza.)

The fiery intensity of David’s facial expression exemplifies the terribilità (emotional intensity) that is characteristic of many of Michelangelo’s figures and of his own personality, and the whole figure demonstrates his mastery of the male nude.

Monaco 2001. Michelangelo: David

From the site I couldn't pass up what was written with it. I love art, beauty and life of our past to say where we come from. Where all of us come from. We owe so much to our ancestors and we don't always give them create when they are the ones who gave each of us life from their being. Its up to us to be sure our children and theirs have a world to live in where they can breath in the sun light and smell flowers blooming in a field where the deer roam freely and the children play. LadyMac