Caress what you make

In his Abecedario notes Pierre-Jean Mariette, the eighteenth-century connoisseur and historian, said of Michelangelo's work, "He caresses what he makes" (Il caresse ce qu'il fait).  This observation applies fully to the master's painted, drawn, and sculpted work.  How many masters today caress their canvases, papers, and stones?  Almost none, as in Michelangelo's day, I observe with sadness.

Dmitry Borshch