The Player

I confess I never heard of Pierino da Vinci until I read his biography in Vasari's Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects. Just in case your memory is a little faulty at present or if, like me, you hadn't heard of him, he was the nephew of  Leonardo da Vinci. Per Vasari, Pierino seemed destined to follow in his uncle's footsteps, being blessed with "a most beautiful countenance," "great grace in every movement," and "a quickness of intelligence that was marvelous." He was also a wonderful sculptor whose genius, again according to Vasari, was "admired by all." So, with all those attributes, why isn't he as famous as his uncle? The answer is death. He died "not having yet reached the age of twenty-three." Fortunately for art-lovers, even though he did not reach his maturity, he was industrious and so left behind some completed works.

And now I'm going to use poor Pierino as an excuse to start preaching the obvious. We are all allotted only a few breaths in this life, but we do not know the number. Whether it be a 16th century plague or a 21st century one, whether by accident or nature or whatever, death falls upon us all. Let's hope we don't waste the brief opportunity and squander our limited time, be it as short as Pierino's or as long as Picasso's. We may not be able to produce works like Leonardo or Pierino, but we can create something unique that will make the world a bit more beautiful, or at least a bit more interesting. And that ranting memento mori, trite and obvious as it is, is all I have to say.