I saw three statues of the same David in Florence last June. One was the original in the Accademia in Florence, done by Michelangelo. You may recognize him. He’s quite famous. Many fans from many different lands gather at his feet. They crowd around him, trying to get the best shot of his marble magnificence. I particularly liked this angle.
I saw his marble twin, his copy down in the Piazza Signoria in Florence later. He was created to face the wear and tear of the elements, along with the abuse of the living. (The winged living can be particularly abusive.) He bears all this, so his brother can stay unblemished and protected in the Accademia. He’s the other David’s public face, the one who bears all the public can throw at him.
You can see what sort of ideas were forming in my imagination upon meeting these two Davids, but I hadn’t met them all. There was a third David, standing on a hill, overlooking Florence. Exactly like the first two Davids, only he was bronze, separated from his brothers, overlooking them in his lonely perch. Overlooking the entire city. Over the centuries, his metal exterior has turned green.
Yes, imagine what kind of ideas this gave me! The three Davids didn’t just give me new ideas, though. They brought back a very old one I’d had during my second year in college, one I hadn’t had in years. An idea about three brothers, only they weren’t brothers. They’d been living statues, created by an artist for a purpose they didn’t completely understand. He’d brought them to life, as a kind of vampire triumvirate, who brought him creativity, which they’d gather from a number of willing and unwilling sources.
One of them, the leader, had hair and eyes of gold. The second had hair and eyes of silver. The last had hair and eyes of bronze. The bronze triplet had departed from the others, wanting to experience what life had to offer on his own. He wanted to see if he really needed to feed on the unwilling. This didn’t please their creator, or either of his siblings. The artist sent the gold and silver vampires after the bronze one, to get him to return to them by force.
Over the years, this story idea changed, mutated, becoming entirely different stories, but with traces of the original. I’d almost completely forgotten that idea had ever existed, until I saw those statues.
What about you, dear reader? Have you ever seen something, which brought back an old idea, or story, which you’d all but forgotten?