Chapter 62

62

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In fact, apart from his interest in the human form, Michelangelo was almost indifferent to everything else.

That didn't mean he was incapable of doing anything else.

When Michelangelo began his apprenticeship in Ghirlandaio's workshop, he was around 13 years old.

At that time, his fellow apprentice, Granacci, handed him an engraving.

It was an engraving by Martin Schongauer, depicting St. Anthony tormented by demons. Schongauer's engravings were widely distributed and popular in Italy at the time.

Michelangelo also greatly admired this engraving.

To the young Michelangelo, the image of the old ascetic surrounded by nine demons was incredibly appealing.

A few days later.

After returning from the fish market, Michelangelo started to paint a watercolor on cardboard, using the paints and brushes Granacci had provided.

Later, Condivi, who wrote Michelangelo's biography, described him as follows:

"Michelangelo was so cautious that he would not color any part without first verifying it in nature. To accurately depict the demons in the painting, he went to the fish market to observe the colors and shapes of the fins with his own eyes. He carefully examined every part, not just the eyes, before he painted. And...,”

Condivi summarized the entire process:

"He poured everything he saw into the realm of the miraculous."

Although this work, like many others, has been lost and cannot be seen by our eyes, it was undoubtedly a masterpiece, as all of Michelangelo's works were.

* * * *

On the outskirts of Seoul.

At Yongshin Land, which had been closed for a long time, the loud noise echoed again today. The mural artists, who were working on the walls, raised their headphones with paint-stained hands, as if to say, "Here we go again."

"Hasn't the construction of that abandoned building been going on for quite a while? Isn't it about time it's finished? It's been really noisy for a long time."

"Didn't they finish the roof last time?"

"I heard they're working on some stairs or something. Still, it's pretty fast considering everything."

The man working on the mural near the abandoned building turned his head. The loud noise came through the headphones that weren't playing any music.

The construction team joined the public art project shortly after it started and worked day and night. There were no residents to complain about the noise, and they were paid promptly for their hours, so the work progressed quite quickly.

"From what I heard, it takes a long time just to design. They have to coordinate and get construction permits and all that..."

Most people at the site didn't know that for buildings under 200 square meters and less than three stories, only a notification was required, and it usually took only five days to be approved.

"Well, since it's a government project, they must have done everything legally."

"Right. The project manager must have taken care of everything."

At the mention of the project manager, people nodded, thinking of Ryu Su-hun, who was known for his efficient work, though he was not prone to mistakes.

"Still, what exactly are they building?"

Yongshin Land is not reopening. I heard they plan to operate it as a theme photography studio to use the cheaply bought land efficiently.

So, the only expected profit would be from admission tickets. But why are they doing so much construction? It's hard to understand.

And the same confusion was shared by the construction team of Yoon Soon-chul Architects.

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.

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"Wow, it's really impressive."

"What is?"

Yoon Soon-chul, the head of Yoon Soon-chul Architects, who was supervising the site, poked his head out at the sound from his subordinate, Ahn Dae-hong's phone.

"This. You must know about it, sir?"

"What... Oh."

On the phone screen was a sculpture.

"This was made by a high school student. He's being called the modern Michelangelo of Korea or something."

"Foreigners say it's all a setup."

"I haven't seen it, so I can't say. Oh, they want him to come to Korea, right?"

Ahn Dae-hong passionately argued that the marble might crack if it went on a world tour, and it seemed like he could have made it himself.

There are many young MZs or something who are strong supporters of Kang Seok.

"Was that you?"

"Me?"

"No, it wasn't."

Yoon Soon-chul turned his head, his interest waning. Whether the sculpture was well-made or not was not his concern. Yoon Soon-chul, despite dabbling in the art world through architecture, was a middle-aged man grounded in reality.

Now, he just wanted to make more money. He wanted to buy Bitcoin in a time loop. What would he do if the lottery ticket he bought on Monday won?

Yoon Soon-chul looked at the design plans while thinking about these things. The plans for the major renovation were simple, perhaps too simple.

Since the original purpose was a gift shop in the amusement park, the structure had a two-story open space for stacking dolls, and the plan was to change the central roof to a glass dome and add a large staircase leading up to it.

And to install blackout curtains on all windows to prevent light from passing through.

That was it.

It was almost embarrassing to call it a major renovation.

Well, for a gift shop under 60 pyeong, there wasn't much else to do besides this.

"That's a unique person."

Who requested this, and for what purpose? He was curious, even though he would just do the work and take the money. The short poem written in the corner of the plans added to his curiosity.

.

.

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While slowly reading the short poem with his eyes,

Ahn Dae-hong poked his head out to see what Yoon Soon-chul was looking at in the plans.

"But thinking about it, this person is also Kang Seok."

"Hmm?"

What?

When Yoon Soon-chul looked at Ahn Dae-hong, who seemed to have forgotten something, Ahn Dae-hong waved his phone.

"I mean, the Korean Michelangelo. His name is Kang Seok, right? And the designer of these plans is also named Kang Seok, right?"

Ryu Su-hun, the secretary, had mentioned that the designer of these plans was named Kang Seok.

"Can't be... the same person?"

"No way."

Yoon Soon-chul laughed it off, saying it was absurd. Even though it was a simple design that a non-architect could do, it was still a major renovation.

A major renovation involves altering some of the main structural components of a building, whether it's a wall, column, roof, or stairs. None of these changes are easy.

I heard a rumor that the same person who painted the Creation of Adam in the Renaissance Mall was also Kang Seok. So, he's involved in painting, sculpture, and architecture?

He's not the real Michelangelo. Ha ha. Yoon Soon-chul shook his head, saying it was absurd, and then adjusted the plans.

"Let's get back to work. We don't have much left, right?"

He looked at Ahn Dae-hong, who was still staring at his phone, and told him to focus on his tasks. Regardless of who the designer was, the project was almost complete.

Yoon Soon-chul smiled, looking forward to it.

* * * *

While the abandoned building at Yongshin Land was being prepared to welcome Kang Seok, Kang Seok was sitting on a bench in a secluded corner of the ecological park, drawing a picture.

Jo Dong-beom was closely observing Kang Seok's eyes from a nearby distance.

'Scary...'

Now I understand. Watching him draw outside the dark glass studio, Kang Seok's eyes were truly terrifying.

'No wonder he's called the marble cutter.'

His eyes, which observed the butterflies flying in the greenhouse, flickered several times a second.

They grew larger, smaller, rapidly flickered, stopped, trembled, and were in chaos. In layman's terms, they were pure madness.

What is this? It's scary, help.

The expletives were being swallowed in Jo Dong-beom's mouth.

Regardless,

Kang Seok's eyes continued to flicker, and his hands moved without stopping. It was impossible to tell how many colors he used for a single butterfly.

When he saw the endless variety of colored pencils from different brands in his bag, Jo Dong-beom wondered how he planned to use them all, but now he was worried that Kang Seok had brought too few.

'Does it really take so many colored pencils to draw one butterfly?'

Jo Dong-beom looked at the butterfly with a puzzled expression, the one Kang Seok was clearly observing.

'Let's see... how many colors are there?'

Color, strictly speaking, is not a concept that can be precisely divided into numbers, but... Jo Dong-beom crossed his arms.

According to James Clerk Maxwell, humans are structured to see an infinite number of colors within the visible light spectrum of 380 to 780 nanometers.

Jo Dong-beom pulled this concept from his distant memory of university.

Purple at around 400 nanometers.

Blue at 450 nanometers.

Green at 550 nanometers.

Yellow at around 630 nanometers.

Red at 700 nanometers.

The principle of the rainbow spectrum came to mind as if he had just learned it yesterday.

380 to 780 nanometers.

This is the range of colors that we, as humans, can perceive.

'If I remember correctly, it's about a million colors...'

Of course, just because we can perceive them doesn't mean we can distinguish them. I remember learning that out of a million colors, humans can distinguish about 100,000, with significant individual differences.

100,000 out of a million.

That's still an incredibly large number.

'But in our daily lives, we use only about 30 colors at most.'

That's all.

We have the ability to distinguish 100,000 colors but don't use them in our daily lives, and we don't even feel the need to name all the colors.

Only professionals memorize and use RGB color codes.

In any case,

Jo Dong-beom, a graduate of an art school, prided himself on his color perception.

Feeling that it was a good opportunity while waiting for Kang Seok to finish his drawing, Jo Dong-beom started a game to count how many colors were on the butterfly's wings.

Jo Dong-beom's eyes followed the colors created by the reflection of the scales on the butterfly's wings, which varied depending on the angle and layer.

It was instantaneous.

'Thirty.'

Exactly thirty.

Just thirty.

Jo Dong-beom looked at Kang Seok with a puzzled expression. Kang Seok was still pulling out colored pencils from his case.

120 colors, 150 colors, 82 colors, from different brands, Kang Seok was pulling out colored pencils with all ten fingers, and Jo Dong-beom watched him with a puzzled look.

'Does it really take so many colors?'

Kang Seok usually approached things based on reality. He wasn't the type to pull out non-existent colors to create impressionistic effects like the light painters.

So, if all these colors were actually used, Jo Dong-beom couldn't contain his curiosity and walked over to stand behind Kang Seok.

He looked at the drawing, holding his breath.

'This... this is?'

It was exactly the same as the real thing.

A butterfly that was exactly the same, with no deviation.

It was so well-drawn that it seemed like it could fly away at any moment. It looked like a photograph, but that wasn't the reason for his amazement.

'How... how is this possible?'

Jo Dong-beom compared the real butterfly and the butterfly in the drawing. They were identical, and it felt like his eyes were being opened.

It was as if the real world was a QHD (1,440p) with about 4 million pixels, and the world in the drawing book was a UHD (4K, 2,160p) with 8 million pixels.

It was like an enlightenment.

'How is this possible?'

To get a better look at Kang Seok's drawing, Jo Dong-beom leaned in closer to the drawing book, almost in a ballet pose, with his feet on the ground and his upper body bent forward.

In the silence, Jo Dong-beom's eyes grew wider and wider, as if they would pop out.

The drawing was that astonishing.

The butterfly in the drawing was exactly the same as the real butterfly, but the colors were different.

'Thirty... thirty-one... thirty-two... thirty-three... thirty-four...!'

This... this was evolution.

63. The sun was red.