Hi. Long time no hear from.
No, large hands are not a Renaissance or classical thing. (The Venus de Milo is an older classical Greek piece anyway). I think Michelangelo just felt that hands were really important: to David about to throw the slingshot as well as to the famous sculptor himself. So he made them big.
Yes, sorry about that. Work has been extremely busy, plus I took a bit of a break from politics for a while. I just popped in from time to time. Now that we're in another election year I'll ramp up again. I've really enjoyed your art threads, though.
Speaking of Florence, I'll be going back in June to (ostensibly) attend a conference there. Funny how academic meetings are held in places like Florence and not, say, in places like Duluth or Scranton.