Here is a statement attributed to Michelangelo in Vasari‘s Lives of the Artists that I keep thinking about:
I’ve always had only too harassing a wife in this demanding art of mine, and the works I leave behind will be my sons. Even if they are nothing, they will live for a while. It would have been a disaster for Lorenzo Ghiberti if he hadn’t made the doors of San Giovanni, seeing that they are still standing whereas his children and grandchildren sold and squandered all he left.
Nice to see you back Karl Zipser!