Plans are meant to be changed, right?

So I was exploring Ouro Preto today, visiting the various churches and museums, when I found a piece that stopped me in my tracks. Normally, despite it's beauty, religious art bores me - the subject usually being either a display of the suffering of christ, designed to inspire shame and guilt, or a display of the wealth of the church, designed to inspire inferiority and meek submission. This piece, however, was different. It was one of Aleijadinhos last and most brilliant works - a larger than life stone statue of the prophet Daniel. Rather than bowing and scraping to images of the light, the figure stood tall, embodying the things I respect about religion - the pride, self respect and inner peace that it can inspire.

I discovered that the piece is actually a replica; the real work, and it's 15 brothers, surround a church not too far from here. I'm heading there tonight. Colegio do Caraca can wait!