Oy Vey Gevalt

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.*

plato, my childhood friend... who said
god makes the perfect bed, the carpenter makes a very good bed, and the artist makes an imitation of the carpenter's work

plato was speaking figuratively... he says god makes all the perfect forms, so for every thing there is a perfect form... but

god does not make beds

Ο Θεός δεν κάνει κρεβάτια
God does not make beds

ο ξυλουργός γνωρίζει καλύτερα τη φύση των κλινών
the carpenter knows better the nature of the beds
(google greek)

 

If you please.

Well then, here are three beds: one existing in nature, which is made by God, as I think that we may say --for no one else can be the maker?

No.

There is another which is the work of the carpenter?

Yes.

And the work of the painter is a third?

Yes.

Beds, then, are of three kinds, and there are three artists who superintend them: God, the maker of the bed, and the painter?

....

Yes, there are three of them.

God, whether from choice or from necessity, made one bed in nature and one only; two or more such ideal beds neither ever have been nor ever will be made by God.

Why is that?

Because even if He had made but two, a third would still appear behind them which both of them would have for their idea, and that would be the ideal bed and the two others.

Very true, he said.

God knew this, and He desired to be the real maker of a real bed, not a particular maker of a particular bed, and therefore He created a bed which is essentially and by nature one only.

So we believe.

Shall we, then, speak of Him as the natural author or maker of the bed?

Yes, he replied; inasmuch as by the natural process of creation He is the author of this and of all other things.

And what shall we say of the carpenter --is not he also the maker of the bed?

Yes.
But would you call the painter a creator and maker?
Certainly not.
Yet if he is not the maker, what is he in relation to the bed?
I think, he said, that we may fairly designate him as the imitator of that which the others make.

Good, I said; then you call him who is third in the descent from nature an imitator?

Of appearance.
Then the imitator, I said, is a long way off the truth, and can do all things because he lightly touches on a small part of them, and that part an image. For example: A painter will paint a cobbler, carpenter, or any other artist, though he knows nothing of their arts; and, if he is a good artist, he may deceive children or simple persons, when he shows them his picture of a carpenter from a distance, and they will fancy that they are looking at a real carpenter.

I have here a painting that needs repair -- a fleck of background is chipped... nude w drapery sitting on a chair... thirty years later I see the chair is missing a rung.. so the painting has always lacked stability.. and I, the imitator did not do a good job representing the carpenter's art... even worse... it took 30 years to notice it.
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* Corinthians 1:13 
* Plato's Republic