The author's description of first encountering the statue is carelessly grandiose. Do people actually have these kinds of reactions to things that are so static and overt? In order to find nuance in something like that, you either need to have extensive background context and deep insight into the mind of the artist or else your pontifications at some point say more about you than the art. Once that happens, you run the risk of sounding some combination of pretentious and disingenuous.