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David
Museum Label:
20th-century bronze cast from the marble original by Migelangelo Buonarotti (Italian,
1475-1564), 1502-1504Location: Accademie, Florence
Chiurazzi description:
David. Master-piece of Michelangelo executed in his early youth and modelled directly from
a large block of marble. Original size: 525 cm |
Description:
The slingshot is held over his shoulder while the other over-sized hand holds the rock.
Destined originally for one of the buttresses of the Duomo, it was placed instead in the
plaza outside the Palazzo Vecchio, the seat of Florence's government. Unlike Donatello,
who depicted his heroic David art with Goliath's head at his feet, Michelangelo's statue
selected the tense moment before the battle.
Bronze Origin:
Museum records state that David was cast in bronze from a mold made in 1874 as part of a
celebration of Michelangelo's 400 year Birthday. Two other "Davids" cast from
the same mold have prominent positions - one overlooks Florence in the Piazzale
Michelangelo and the other is part of the Vatican Collection in Rome.
However: read "The height of David".
A new browser will open. Close after use. Read also Proportions of David.
You can find the original David sculpture in the Galeria dell' Academia in Firenze. The
actual white marble statue of David was started by a different artist, Agostino di Duccio,
in 1463. This monumentally scaled statue of the Biblical David was commissioned as a
symbol of the Florence republic. Michelangelo's David statues stand as a legacy to art
that valued for centuries by society.
Marble Location:
On January 25, 1504, when the marble sculpture was nearing completion, a committee of
Florentine artists including Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro
Botticelli met to decide on an appropriate site for the David. The majority, led
by Giuliano da Sangallo and supported by Leonardo and Piero di Cosimo,
among others, believed that due to the imperfections in the marble the sculpture should be
placed under the roof of the Loggia dei Lanzi on Piazza della Signoria. Only a rather
minor view, supported by Botticelli, believed that the sculpture should be situated on or
near the cathedral. Eventually the David was placed in front of the entrance to the
Palazzo Vecchio, also on Piazza della Signoria, replacing Donatello's bronze sculpture of
Judith and Holofernes, which embodied a comparable theme of heroic resistance.
To protect it from damage, the sculpture was moved in 1873 to the Accademia Gallery in
Florence, where it attracts many visitors. A replica was placed in the Piazza della
Signoria in 1910.
Subject info:
In the Valley of Elah, where the young David who was a shepherd boy that became king of
Israel and slew the giant Goliath with his sling-shot three millennia ago in a battle
between the Israelites and Philistines.
The art subject of the statue has to do with David and Goliath and later david was king of
israel for many years.
Scupture:
Michelangelo's David, sculpted from 1500 to 1504, is a masterpiece of Renaissance
sculpture and one of Michelangelo's two greatest works of sculpture, along with the
Piet . However, it is the David alone that almost certainly holds the title of the most
recognizable statue in the history of art. It has become regarded as a symbol both of
strength and youthful human beauty. The 5.17 meter (17 ft) marble statue portrays the
Biblical King David at the moment that he decides to do battle with Goliath. It came to
symbolise the Florentine Republic, an independent city state threatened on all sides by
more powerful rival states. This interpretation was also encouraged by the original
setting of the sculpture outside the Palazzo della Signoria, the seat of civic government
in Florence. The completed sculpture was unveiled on 8 September 1504.
History
The history of Michelangelo's David precedes his work on it from 1501-1504, as far back as
1464. At that time the Overseers of the Office of Works of the Duomo (Operai), comprised
mostly of members of the influential woolen cloth guild, the Arte della Lana, had plans to
commission a series of twelve large Old Testament sculptures for the buttresses of the
cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. Until then only two had been created independently by
Donatello and his assistant, Agostino di Duccio. Eager to continue their project, in 1464
they again contracted Agostino to create a sculpture of David. He only got as far as
beginning to shape the legs, feet and chest of the figure, roughing out some drapery and
probably gouging a hole between the legs. His association with the project, for reasons
unknown, ceased with the death of his master Donatello in 1466, and Antonio Rossellino was
commissioned to take up where Agostino had left off.
Rossellino's contract was terminated soon thereafter, and the block of marble originally
from a quarry in Carrara, a town in the Apuan Alps in northern Italy, remained neglected
for twenty-five years, all the while exposed to the elements in the yard of the cathedral
workshop. This was of great concern to the Operai authorities, as such a large piece of
marble was both costly, and represented a large amount of labor and difficulty in its
transportation to Florence. In 1500, an inventory of the cathedral workshops described the
piece as, "a certain figure of marble called David, badly blocked out and
supine." A year later, documents showed that the Operai were determined to find an
artist who could take this large piece of marble and turn it into a finished work of art.
They ordered the block of stone, which they called The Giant, "raised on its
feet" so that a master experienced in this kind of work might examine it and express
an opinion. Though Leonardo da Vinci and others were consulted, it was young Michelangelo,
only twenty-six years old, who convinced the Operai that he deserved the commission. On
August 16, 1501, Michelangelo was given the official contract to undertake this
challenging new task. He began carving the statue early in the morning on Monday,
September 13, a month after he was awarded the contract. He would work on the massive
biblical hero for a little more than three years.
Michelangelo's David differs from previous representations of the subject in that David is
depicted before his battle with Goliath and not after the giant's defeat (as he is in
Donatello's and Verrocchio's versions, produced earlier). Instead of being shown
victorious over a foe much larger than he, David looks tense and ready for combat. His
veins bulge out of his lowered right hand and the twist of his body effectively conveys to
the viewer the feeling that he is in motion. The statue is meant to show David after he
has made the decision to fight Goliath but before the battle has actually taken place. It
is a representation of the moment between conscious choice and conscious action.
Copy standing in the original location of the David, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio,
Florence.On January 25, 1504, when the sculpture was nearing completion, a committee of
Florentine artists including Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli met to decide on an
appropriate site for the David. The majority, led by Giuliano da Sangallo and supported by
Leonardo and Piero di Cosimo, among others, believed that due to the imperfections in the
marble the sculpture should be placed under the roof of the Loggia dei Lanzi on Piazza
della Signoria. Only a rather minor view, supported by Botticelli, believed that the
sculpture should be situated on or near the cathedral. Eventually the David was placed in
front of the entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio, also on Piazza della Signoria, replacing
Donatello's bronze sculpture of Judith and Holofernes, which embodied a comparable theme
of heroic resistance.
To protect it from damage, the sculpture was moved in 1873 to the Accademia Gallery in
Florence, where it attracts many visitors. A replica was placed in the Piazza della
Signoria in 1910.
More information on other sculpture.
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