Michelangelo's David

On September 8, 1504, the republic of Florence unveiled Michelangelo's David in front of the Palazzo Vecchio, the city's town hall. The statue, about five meters tall including its base and weighing more than five tonnes, shows the young shepherd of the Bible just before he faces Goliath, tense and watchful, with the sling over his shoulder. Michelangelo began carving it in 1501 at the age of 26 and finished it in about three years.¹²

The marble was already a local legend. A huge block of Carrara marble had been quarried in the 1460s for the cathedral workshop, roughed out by one sculptor and abandoned by another because of flaws. Florence had recently expelled the Medici family, in 1494, and become a republic proud of its freedom, and the story of the small David defeating the giant was a favorite civic symbol. The cathedral board gave the block to the young Michelangelo, who had already made his Pieta in Rome. A committee that included Leonardo da Vinci and Botticelli advised on where to put the statue, and chose the square outside the town hall.¹

Earlier artists, such as Donatello, had shown David after his victory, often as a boy. Michelangelo chose the moment of tension before the fight and a heroic adult nude body in the classical manner, balanced in contrapposto, with the weight on one leg. The detail, anatomy and scale set a new standard for Renaissance sculpture. The statue was later damaged in a riot in 1527, and moved indoors in 1873 to the Accademia Gallery, where it stands today; a copy stands in the square. Its image became one of the most famous works of art in the world.¹²