Michelangelo Buonarroti The Nature Of David

David, the infamous statue from the works of the young Michelangelo Buonarroti, is widely known today across the globe. The immense piece stands stoic in The Galleria dell'Accademia in Firenze, attracting tourists and enthusiasts year-round, captivating grand audiences for hundreds of years. The beauty that Michelangelo has bestowed upon the world through his statue is rich in history, generating controversy for more than half a millennium throughout the worlds of art, religion and politics.

The origin of David stems from the biblical hero depicted in the First Book of Samuel, the story of war between the Philistines and Israelites. Twice a day for forty days, the Philistine’s champion walks between the lines to challenge the Israelites
In 1466, the sculptor, “Agostino di Duccio, was commissioned by the Opera del Duomo to create the figure for the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore” (Accademia) with intentions to be one of a series of twelve large statues to be positioned high up within the cathedral. Agostino soon went to the quarry in Carrara, selecting the ideal large block of marble. Going against his employer’s demands to cut the block into three separate sections to makes transportation easier; Agostino valued the block too much and chose to keep it as one whole block. Before the marble’s transportation, Agostino roughly chiseled the body of David into the block to reduce weight. However, once the block arrived in Firenze, work to complete the sculpture ceased. In 1475, work was “later carried on by Antonio Rossellino”, but was quickly rejected “due to the presence of too many ‘taroli’, or ‘imperfections’, which may have threatened the stability of such a large statue” (Accademia). The immense block then sat neglected in the exposed courtyard of the Opera del Duomo for 25
Cardinal Piero Soderini requested Andrea Sansovino, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo take look to Agostino’s David to see if the impressive block could be hoisted up. Both da Vinci and Sansovino doubted the feasibility of the project with their current technology; they agreed the marble required three cuts to be maneuvered. The young 26 year old Michelangelo had no desire to hoist the sculpture, or any desire to cut the piece either. He wanted to ‘fix it’, complete the David that neither Agostino nor Rossellino were able to. Thanks to help of Lorenzo de Medici, the same man who contracted Michelangelo to carve the Cupid, he persuaded for two days with the Opera del Duomo Vestry Board to give him a contract to ‘fix’ the David complete the biblical