Most people agree that one of the greatest statues ever made was Michelangelo’s David, in Florence, Italy. David was a hero in the Bible. As a young boy, he fought and killed a giant, Goliath, using only a sling and a small rock, inspiring his army to victory.
The Florence Cathedral first decided to have the statue made in 1464 to stand on its roof, along with statues of other heroes from the Bible. Consequently, they purchased a block of white marble more than 5 metres in length and 6,000 kilograms in weight. Over the years, two different sculptors attempted to work on the statue. However, both gave up, complaining that the marble was of poor quality. Worse yet, it appeared that the last sculptor had ruined the marble by cutting a huge hole in it for the gap between David’s legs. The hole had an odd shape, and left very little material on either side to work with. Everyone thought it would be impossible to carve the statue’s legs properly, and that they would be too thin—unable to hold the weight of the rest of the statue.
Thus, for 25 years, the marble lay in the yard of the cathedral’s workshop with no one working on it. In 1501, the cathedral invited many artists, including Leonardo da Vinci, to come and work on the project. All of these artists declined. Finally, Michelangelo (1475–1564) took on the challenge. At 26 years old, Michelangelo had already completed his other great sculpture, the Pieta, and was making a name for himself as a great artist.
For more than two years, Michelangelo worked on David day and night, rain and shine, until it was completed. No one knows exactly how David was made. Michelangelo refused to let others see him work or see his artwork until it was completed. Michelangelo’s friend Giorgio Vasari claimed that Michelangelo made a small model of the sculpture, laid it on its back, and then covered it in water. Michelangelo then took away some of the water until a bit of the model appeared, and carved that bit into the marble. He continued doing this, little by little, until the sculpture was finished. This was what Vasari claimed, but this was just a guess: Michelangelo kept his methods a secret from everyone, even Vasari. Indeed, years after he carved David, Michelangelo was working on another work of art, deep into the night. Vasari tried to sneak in to see Michelangelo at work. However, as soon as Michelangelo realised that the door had been opened, he quickly blew out the candles so that the room became dark and his visitor could see nothing.
When Michelangelo finally revealed his statue to the people of Florence, everyone was amazed. They knew at once that it was the greatest work they had ever seen. Not only was it a beautiful work of art, it was different from all other statues of David ever made. Unlike other statues of David, which showed him as a little boy wearing armour, Michelangelo’s David was a naked young man. Other statues always showed David after the battle. Michelangelo’s David is before the battle, looking ahead in confidence, with his sling across his shoulder. He shows no fear of his enemy, and he is already looking ahead to victory.
Many people have noted that while the statue is called David, it does not remind them of a hero in the Bible. Rather, it looks like one of those statues of Greek gods that are regarded as some of the greatest works of art ever produced. Nevertheless, anyone seeing the statue for the first time would probably agree that his David is an extraordinary masterpiece.
One fascinating thing about the statue is how imperfect it is, yet how perfect it seems. David stands with his left foot forward, and all his weight is on his right foot. Given how narrow his legs are and how much he leans to his right, one would think that the statue would break or fall over, yet it still stands more than 500 years later. David’s head and hands are also larger than they should be. In fact, his right hand is enormous. Finally, the statue is quite narrow from front to back—by proportion much narrower than most people are in real life. This is due to the fact that the marble was too narrow to begin with. Yet, somehow, even when viewed from the side, the statue still works and still looks realistic. Everything looks perfect, even if it is not.
Those who first saw the statue certainly thought that it was perfect. Indeed, they thought the statue was too good to go on top of the cathedral where people would have trouble seeing it. In truth, even if they had decided to put it on top of the cathedral, given its weight, they had no way to lift it that high. Indeed, they were not sure how they could move it from the workshop yard without breaking it. Finally, after great effort and much care, they moved the statue to the main square of the city. There, it quickly became a symbol of the city of Florence. The people were all inspired by the way David looked ahead without fear of the future. However, in time, the statue became damaged by rain, snow, and wind. In order to protect the statue from further damage, in 1873 it was moved inside to the Gallery of the Academy in Florence, where today it is visited by up to three million people a year.