Anyone who has traveled to florence You will agree with me that it is a special city, where art appears in any nook or corner, a city created to be admired. There is a street that could well go unnoticed, another cobbled street in Florence, a street that hides one of the most beautiful treasures of the Renaissance. A sculpture that from the bottom of the Galleria dell’Accademia, stare at anyone who approaches to contemplate that imposing figure. Michelangelo’s Davidlet’s know its characteristics, its history, and also some curiosity about this colossal size sculpture.
Michelangelo’s David | Historic moment
When Cosimo de’ Medici managed to become Signore in 1434 of the city of Florence, the power of a banking dynasty who directed the designs of Florence during practically the entire Renaissance. Sixty years of a dynasty that provided four signori for the government of the city, until in 1494 the last Signore Pedro de Médici surrendered before the sudden fall of the Kingdom of Naples by King Charles VIII of France.
Faced with a population dissatisfied with the situation and the multiple revolts, the religious Savonarola took advantage of the situation to launch the crowd against the Medici and thus topple a tyrannical government, full of intrigues and violence.
The enraged people entered the family palace looting everything they found, once the Medici were overthrown, they proclaimed the Republic of Florenceall under the control of religious Savonarola.
Now the new republic would be governed by an official called pennant of justice and 8 priors. Savonarola persecuted everything that was considered vain or sinful. In the Signoria Squarea fire was created where everything that incited to sin would be burned, it was the so-called bonfire of the vanities and she was forceds both Michelangelo and Botticelli to launch some of their works because they are considered sinful.
But one thing was Savonarola in Florence and another thing was the papal power and at that time the Borgia family, specifically the pope Alexander VIbegan to consider him a possible rival, a suspicion that ended the life of the religious, curiously in the same bonfire of the vanities, under the charges of treason, disobedience and disregard of the precept.
In 1502, Piero Soderini, he would become a confalonier of justice for life, thus holding the highest authority in Florence. A power as absolute and total as the one that came to have the Medici dynasty, who still had sectors that yearned for his return.
This is the historical situation in which our protagonist Miguel Ángel, developed part of his work and specifically it is the time in which the Biblical David enters history perhaps the most beautiful human sculpture ever created.
«Pick a man and let him come against me. If you can fight with me and defeat me, we will be your servants; but if I prevail over him and kill him, you will be our slaves«
A little boy appeared from the crowd, a shepherd named David. That boy put his hand in his bag, took out a stone, put it in the sling and fired. The giant fell to the ground with a tremendous impact from the stone in the middle of the forehead. Running, David approached him, took his sword and beheaded the giant Goliath.
Michelangelo’s David | The Birth of David
For centuries this story has served all generations as an example of courage, of security, to realize that anything, no matter how great and difficult it may be, we can overcome if we set our minds to it. This same story, long ago, also captivated the Florentines, who saw in his figure a reflection of the qualities of Florence. Courage to confront a small republic like the Florentine one, an entire Italian republic, and beauty, the one that Florence has in each of the corners of the city. That September 13, 1501, David, the king of Israel, was linked to the history of Florence forever.
But this was not the original idea. The huge marble stone that had been stored for years (since the mid-15th century) in the property of the Arte da Lana (Florence weavers’ guild) was known as “the giant”, even before it was carved. It was intended as a sculpture of some prophet for the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiori. It was the time of the papacy of Alexander VI, of Pope Borgia; It was the time just after the fall of the Medici in Florence, and it was also the time when the star of a well-known Tuscan artist, Michelangelo Buonarroti, was beginning to shine.
However, that stone did not end up in the hands of Michelangelo in the first place. It was Augustine di Duccio who faced such a task. The year was 1460, and di Duccio only managed to empty part of the marble, but in such a way that he rendered the stone almost useless. For this reason, that marble was left abandoned and was hidden for so many years.
The turn of the century brought new ideas, such as facing the project again but dedicating it to David. The work was offered, and three artists volunteered: Andrea Sansovino, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti. The first was quickly discarded, and the choice was between the last two. Leonardo had just sculpted a huge terracotta horse for the Sforzas of Milan, which unfortunately had been destroyed by French troops. Michelangelo came from sculpting the superb Pietà in Rome.
What decided the choice was the assurance given by Michelangelo that with the block of marble that was placed in his hands he would be able to build that colossal statue, without the need for more stones, and, moreover, to do it «former one stone«, that is, in a single piece, a style that was considered only suitable for masterpieces.
The work began on September 13, 1501. In the most absolute of secrets Miguel Angel locked himself up with his work, and only on June 23, 1503 did he let the citizens see something of it. In May 1504, Michelangelo finished what is considered the most beautiful and perfect sculpture in the world.
But its history did not end there, because the details of its location were already controversial. Initially, the idea was to place it in the cathedral leaning on a buttress, but then the rear view of the statue was lost, and among that, the view of the sling that went on the back.
In January 1504, 32 renowned artists and citizens of the city of Florence met to find a site for it. It was decided that it would be in the Lady’s Square. But the controversy did not stop there, because that threatening look of the statue; those eyes that seemed to come to life in marble were a politically crucial issue.
If they put it facing Pisa, it would signify Florence’s desire to reconquer Pisa, a city that had already been Florentine. If she were facing Rome, it would seem to be a look of spite towards a place where Pope Alexander VI had sheltered the Medici who had been expelled from the city by the Florentine government.
Finally, however, the latter was chosen, and such was the rejection among the common people that in the four days it took to move the David from the workshop to its location, he was stoned. On September 8, 1504, the statue was inaugurated.
Size, weight and anatomy of Michelangelo’s David
The Republic of Florence did not take long to take as its symbol a David who proudly and indomitably presumed to be the victory of man against the tyrant. In addition to being one of the most recognized sculptures in the world, it is also the most representative of the Renaissance (15th and 16th centuries).
The statue that represents King David in his confrontation with the giant Goliath, measures no less than 4.10 meters high with a weight of 5.5 tons. It was carved on a block of Carrara marble, which for the Romans of that time was called “Lunense marble”. Today Michelangelo’s old David is over 510 years old and his anatomy bears some rather strange features.
To begin with and, according to specialized sculptors, his head is too big for the age it represents, in what also has too long arms, and disproportionate hands. His hips are also too skinny compared to his torso.
However, there is no doubt that the sculpture is sculpted in a very meticulous and detailed way despite having been raised on a block of marble abandoned for more than 40 years in the workshops of the Florence Duomo. If we look a little closer, we can see thatand his eyes are full of drama.
Although his musculature and anatomy make him constantly tense, neither the marks of the tendons nor the veins make him seem violent.
Michelangelo’s David | Curiosities of Michelangelo’s David
There are many anecdotes and oddities that have haunted Michelangelo’s David since the sculpture was erected in 1504. These are some of them:
1. The block of marble on which the sculpture was carved had been discarded a dozen times before by other Renaissance artists.
2. Michelangelo’s David is a sculpture orphan of brothers despite the fact that, at that time, the elaboration of 12 more sculptures that represented characters from the Old Testament, such as Joshua, Jonah, Moses or Abraham. All of them would be placed outside the Cathedral of Santa Maria de las Flores in Florence.
3. Michelangelo did not want to dress his David with any garment because nudity symbolized the man in harmony with nature and its native resistance to the elements.
4. Michelangelo’s David has “slimmed down” since its creation in 1504. In the past, the sculpture contained some elements of Prayed, especially at its base. These elements symbolized nobility, splendor, prosperity, wisdom, magnanimity, power and light in man. The details in gold were excluded when, at first, the Italian people rejected the statue.
5. It took 40 men and 4 whole days to be able to transport sculpture to his resting place to Piazza della Signoria.
6. The decision to put the David in that square raised a lot of controversy among the population, since the stature would be facing Rome, where Pope Alexander VI had his headquarters, who had given shelter to the Medici.
7. Many know that Miguel Angel he was a man with a bad temper, a rude, unpleasant guy and not very much in favor of making new friends. Moreover, it is shown that he and Leonardo da Vinci hated each other, and that he only maintained an exquisite friendship (who knows if something else) with the poet Vittoria Colonna.
8. Uncircumcised. Many did not understand how David, being of Jewish origin, since he represented the famous David who killed Goliath, was not circumcised. The circumcision It is performed after a few years of life and, sometimes, after a few months of life, which is why many were surprised and complained of a uncircumcised jew.
This inconsistency was justified by some critics and historians of the time, explaining that it represented a…