David

Give the index card for David

David, Michelangelo, 1501-04, 497 cm, Carraran Marble (a single block), Galleria dell’ Accademia, Florence

Give the elements for a thumbnail sketch of David

• Nude

• Muscular

• On a plinth

• Considering attacking Goliath

• Faces to the right

• Rest of the body is turned towards the left

• Right hand is raised beneath his chin

• Right hand contains the stone he will use to strike Goliath

• Behind his left leg is a tree stump

• Wears a sling across his torso

What is the purpose of the tree stump?

• A source of structural support

• Marble is a low tensile material

Is this piece secular or religious? Why?

• Religious

• David is a biblical figure from the Old Testament

Who is David? How does he kill Goliath?

• David is a shepherd

• He refuses armour to kill Goliath, and instead uses his slingshot

What does David traditionally symbolise? How would this have been relevant in Michelangelo’s time?

• David symbolises the plucky hero who goes against a much larger foe

• In his Florentine context of the late 15/ early 16th century, David symbolises Florence, threatened by its stronger neighbours and the Medici

Who gave Michelangelo the commission? Is it a religious or civic patronage?

• The Guild of Wool Merchants

• The Guild was also responsible for the decoration and maintenance of the Florence cathedral

• It is both a religious and civic patronage, as it was commissioned by a guild for a cathedral

Was David an isolated project?

• No

• It was part of a larger project for a series of statues that would be placed on the exterior of the Florence Cathedral

• Some pieces had already been finished

How much freedom did Michelangelo have with the composition?

• Very little

• The block of marble he used had already been unsuccessfully attempted 40 years earlier, and had been deemed “badly blocked”

• This meant that Micjelangelo had little flexibility in the composition of the statue

How did Michelangelo approach carving the sculpture?

He sculpted directly into it

Give two short critical quotations by Martin Kemp on Michelangelo’s sculpting technique

“moving intuitively through the mass of marble”, indicating “a power of spatial visualisation which as never been surpassed”. — Martin Kemp

How did Michelangelo’s technique reflect his philosphical beliefs? Give a critical quotation

He “believed that the artist’s task is sculpting […] to reveal the ideal form within, an expresison of his neo-Platonic belief that body and separate and […] strive to attain union within one another and with the divine.” — Jeremy Agar

Give a critical quotation by Margaret Ashton on David

“It became a symbol of the republic […] and is now almost a symbol of the Renaissance itself […] noble, confident and invincible.”

Give a critical quotation on Michelangelo’s depiction of the human body.

“With Michelangelo anatomical science is transformed into music.” — Umberto Boccioni

Give a contemporary critical quotation on how David compared to Classical sculpture

“With David, he was widely held to have surpassed the skill and beauty achieved by the sculptors of Classical Antiquity.” — Penny Huntsman

Give a contemporaneous quotation on how Michelangelo’s skill relates to those of Classical sculptors

“Without doubt, the figure has put into shade every other statue, ancient or modern, Greek or Roman.” — Vasari

Give an explanation for David’s stance

His slight contrapposto stance is due to his previous blocking, as it would not have allowed for more

How does his right leg appear relative to his left?

Weightless and ready for action, as opposed to his firmly rooted left

How are his hands scaled relative to the rest of his body?

• They oversized

• This is likely to draw attention to a key part of the narrative

Where is David’s gaze directed?

Into the distance, presumably at Goliath

Is Michelangelo idealised? Why?

• Yes

• Renaissance sculptors were heavily influenced by the classical ideal of male beauty

Where was David originally displayed? Why is he not there anymore?

• After David was created, it was realised that lifting him up to the the cathedral roof would be impossible

• He was therefore installed in the Piazza Vecchio, wearing a fig leaf to protect the viewers’ modesty

• He was moved to the Accademia in 1873 after sustaining weather damage