Media Information

 
 
 
Collection:
ADJUNCT MODULE A: ITALIAN ART
Preferred Title:
David
Image View:
Overall three-quarter view, looking up from left side
Creator:
Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian sculptor, 1475-1564)
Location:
repository: Galleria dell'Accademia (Florence, Tuscany, Italy)
Location Note:
58-60 via Ricasoli
GPS:
43.77694 11.25873
Date:
1501-1504 (creation); restored 2003-2004 (restoration)
Cultural Context:
Italian
Style Period:
Renaissance
Work Type 1:
sculpture (visual work)
Classification:
sculpture
Material:
Carrara marble
Technique:
carving (processes)
Measurements:
17 ft (height, without base)
Description:
The marble block used for the David had been roughed out and abandoned by Agostino del Duccio and Michelangelo was thus required to work within predetermined constraints. Some peculiarities of the work, such as the relative shallowness of the lateral views of the figure, may be due to the existing shape of the marble; Vasari claimed that the splayed legs were determined by earlier piercing of the block. The work's significance does not lie in its technical ingenuity, however. The David is the first of Michelangelo's surviving depictions of the heroic male nude in which the entire emotional charge is carried by the articulation and twist of the body and limbs against the head. Stripped of all attributes but the minimal sling, this David carries no sword, and not even the head of Goliath distracts from his stark nudity. [To protect it from damage, the sculpture was moved in 1873 to the Accademia in Florence. A replica was placed in the original location in the Piazza della Signoria in 1910.] (Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.oxfordart online.com/)
Collection:
Adjunct Module A: Italian Art
Identifier:
1A1-MB-D2-C01
Rights:
© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.

David