Michelangelo Completes David: Renaissance Masterpiece
Michelangelo began carving David from a massive block of Carrara marble that two previous sculptors had abandoned as unworkable. The block, known as "The Giant," had been sitting in the cathedral workshop for 25 years when the 26-year-old Michelangelo accepted the commission in 1501. He worked for two years, completing the 17-foot statue on September 8, 1504. A committee including Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli debated where to place it; they chose the Piazza della Signoria, Florence's political center, where David stood as a symbol of republican defiance against tyranny. The statue's unprecedented anatomical realism, from the tensed tendons in the hand to the veins in the arm, permanently raised the standard for figurative sculpture.
September 8, 1504
522 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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