This Day in History: 8 September 2020
8 September 1504
516 years ago, today, Bounarroti Michelangelo's 'David' masterpiece was unveiled to the public in Florence. Afterwards, a committee including Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli decided that the statue should be placed in a more public location. The lifting of more than 6 tons of marble onto the roof added another set of complications. Once it was decided that it would reside in the Piazza della Signoria, it took 40 men four days to move the statue half a mile. After almost 400 years, in 1873, 'David' was moved indoors to the Galleria dell'Accademia to protect it from damage.
The massive statue depicts a nude David, the Biblical hero who used a slingshot to slay the giant Goliath. Rejected by other artists for being flawed, Michelangelo carved it from a single block of white Italian Carrara marble. Three years before it's unveiling, the work was commissioned by the Opera del Duomo for the Cathedral of Florence. It was set to be part of a series of other statues to be located along the roofline of the cathedral. While most depictions of David feature a boy, Michelangelo's version was a muscular man. The statue is widely considered as one of the finest examples of High Renaissance art.
Want to find out more about the 'David' statue? Click here for more information, or here for a video about the statue.
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