For 140 years, the gallery of the Florentine Academy of Fine Arts has exhibited the world-famous masterpiece of Italian Renaissance genius - a sculpture of David. Michelangelo, who created the statue of the biblical hero, showed the world a creation that has been admiring for more than five centuries and is considered the standard of reliability of the image of the human body.
The story of David
The master got a marble block of impressive size from the mines of Carrara, on which two sculptures worked before him, abandoning the difficult task of creating a work of art from the proposed material. The curators of the church of Santa Maria del Fiore, which the sculpture was originally intended to decorate, was instructed to complete the statue immortalizing the beautiful body that David possessed, Michelangelo Buonarroti, known for the fact that by the age of 26 he had already created the bas-reliefs “Madonna at the Stairs” and “The Battle of the Centaurs”, as well as the figures of the Virgin Mary and Christ (the outstanding work “Pieta”). In 1504, Michelangelo finished his work, and a five-meter statue dedicated to the heroic deed of the biblical hero reached its podium at the Palazzo Vecchio in Piazza Signoria, where it stood for more than 360 years, representing the symbol of the Florentine Republic. Due to the riots that broke out in the city in 1527, the left arm of the marble youth was damaged. For many years, “David” Michelangelo was exposed to the sun, precipitation and wind.
City authorities noticed the destructive effect of the environment only in 1843. Then they ordered to wash the statue, and after 30 years they found a more suitable room, where Michelangelo's “David” created was transferred. The photo shows a statue located in the building of the Academy of Fine Arts, where it is reliably protected from the effects of destructive factors, mainly toxic gases. Moving a masterpiece was quite difficult because of its gigantic size and weight. But the inhabitants of Florence came up with a special device with which they coped with the most difficult task. Michelangelo's “David” was the first sculpture of considerable size in the world to be transported to shelter in order to save beauty. However, Signoria Square has not lost one of its main attractions, since an exact copy of the work of the great master in 1910 took the place of the original.
Immortal High Renaissance Monument
Visitors constantly come to the gallery and to the Vecchio palace to get aesthetic pleasure from the work of a brilliant master, to experience a sense of admiration for the triumph of the human spirit, physical perfection and inner beauty of a young man, his courage and readiness for battle.
In the era when the great sculptor, artist and poet Michelangelo Buonarroti lived, and in later times, the statue was lit only by sunlight. The proud image of David, consonant with the era of the High Renaissance with its unshakable faith in the possibilities of man, made a strong impression on his contemporaries. Today, “David” by Michelangelo, who has acquired a new look and additional expressiveness thanks to the possibilities of
artificial lighting, still demonstrates the unsurpassed skill of his brilliant creator.