Il Divino - Michelangelo

We briefly discussed Michelangelo's David at the end of class on Monday. This giant, freestanding statue, was created in 1501 up until 1504. It stands in the Galleria dell' Accademia in Florence. It is made out of Carrara marble, the same kind of marble that was used in Michelangelo's Pieta. The statue was originally intended to be placed in a niche high up on the Cathedral of Florence until it was completed. When Michelangelo revealed his work, they came upon a conclusion that " it was too beautiful to be placed up high" (smarthistory). Instead, the city of Florence decided to place it in front of the Signoria, which if we remember from class is the town hall, for all to see its divine beauty.
The picture to the right is from my visit to Florence in the summer of 2012. This is outside the Signoria where the original would have stood, now it is just a replica. And the picture below is the statue in the Galleria in Florence.

I have actually been to the Galleria dell' Accademia in Florence to see this statue. It is absolutely massive, smarthistory says it is over 14 feet tall. In this picture above you can really get an idea of how big the statue really is. If you look at the bottom you can see the heads of people standing in the crowd. I think the thing that everyone notices when they see this is first how big it is, then the precision and detail Michelangelo uses for the body of David. The detail of his muscles and entire body is so define, it is amazing to think that someone can produce such detail out of a block of marble. When Michelangelo made this statue he was fairly young, the only other major work he did was the Pieta that sits in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/Michelangelo-David.html
Renaissance and Reformation Europe textbook, Zophy. pp 110-111