David
Item
-
Title
-
David
-
Creator/author/artist of the original item
-
Michelangelo
-
Date
-
1504
-
Description
-
Commissioned by the city of Florence, Michelangelo’s *David* serves as a strong example of the changes Europe was experiencing during the Renaissance. Instead of portraying the young shepherd David in his traditional moment of victory over the giant Goliath, Michelangelo opted to depict a concentrated David preparing for battle intently. The statue celebrates a time that a republican government ousted the Medici family from power. From 1504 to 1873, the statue stood on the main city square, before it was moved inside to the Galleria dell’Accademia for protection from weather. The brilliance of *David* lies in its craftsmanship, a testament to the “innovative style” developed in this time by “artists, especially in Italy,” who “tried to achieve a sense of balance, proportion, and harmony in their buildings, depictions of the human form, and portrayal of the natural world” (Wiesner-Hanks 153). Michelangelo also exemplifies Renaissance-era changing conceptions around the role of artists. Italian painter and architect Giorgio Vasari popularized the notion of the creative genius and dubbed “skilled and highly trained artisans” in the select “major arts” of “painting, sculpture, and architecture” (like Michelangelo) as significant individuals who “should sign and take full credit for their work” (Wiesner-Hanks 128). It is also important to note that the influx of unique new cultural products was part of a broader movement popularizing the revaluation of classical arts and texts and engendering new perspectives on political life, gender roles, and literacy.
-
Place
-
Florence, Italy
-
Source Citation
-
Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E. *Early Modern Europe, 1450-1789*. 3rd ed. of *Cambridge History of Europe*. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022.
-
Michelangelo, *David*, 1504, Marble Sculpture, Florence, Galleria dell'Accademia,
-
Rights / License
-
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
