Seeing the David is compulsory for anyone visiting Florence. The original David, one of the most famous and beautiful sculpture ever created is displayed in the Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze a few streets away from our hotel. To potential visitors, reserving a ticket online beforehand is essential to avoid lines; but entrance is free on the first Sundays of each month. We paid online in advance and the waiting was minimal.
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Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475 – 1564), aged 26 was commissioned in 1501 by the city of Firenze to create a statue on a single block of marble quarried from nearby Carrara.
The sculpture of the biblical hero, David, is depicted before his battle with the giant, Goliath, as described in the Book of Samuel. In the story, David was an Israelite shepherd who volunteered to fight the much bigger Philistine warrior. David was armed with five stones and a sling, and he killed Goliath with a stone that hit Goliath’s head.
The David’s left hand holds a sling that is draped over his shoulder and down to his right hand which grips the handle of the sling. His frown is focused while the twist of his body conveys tension and a readiness to fight. The David’s posture is interestingly different from other statues of David that uses the more common pose of being victorious after slaying the giant.
The statue is 5.17m (17 feet) tall and weighs 5560 kg. When the David was completed in 1504, rather than placing the heavy piece on the roof of the cathedral (Opera di Duomo) as originally intended, a group of prominent artists (among others, Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli) decided to place it at the entrance of Palazzo Vecchio (the seat of the civil government in 1500’s) as a symbol of strength and independence of the Republic.
The David’s nudity was not decided by an artist without reference. The sculpture followed the story in the Book of Samuel as David declined to wear armor even when it was offered to him.
Originally some parts of the David were gilded: a garland on his head, the tree trunk behind the right leg and the sling. Unfortunately, they were lost over time but that gave the sculpture a more timeless look.
The stature stands on a base that is at least 7 to 8 feet high. When you walk up to the statue and look straight, David’s toes would almost be in your face.
In 1873, the David was relocated from Piazza della Signoria to a specially constructed space in the Galleria, where it stands now. In 2003 to 2004, it was given its first major cleaning since 1843. And it is dusted four times a year now.
At the site where the original David was situated, a full-size copy of it was installed in 1910. This replica is the one that most tourists see in the city’s main square.
Several more replicas of the David were made over the years. A bronze version overlooks Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo on a surrounding hilltop.
On the day we were driving out of the city, we could not find parking near Piazzale Michelangelo and missed the sculpture and a panoramic view of the city.
Full scale reproductions of David in plaster and bronze can also be found in museums and art schools around the world including, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, The Museum of Art and History in Brussels, The Museum der bildenden Künste in Leipzig, Germany and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
A popular and storied replica of the David is housed in London’s Victoria and Albert museum (V&A). The Grand Duke of Tuscany gifted Queen Victoria a plaster replica in 1857 and it has been on display since that time. Apparently, a removable, proportionally accurate fig leaf was commissioned to cover up the genitals as it was a shock for the queen when she first saw the statue. But the original fig leaf has since been lost.
More recently in 2023, the David was again the subject of censorship. It happened in Florida, USA where several parents complained that the David was included in a children’s lesson plan resulting in the school principal’s resignation. Read the news article – Is the David statue porn? Come see yourself, Italian museum tells Florida school board.
<< Mini replicas of the David on sale at the gift store
V&A’s plaster replica of the David was scanned by LiDAR to create a full-size replica that was used in the Ridley Scott’s movie – Aliens: Covenant. In a Prologue sequence of the movie, an android and its maker was having a discussion about creation and god, and the android was then named David.
Behind the reception of our hotel (earlier post) was a magnified photograph of the David’s right hand. The presence of a brick wall in the background of this photo suggests that this hand belongs to the 1910 replica standing in Piazza della Signoria.
In an adjoining gallery, with a direct sightline to the David, we saw this statue of a breathless young woman looking up at the David admiringly. The curator of the museum showed us not just great art but also a sense of humor.
To see more of Michelangelo’s works, go to our earlier post showing pictures taken during a private tour of the Vatican Museums in Rome (another trip), where the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was painted by Michelangelo.
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