Italy #2: Statue of David

Michelangelo’s David. It was commissioned by Florence’s famous cathedral, the Opera del Duomo, to be placed on the roofline. But it proved too heavy and was instead placed in a public square. In the 1800’s, it was moved into the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence to protect it from damage.

 

The statue is huge (17 feet tall) and stands on a pedestal which is 7’6” tall, so it looks even taller. Our guide pointed out that it is placed under a skylight (dome light) so you see it in natural lighting which enhances its visual impact. Mission accomplished – right from the moment we saw it from a distance.

 

You can walk around the pedestal to view it from multiple angles. Our guide first gave us the frontal view we know. A man, not the Biblical boy who slayed Goliath (Michelangelo intended to depict David as the “pinnacle of male perfection”, hence as a man, not a boy). The scene is right before the battle with Goliath, breaking the traditional depictions of the time (which always showed David after his triumph, with Goliath’s head at his feet). Tall, muscular, confident. 

Then he took us to view it from a different angle. Just look at the face and arm (pic below, left half).

The sling held almost causally over his shoulder. How realistic his forearm (muscles, veins, everything), wrist and hand position look. After a pause, he told us to zoom into his eyes (pic above, right half). Not so confident, is he? Some apprehension, the nervousness and tension before a big battle. You can’t see any of that from the front, pointed out our guide. Each angle of viewing gives you a different perspective, something new to drink in.

 

Then another angle, this time the focus on his two hands:

The right hand holding the stone to be slung at Goliath. See how realistic the grip is. Also notice the veins on the right hand and wrist. The left hand, on the other hand, doesn’t have such prominent veins (if that isn’t clear in this pic, check out the previous pic, left half). Why the difference? Because of something we all know so well, said our guide, something called gravity! The right hand (stone) is below the level of the heart, and so blood flows faster in it, hence the bulging veins. The left hand (sling) is above the heart, so blood flows slower. Anatomical perfection. Did Michelangelo sculpt it this way due to his knowledge of the human body? Or was he a great observer and “just” sculpted what he saw?

 

Then the last view, from the back:

You can see the anatomical details, from his legs, his stance, the tension in the muscles. So why the tree stump behind his right leg, almost invisible when seen from the front? Aha, said our guide, that’s not art, that’s physics. The top of the statue (not just this, but any statue of a human) is top heavy, the upper body and head being far heavier than the legs. Which is why most statues were made with the person in either a sitting position (so one could add a chair or throne for support) or draped in clothes so that the bottom half was broader and bear the weight. But here, Michelangelo didn’t have those options, so he added the tree stump as support. Since there was no precedent, he couldn’t be absolutely sure if this would be enough. Fortunately, it has stood for centuries.

 

If not for our guide, we’d never have noticed any of these details. It reminded me of this Calvin and Hobbes strip as one of the ultimate complements to the man, as the synonym to sculpting itself.