Michelangelos David :: Arts Paintings Art History

Michelangelos DavidMichelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) was a Florentine Sculptor,painter, poet, and architect. Based in Florence he started out aspainter at the get on of thirteen, apprenticed to Domenico Ghirlandaio,the leading fresco wall painter in Florence. But eventually hisambitions led to sculpture. Michelangelo had an ideal based on thephysical expressiveness of the male nude.1Michelangelo sculpture in a Naturalistic style, its main characteristicbeing the depiction of subjects in a realistic manner. His sculptures,like David, often depict the mastery of figure of speech this can be shown bythe structure of every muscle and sinew in the sculptures. For David,Michelangelo had taken up the theme Donatello and Andrea delVerrocchio had used successfully in their David sculpturesMichelangelos version was from a political point of view.2David is the largest free standing marble statue since classicaltimes. The narrative derived about this sculpture speaks of theshepherd boy who defeated the monster Goliath. Michelangelo hastransformed David into an ancient hero of unrivaled grace and beauty.Interestingly Davids sling is barely visible which may tell us hisstrength is derived from his clean courage. The hands of David alsoare shown exceptionally large signifying a sense of power. David stoodas a symbol of Florences supremacy. 3David was constructed in 1501 but not spotless until 1504, andtowered over the people at the entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio. Now itstands at the Galleria dell Accademia, Florence. This sculpture wasan influence to other sculptors of the Renaissance because of howMichelangelo pushed the boundaries and elegant ideals of hisgeneration to their physical and stylistic extremes.David is a large sculpture, measuring 13 5 high, and is a sculptureof marble. Michelangelos sculptures were often larger than life.4---------------------------------------------------------------------1 Alison Cole.