Davide -- Michelangelo -- 1503 -- Accademia

Speranza




Strength and anger incarnate can be seen in Michelangelo's "David".

A huge block of Carrara marble, begun and then abandoned forty years later by Agostino di Duccio, was one day given to Michelangelo, the son of the Podestà of Caprese.

Michelangelo had been under the patronage of Lorenzo de' Medici.

He was ordered to carve a statue of David from this marble, and he was even told the proportions.

He immediately produced a masterstroke, since the statue was erected in the Piazza della Signoria in 1505.

The anatomy is rendered with such extreme richness and exactness of detail that we can see the bones, muscles, and veins under the skin.