Which Humanist Ideals Are Most Expressed in the Sculpture David?

Michelangelo’s defiant statue of David has enraptured the world for centuries. Thought to be one of history’s major art masterpieces, the marble figure portrays both the artists skill and the focus of art that embodies and defines the aesthetic of the renaissance at its peak. It showcases technical virtuosity of Greek sculpture and reintroduced ideals of humanism. Since its debut in the early 16th century, artists and art aficionados alike have admired the piece, championing it as a symbol of both strength and beauty. Esteemed artists, writers and historians have stated that no other artwork can be compared to it in any regard, with impeccable proportion, ideology, beauty and excellence by its master Michelangelo.

With the unveiling of this biblical hero, the following effect was startling. Florence had never seen such an over pour of enthusiasm, and even today it holds this status. The David established Michelangelo as one of the best high renaissance sculptors of the early cinquecento and for a long time no such work or master came close to the intensity of his sculpture.

The story of this masterpiece started in the middle of the 15th century, when the keepers of the Opera del Duomo and the leaders of the union of the Knitters of Florence promoted an ambitious project that consisted of sculpting twelve biblical figures to decorate the exterior of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore (‘Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower’), today known as the Duomo of Florence. It began with a single block of marble brought to Florence by boat across the Mediterranean and Arno from the Fantiscritti quarry in Carrara, Tuscany. One of the whitest types in the world, this block of stone was called ‘the giant’ and was stored for years, waiting to be carved.

It was thought to have been flawed marble that around 1460 finally some artists had started but eventually gave up. Agostino di Duccio (1418-81) allegedly working under the supervision of Donatello, only managed to complete a small amount of basic smoothening out before he quit the project, for unknown reasons. A similar incident, involving the sculptor Antonio Rossellino (1427-79), occurred a decade later, and in the end, he too rejected the block of marble due to too many imperfections, which probably threatened the stability of such a vast statue. After this the project was stalled and the marble of unusual dimensions was left exposed to the elements in the courtyard of the Vestry Board or Opera del Duomo for more than twenty years. They sculpted without success leaving it unfit and falling back into abandon.

Finally at the beginning of the 16th century, the project was taken up again, analyzing names of artists of the era, desperately searching for a sculptor who could convert their neglected block of marble into a stone sculpture worthy of the city's cathedral, to be able to join the other Biblical statues intended to be placed along the roofline of the building. And so, in 1501, the Opera del Duomo of Florence officially commissioned this project to the precocious 26-year-old Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, a rising artist of the Italian High Renaissance and prominent figure in Florence. Namely by the Arte del la Lana, Guild of Wool Merchant, he was asked to finish the sculpture and he willingly accepted the challenge, initiating an interest such that this genius isolated himself to work on the sculpture.

It's documented that on Sept 9, 1501, he apparently knocked off a ‘knot’ that had been on David’s chest, believed to be the major flaw. From then he worked tirelessly. It is known from archive documents that Michelangelo worked at the statue in utmost secrecy, hiding the process up until the very end. It is said he created a wax model of the design, and immersed it in water. As he worked, he would reduce the water, and using numerous chisels, sculpted the parts emerging. He slept sporadically and seldom ate, reported by biographer Ascanio Condivi.

In January 1504, after more than two years of relentless work on the single block of marble, Michelangelo decided to present his towering statue only to the members of the Vestry Board, who had predetermined the subject for the statue as religious, but did not expect such a revolutionary depiction of the biblical hero. This made them think of reconsidering its final location. Michelangelo then kept on working on the finishing details. Eventually the sling and tree-stump support were covered in gold leaf, and the statue a gilded victory-garland was added. Tirelessly working till May of 1504, Michelangelo produced a breathtaking masterpiece of gleaming white marble, an icon of the Renaissance.

The David was originally intended to be placed high up on the facade of Florence’s cathedral, but once the 6-ton work was completed it was obvious that it would be almost impossible to raise that high. When people saw the final product, everyone agreed it was far too perfect and realized it would be a shame to hide it up there, placed up high in the Cathedral where he would have seemed much smaller seen from below. So, the city council formed a committee of around thirty members made up of artists, including Sandro Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Giuliano da Sangallo, and leading citizens to decide where to put it. During the consideration, nine various locations for the statue were disputed, eventually being placed in Florence’s political heart.

The placement in Piazza del la Signoria, in front of the main entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio, where it could be admired up close was favored by the new Republican government, who took it as a political statement. The David displaced the Judith and Holofernes by Donatello, which previously stood in that location. Thanks to its commanding perfection, the biblical figure of David became the icon of liberty and freedom of the new ideals, showing Florence’s preparedness to defend itself. It was set up as an image of government showing strength and defiance as well as a warning to all who approach.

In 1527 during revolts, a chair was thrown out of a window in Palazzo Vecchio which broke David's left arm in three places and in turn made people cautious of its deterioration. Being outdoors in exposure to the elements of weathering agents for over 400 years washed all the gilded surfaces away. In the mid-1800s, small cracks were noticed on David’s left leg which could possibly be attributed to an uneven sinking of the ground under the colossal statue.

The decision to move David to the museum called Academy of Fine Arts Gallery, in Florence for preservation was taken by officials in 1872. The transportation of the massive work took place in a cart laid on train tracks from Piazza della Signoria to the museum. It took forty men and four days, even though the distance was less than a mile.

During World War II, David was enclosed in brick to protect it from damage of bombs. In 1991, a mentally disturbed artist named Piero Cannata attacked the statue with a hammer, damaging the toes of the left foot. Due to the marble's ruin, from 2003 to 2004 the statue was given its first major cleaning since 1843. Under further direction senior restorers undertook the job. However, the statue was later suffering from stress fractures caused by the vibrations of thousands of tourists moving nearby. In 2008, plans were initiated to insulate the statue from this to prevent damage to the marble.

In 2010, David was under dispute due to its ownership. Based on a legal review of historical documents, the municipality of Florence claimed ownership of the statue in opposition to the Italian Culture Ministry, which disregarded the claim.

Nowadays, visitors can capture the David under a special skylight designed for him in the 19th century by Emilio de Fabris. From a close distance, one can see Michelangelo’s passion and deep knowledge for the human anatomy.

To mark the statue’s original location, a marble copy was been placed in the Piazza della Signoria or Duomo Square in 1910. A bronze cast can also be found in the Piazza le Michelangelo. For one day in November 2010, a fiberglass replica was placed on the roofline of the cathedral, to show how the statue would have appeared in its originally intended location.

Along with local locations, many replicas of David exist in various museums and public spaces across the world. Notable copies include a plaster copy in London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, with a special fig leaf cast by the London-based firm D. Brucciani & Co. to be strategically hung on two hooks in front of David’s genitalia, kept ready for visiting dignitaries. Others include a bronze casting in Buffalo, New York’s Delaware Park, and a marble copy on the Avenue du Prado in Marseille, France.

While no reproduction could possibly replace the original, these castings serve important purposes: to educate the public and to spread Michelangelo’s profound legacy.

In all its description and analysis, it it’s a prime example to defined and labelled high renaissance art, with all its factors of focus on classical realism and new found individualism of the era.

David is considered the pinnacle of Michelangelo’s sculptural work. It holds the energy that represents his work. During the High Renaissance, he created allegorical works that focused on harmony, balance, and the ideal form. David characterizes these artistic sensibilities through his lifelike, asymmetrical posture or counter-pose and his realistic and highly detailed anatomy.

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The statue is a Renaissance analogy of a common ancient Greek theme of the standing heroic male nude with a very muscular physique. Michelangelo broke with artistic tradition by portraying David before his battle with Goliath rather than afterwards as seen in earlier representations. This shows a figure focused on the future rather than contemplating the past. The story of David and Goliath is a biblical one, found in the well-known narrative of Book 1 Samuel 17. The youth David had to defeat the giant Goliath; it could not be done by strength but took cunning and skill to defeat someone bigger than him, and he did so with the slingshot by catching the giant by surprise. Michelangelo presented David as a strong and assured man stripped of all objects associated with the biblical narrative, such as the head of Goliath or the sword. Instead, David stands alone with only his slingshot and stones, those too almost hidden. He does not give us with the winner, the giant's head at his feet and the powerful sword in his hand, but portrays the young man in the phase immediately before the battle: with a look of determination and concentration on his face, thinking how he’s going to do it, waiting for the right moment pretending to be at ease.

So, rather than looking relaxed and confident after his victory, Michelangelo's David looks tense and ready for combat. David seems to have made the decision to fight Goliath but before the battle has actually taken place, a moment between conscious choice and action. The tension of this young shepherd in front of his terrible enemy can be seen in his furrowed brow; the tendons in his taut neck, just as the muscles in his nose and lips; the pulsing veins on the back of the hands that are engorged with tension and his watchful eyes with carved eye bulks that are focused on something in the distance. Despite this mental concentration, he stands in a relaxed contrapposto position, with his sling casually thrown over his left shoulder. This combination of intense expression and calm pose is intended to capture the short period between the decision to fight and the fight itself.

He stands relaxed, but alert, resting on a classical pose. The figure stands with one leg holding its full weight seen in the flexing of the thigh muscles in the right leg and the other leg forward, causing the figure’s hips and shoulders to rest at opposing angles, giving a slight s-curve to the entire taut torso. With his left leg slightly forward, the young hero lets his right arm hang loose halfway down his thigh, while his left arm is bent to shoulder height. The contrapposto is emphasized by the turn of the head to the left, and by the contrasting positions of the arms. The twist of his body effectively conveys to the viewer the feeling that he is in motion. The slingshot he carries over his shoulder is almost invisible, emphasizing that David’s victory was one of cleverness, not sheer force. He transmits exceptional self-confidence and concentration, both values of the ‘thinking man’, considered perfection during the Renaissance.

Above all, it was the massive scale of the statue that awed the spectators, including Michelangelo's artistic rivals. It was actually the first monumental free-standing nude statue to be carved in the Renaissance since antiquity.

With a size and proportions of enormous dimensions, the David is just over 5 meters high and exceeds five tons. In other words, it is almost 17 feet, a shy short at 16 feet and 11.15 inches and massive at more than 12,000 pounds or 5,660 kg. This is clearly a larger-than-life portrayal, likely a result of its intended location on the roof of the cathedral. In order for the public to fully appreciate the sky-high figure, it would need to be large enough to view from the Piazza, hence David‘s colossal size. With all its masterful skill and glory, David does not stand without flaws. David's eyes are uneven and this went unnoticed for centuries, perhaps due to the statues' extreme height. However, digital study rendered complete images of the statue revealing David's left eye to be gazing forward while the right eye is focused on some distant spot.

His head and right hand appear to be disproportionately large compared to the body. In the Middle Ages, David was commonly said to be of ‘manu fortis’ - strong of hand which could be the cause of this distortion. These enlargements may also be due to the fact that the statue was originally intended to be placed on the cathedral roofline, where the important parts of the sculpture may have been emphasized to be visible from below. Also, his left leg appears a bit too long for his body. It accentuates the line of this leg as it forms an essential component in his contrapposto stance. The statue is unusually slender from front to back in comparison to its height, which may be a result of the work done on the block from before.

This magnificent sculpture transmits drama through the eyes with a body full of tension, the mark of its tendons, muscles and veins do not have violent gestures, but they are the elements that we can see in his other works.

Considering the dimensions of the block, a moving pose and violent gestures would have compromised the balance. Perhaps the state of the monolith after work by previous artists did not leave him enough volume to work with either. It was obviously a feat to have extracted from this mass a figure as noble and lively as his David.

On surface, Michelangelo's David is merely a High Renaissance interpretation of the standing heroic male nude of Greek art of the High Classical period. In reality however, the composition is more complex and political. The symbolism in this sculpture is eminent.

To begin with, by getting rid of the usual bloody sword and severed head, Michelangelo is deliberating the mental rather than physical nature of David's victory. This, like the placement of the statue next to the center of Florentine government, is almost certainly a political statement. Michelangelo is trying to show that David's character is the critical factor in his victory. Like the city of Florence herself, David is strong-willed and ready for a fight to the death.

By placing Michelangelo's statue in the same general location of Donatello's earlier bronze David, made for the Medici family who were later were exiled from Florence, the Florentine authorities ensured that David would be seen as a political parallel as well as an artistic response to that earlier work. These political overtones led to the statue being attacked in its early days.

Against all odds, an unarmored David knocks down his enemy using a sling and then beheads him with his own sword. Given David’s esteemed reputation it became a civic symbol for Florence, even though it was ultimately a religious sculpture. Additionally, as an independent city-state, the Republic of Florence was aware of the threats that surrounded them. The eyes of David, with a warning glare, were turned towards Rome. Therefore, they viewed David as a perfect symbol of Florence, as he captured the unwavering courage, unexpected strength, and historic perseverance that they saw in themselves

Humanism during the renaissance promoted the idea that man has beauty, dignity and worth just as much as the respect given to any deity. With the emergence of newfound enlightenment, people valued freedom in the face of old counterparts. The story of Michelangelo’s David is a fine example of the movement as it demonstrates human independence. For a long time people were trapped under the power of the church, expected to obey its laws and ways, considering individual rights or beliefs to be sinful. David embodies independence, despite being belittled before battle he turned away from typical social norms because he felt it was his calling from God. He was fully aware of what he might get into and knew when and where to put an end to his actions before it goes beyond reproach.

This can also be seen in the representation of civic virtue in David. Michelangelo symbolizes the defense of civil liberties of the Florentine Republic, placing the statue outside the civic government in the city. The hero represents an ideal humanist character of a man through civic duty by being the only one to stand up and fight the giant evil.

Secondly, we see how the choice of subject in itself exalts power of man and human ingenuity. It teaches us how physical size doesn’t matter as much as thought. This is a very humanist ideal, to value intelligence and see it as an equal or higher power than physical strength. The sculpture shows David after deciding to fight goliath but before he has taken any action. Again, we see how it presents rationality. There is dependence on skill and reason instead of brutish action, seen in the thoughtful expression and stance of the hero. He represents the humanist ideal of a man who accomplishes all with intelligence and will power.

Another aspect of the sculpture that contributed to humanism movement was simply how Michelangelo depicts David as a properly proportioned human in an empowering way. The sculpture is powerful in its simplistic form even though it only shows the figure of a standing man in the nude. His naked body epitomizes the naturalistic human ideals of that time with the level of detail in his body showing muscles, joints, bone structure, posture so perfectly. Michelangelo does an excellent job of capturing David’s beauty. He shows enough detail to portray a real person but not enough to show any flaws. Instead of highlighting David’s weapons as a standard way to state his manhood and bravery, his body is used in its entirety and purity.

This piece speaks louder than words and captures the determination, bravery, and innocence that David through his innocence by showing him without obstruction. It is a celebration of the human form through David’s proportions and body. It showed the people of Florentine that the human body was a gift and is something that shouldn’t be hidden. It is sculpted to appear strong in a subtle way. Although David is large and represents a perfect hero, his proportions and physique are comparable to that of a realistic common man proving that anyone can be a hero, he had no superhuman powers or aid but simply because he had God and sense on his side.

Michelangelo’s accomplishment in the creation of David is also another expression of humanism. In this statue he demonstrates the magnitude of creation man is capable of. He shows that man can create beautiful things and is not inherently depraved and sinful. Michelangelo presents man as an angelic and nakedly innocent creature Instead of dark and deceiving. The powerfulness comes from the interpretation and symbolism of the sculpture.

This is therefore how we see a fine example of renaissance art define itself as a statement work of the era, depicting all characteristic and elements that defines it so.