Description
In July 1501 Michelangelo Buonarroti was commissioned by the Opera del Duomo to create a statue depicting David and Goliath, with the obligation to use a large block of marble abandoned at the Bottega della Cattedrale and which had already been roughed by the sculptor Agostino di Duccio about 40 years earlier, in an attempt to sculpt the same subject. This was a challenge for Michelangelo, who was “only” 26 years old and had just returned from Rome, where he had created his first masterpiece: the Pietà today preserved in the St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.
Michelangelo spent 18 months sculpting the large block of marble, working unaided and hidden behind a closure of wooden planks, so that no one could see the statue before it was finished.
Michelangelo’s David is considered a masterpiece of world sculpture, and is one of the emblems of the Renaissance as well as a symbol of Florence and Italy abroad.
