What is most striking is the immensity of Michelangelo's "David." I think it is difficult to gain a sense of scope and scale from a picture so it. Speaking of a picture of it, in case you need some reminding what Michelangelo made, here is a great picture that I found online.
It is truly a remarkable work of art, full of the idealism of man. His hands and feet are ridiculously large in comparison to the rest of his body and generally speaking, everything is meticulously done. Some interesting facts that I did not know about the statue:
-Someone attacked it during the 1500s when it was realized that it was anti-Medici and threw a bench at it breaking its left arm (one with the sling). Again, in the 1990s, a man ran up to it with a hammer and starting destroying the left foot. Crazy to think you would want to destroy this wonderful statue.
-He's one of the few David's without him standing on a Goliath head and he's shown to be much older than what most David figures are from the story in the Bible. Instead of pre-pubescent boy, he's shown as a 20-something muscular and ideal vision of man.
-The gaze gives you a sense that he's about to take down Goliath instead of simply being a blank stare into empty space. A sense of movement is caused by his slight lean to one side as well and helps break up an otherwise rigid figure.
-He used to be in the Piazza della Repubblica (in case you didn't know) and here is a picture I took of the remake of the statue that now stands there. The display of the Accademia David helps pronounce how enormous it really is. The one in the Piazza is just....okay. In a display like they have at the Accademia, it's perfect:
This is usually considered the "last" David statue since there were three other major David statues that came before it. Two are by Donatello and the other by Verrocchio, all of which are normally in Florence but the Verrocchio is currently on loan to a museum in Milan. Here is Verrocchio's:
David has taken on a sort of civic meaning in Florence during the times when they were under heavy attack by their neighbors. In several cases, leaders died before attacking Florence, which of course was seen as a sign from God of Florence's power and grew the use of David as a symbol of the city.
The other two Davids that we had the pleasure of seeing today were both by Donatello. The first and the earliest sculptured one is shown here (once again, I couldn't take pictures...):
And here is the one I really want to talk about...the bronze David by Donatello:
Now, don't get me wrong: I really think both are fantastic, but the bronze David is just brilliant. In person, the details really pop out of the bronze and the level of craftsmanship is stunning. There is intricate detailing on the feather that goes up David's leg (in what was called a "homoerotic way" by the art history professor) and the features are much more realistic and less vacant than the marble version. Since bronze was used, a different body positioning could be used, which leads to a different pose than the other few Davids mentioned.
As mentioned briefly, this David has more "homoerotic" vibes than the other ones. We are shown a figure that is more androgynous and could be perceived as a female if viewed from certain angles that obscure the genitalia. While this may seem odd, this was much more prominent in person than I thought it would come across. In person, these homoerotic ideas seem to pop out of the sculpture. As was pointed out by our art history professor, David's toes are intertwined with the beard of Goliath suggestively and a large feather climbs up his leg going towards his rear. It's really quite odd.
Perhaps Donatello was homosexual, but to be honest it doesn't matter in the grand scale of this work. It is utterly brilliant and was nearly as impressive as Michelangelo's David.
Overall, this was a brilliant day for art where I saw two of the most incredible works of the Renaissance.
On a practical matter, I'm making this for dinner tonight: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Tagliatelle-with-Prosciutto-and-Orange-365161
And I will drink some wine tonight...again.
Ciao!
