By Michelangelo, 1501

Carved from a single massive block of Carrera marble – a stone everyone else thought hopelessly flawed by a major fissure – Michelangelo’s “David” was inspired by the great works of classical Greece and Rome, the first monumental nude created in over a thousand years. Although known world-wide today as the creator of the Sistine Ceiling, Michelangelo actually considered painting something of a nuisance – a distraction to his true calling, which was to “free” the figures he saw “trapped” in stone. The very embodiment of what we now call a ‘Renaissance Man,’ Michelangelo was widely recognized as a draftsman, architect, engineer, goldsmith, painter, and poet, but his primary passion was sculpture, and was the realization of one of Michelangelo’s inspired dreams.

Commissioned by the city of Florence in 1501, Michelangelo worked secretly onthe huge sculpture for three years. More than double human scale, it was a task almost beyond imagination in his day. Upon completion, the statue was installed in front of the Palazzo Vecchio, the seat of the Florentine government to symbolize the courageous spirit of the fledgling Florentine Republic as it depended on raw courage and God’s provision to hold its large and powerful enemies at bay.

In typically Renaissance fashion, Michelangelo’s choice to portray “David” nude was many-layered. Michelangelo – and indeed most of the great masters of the Renaissance held deep admiration for masterpieces of Classical antiquity. Ancient Greece and Rome had no concern for Judeo-Christian notions of modesty in their artwork. Indeed, soldiers went into battle and athletes competed in the Olympics unhindered by garments.

In addition to his admiration for classical works, Michelangelo believed at his core that if man was created in God’s image that there could be no shame in portraying him in his ideal state - innocent in the Garden before the Fall. Indeed, that idea adds virtue to both the sense of youth and vulnerability in Michelangelo’s portrayal of David as the ultimate hero – an everyday man, ready to confront the giant Goliath and the massed Philistine army. Alone, unclothed, and unarmed but for his faith in God and the simple shepherd’s sling, he stands – very human - both apprehensive and confident, looking at his foe. The contemporary image would be of a simple infantryman preparing to take on a battletank with a knife. Ever the master of subtlety, Michelangelo portrays David as an adolescent – ‘almost fully grown,’ but with hands and feet that are still somewhat overlarge for his body, as if he hasn’t quite grown into himself yet. This leaves his David a worthy vessel for God’s work, while reminding us that it is indeed God’s hand that hurls the stone that takes down Goliath and leads His people to victory. This image of David was intended to inspire Florentines to their own heroic acts, while yet reminding of their humility before their Maker as they faced the dangers of their day.

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