The complexity of David's form required Papi to individually shape over mould pieces, which together all fitted inside the mother mould like a giant jigsaw puzzle. The small gap between each piece leaves a network of slightly raised seamlines and if you look closely, the evidence of this moulding process can still be seen on the surface of our David.
To avoid damaging the original, the marble was sealed with oil, wax or soap to enable the plaster pieces to be later released from the surface.
Papi was aware of how precarious the casting process was, which explains why only one complete mould has ever been produced from the surface of Michelangelo's original David.
Papi's cast was placed in several locations in the centre of Florence in the quest for a suitable location for the marble original, including under the Loggia dei Lanzi and in the Piazzale degli Uffizi, but eventually the Accademia di Belle Arti was chosen as the final location.
Extraordinarily, the marble statue remained packed in a wooden box for 25 years until it was installed in the new purpose built semi-circular gallery at the Accademia in The original cast still survives and is today displayed at the Gipsoteca art school at the Istituto Statale D'Arte in Florence.
A few years later, the Grand Duke commissioned Papi to create a second full-scale plaster replica of David. This second copy was to be delivered to Queen Victoria as a gesture of good will after the Grand Duke had vetoed the export of a painting which the National Gallery in London had hoped to acquire. It is this copy that is now on display in our Cast Courts. The cast was packed in three wooden crates for travelling to England.
The cost of transportation ended up totalling more than the cost of the cast itself. Papi travelled from Florence to the Port of Livorno known as Leghorn in English with the crates where they were then loaded onboard the ship, The Cheshire Witch.
Large, modern exhibition rooms in the newly built Museum offered an ideal space in which to display the gigantic five metre high figure, and the cast was given a prominent position in a gallery comprising Italian art. Traditionally, David had been portrayed after his victory, triumphant over the slain Goliath. Michelangelo instead, for the first time ever, chooses to depict David before the battle. David is tense: Michelangelo catches him at the apex of his concentration.
He stands relaxed, but alert, resting on a classical pose known as contrapposto. The story of the creation of David. The restoration of David in It is known from archive documents that Michelangelo worked at the statue in utmost secrecy , hiding his masterpiece in the making up until January Since he worked in the open courtyard, when it rained he worked soaked. Maybe from this he got his inspiration for his method of work: it is said he created a wax model of his design, and submerged it in water.
As he worked, he would let the level of the water drop, and using different chisels, sculpted what he could see emerging. He slept sporadically, and when he did he slept with his clothes and even in his boots still on, and rarely ate, as his biographer Ascanio Condivi reports. In January , his 14 foot tall David was unveiled only to them: they all agreed that it was far too perfect to be placed up high in the Cathedral, thus it was decided to discuss another location in town.
The city council convened a committee of about thirty members, including artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli and Giuliano da Sangallo, to decide on an appropriate site for David. During the long debate, nine different locations for the statue were discussed, and eventually the statue was placed in the political heart of Florence , in Piazza della Signoria. Luca Landucci , herbalist and diarist living nearby, wrote down the exceptional event of the transport in his chronicles:.
They even had to tear down the archway, so huge he was. When Michelangelo finally got his hands on it, the marble had been waiting for 40 years for someone who was up to its challenge. In , the city government of Florence commissioned Michelangelo to create the piece as part of a series of statues meant to adorn the roofline of Florence's cathedral dome.
But upon its completion, Michelangelo's patrons were so overwhelmed by David 's beauty that they decided to scrap that plan and place it where it could be appreciated up close. In , a Florence art project showed David as it was intended, perching a replica high on the Cathedral's exterior, as well as in every other spot that had been suggested upon its completion in Sixteenth century Italian painter and architect Giorgio Vasari wrote of David , "Whoever has seen this work need not trouble to see any other work executed in sculpture, either in our own or in other times.
Five years before David's debut, Michelangelo's Pieta made him famous. But it was his David that defined the year-old High Renaissance artist as a master sculptor. Four years later, in , he would begin work on his greatest painting achievement in the Sistine Chapel. Specifically, it's believed that Michelangelo based David 's pose on depictions of Hercules, a hero with deep ties to the city of Florence who had even appeared on the Florentine seal for centuries.
By creating such a glorious statue in the Roman tradition, Michelangelo helped ensure the work was instantly embraced by the people of Florence. While the story of David hails from the bible, Michelangelo based the physical form of the statue on the tenets of ancient Roman sculpture—specifically, portrayals of the hero Hercules, long a symbol of the independent city of Florence. As the statue took form and an awe-inspiring David emerged from the marble, the committee decided this masterpiece was too beautiful—and too heavy—to be placed atop the cathedral.
The statue was suspended by ropes on a wooden scaffold, swaying gently as it was pulled and pushed along a series of trunks laid down across the cobblestones. Once it was installed on the pedestal, Michelangelo took his smallest chisels and finished the remaining details of his masterpiece on the very spot where it would stand for the next years.
During its first year in the Piazza, David was hit with stones. Not long afterwards, in , violent protesters rioting the rule of the Medici family flooded the Piazza. In addition to his famous scuffle with Goliath, David has battled earthquakes, lightning strikes, and pigeons during his extended sojourn outside.
In a well-known incident, an Italian artist named Piero Cannata entered the Accademia with a small hammer concealed under his coat. Now David is protected by Plexiglass, safe from hands and hammers. Though the Statue of David might now be safe from human interference, it still faces risks.
All the more reason, we think, to make a visit as soon as possible and, for those moved to contribute, engage with a preservation organization like the Friends of Florence. The Florentine Republic faced Goliaths on all sides, both from the ruling Medici family, as well as the endless threats from powerful neighboring states. Michelangelo created a symbol of independence and strength, coalesced in the perfect image of youthful beauty.
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