Editing David (Michelangelo) (section)

==History==
===Commission===
The history of the statue of David begins before Michelangelo's work on it from 1501 to 1504.<ref name="SeymourJr1967">{{cite book |last1=Seymour |first1=Charles Jr. |title=Michelangelo's David: A Search for Identity |year=1967 |publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press |page=26 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mdQYAAAAYAAJ&q=%22lonely%20grandeur%20in%22 |chapter=Prehistory and Genesis}}</ref> The commission was made during a decisive period in the history of the Florentine republic established after the expulsion of the Medici. The advantages of democratic government never materialized, and internal circumstances grew worse as dangers from without increased. [[Lorenzo de' Medici]]'s successors and their supporters were a constant threat to the republic, and it was in defiance of the menace they represented that the project of a marble David was renewed.<ref name="Lavin1993">{{cite book |last1=Lavin |first1=Irving |title=Past-Present: Essays on Historicism in Art from Donatello to Picasso |date=1993 |publisher=Berkeley : University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-06816-2 |page=52 |url=https://archive.org/details/pastpresentessay0000lavi/page/52/mode/2up}}</ref>

The Overseers of the Office of Works, known as the ''Operai del Duomo'', were officers of the ''Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore'', the organization charged with the construction and maintenance of the new Cathedral of Florence.<ref name="Manetti et al 2023">{{cite journal |last1=Manetti |first1=Giacomo |last2=Bellucci |first2=Marco |last3=Nitti |first3=Carmela |last4=Bagnoli |first4=Luca |title=A study of Michelangelo's David from an accountability perspective: Antecedents of dialogic accounting in the early Florentine Renaissance |journal=Accounting History |date=February 2023 |volume=28 |issue=1 |page=30 |doi=10.1177/10323732221132029|s2cid=253654919 }}</ref> The ''Operai'' consisted of a 12-member committee that organized competitions, chose the best entries, commissioned the prevailing artists, and paid for the finished work.<ref name="Csikszentmihalyi1998">{{cite book |last1=Csikszentmihalyi |first1=Mihaly |author1-link=Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi |editor1-last=Sternberg |editor1-first=Robert J. |title=The Nature of Creativity: Contemporary Psychological Perspectives |year=1988 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-33892-9 |page=335 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZYo5AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA335 |chapter= Systems view of creativity}}</ref> Most of them were members of the influential woolen cloth guild,<ref name="Bohm-Duchen2001">{{cite book |last1=Bohm-Duchen |first1=Monica |title=The Private Life of a Masterpiece |date=2001 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-23378-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cwL7aF-EB84C&pg=PA12 |pages=12–13}}</ref> the [[Arte della Lana]]. They had plans long before Michelangelo's involvement to commission a series of twelve large sculptures of Old Testament prophets for the twelve spurs, or protrusions, generated by the four diagonal [[buttress]]es that helped support the enormous weight of the cathedral dome.<ref name="Coonin201421">{{cite book |last1=Coonin |first1=Arnold Victor |title=From Marble to Flesh: The Biography of Michelangelo's David |year=2014 |publisher=B'Gruppo |isbn=978-88-97696-02-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zIZsoAEACAAJ |pages=21–22}}</ref>

In 1410, [[Donatello]] had made the first of the series of statues, a colossal figure of [[Joshua]] in [[terracotta]], gessoed and painted white to give it the appearance of marble at a distance.<ref name="Paoletti201558">{{cite book |last1=Paoletti |first1=John T. |title=Michelangelo's David: Florentine History and Civic Identity |year=2015 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-316-24013-7 |page=67 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4FuXBgAAQBAJ&pg=PT67 |chapter=The Commission and History of the David}}</ref> Although Charles Seymour Jr says Donatello's protégé [[Agostino di Duccio]]<!---NOTE: It is correct to use his first name. Not the MODERN convention.---> was commissioned in 1463 to create a terracotta figure of Hercules for the series, almost certainly under the supervision of Donatello,<ref name="SeymourJr1995">{{cite book |last1=Seymour |first1=Charles Jr. |editor1-last=Wallace |editor1-first=William E. |title=Michelangelo, Selected Scholarship in English: Life and Early Works |year=1995 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-8153-1823-1 |page=283 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bye6Xt375N4C&pg=PA283 |chapter=Homo Magnus et Albus}}</ref> Paoletti writes that "The term 'hercules' may not be a specific indication of the subject of the figure but simply a synonym... used at the time for a 'giant' or very large figure."<ref name="Paoletti201563">{{cite book |last1=Paoletti |first1=John T. |title=Michelangelo's David: Florentine History and Civic Identity |year=2015 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-316-24013-7 |page=63 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4FuXBgAAQBAJ&pg=PT63}}</ref>

Ready to continue their project, in 1464 the ''Operai'' contracted Agostino to create a marble sculpture of the young David,<ref name="BuonarrotiMilanesi1875">{{cite book |last1=Buonarroti |first1=Michelangelo |last2=Milanesi |first2=Gaetano |title=La lettere di Michelangelo Buonarroti |year=1875 |publisher=Successori Le Monnier |pages=620–623 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4Oj03pRf1ssC&pg=PA620}}</ref> a symbol of Florence, to be mounted high on the eastern end of the ''Duomo''. This was to be formed in the Roman manner from several blocks of marble, but in 1465 Agostino himself went to [[Carrara]], a town in the [[Apuan Alps]], and acquired a very large block of ''bianco ordinario'' from the Fantiscritti quarry.<ref name="Barron2018">{{cite journal |last1=Barron |first1=A.J. |title=Carrara marble |journal=Mercian Geologist |date=2018 |volume=19 |issue=3 |pages=193–194 |url=https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/524277/1/Mercian%202018%20v19%20p188%20Carrara%20Marble,%20Barron%20HR.pdf}}</ref> He began work on the statue but got only as far as beginning to shape the torso, legs, and feet, roughing out [[drapery]], and possibly hollowing a hole between the legs. For unknown reasons his work on the block of marble halted with the death of his master Donatello in 1466. [[Antonio Rossellino]], also a Florentine, was commissioned in 1476 to resume the work, but the contract was apparently rescinded, and the block lay neglected and exposed to the weather in the yard of the cathedral workshop for another twenty-five years. This was of great concern to the ''Operai'' authorities, as such a large piece of marble was not only costly, but represented considerable labour and difficulty in its transportation to Florence.<ref name="Bohm-Duchen2001" />

In 1500, an inventory of the cathedral workshops described the piece<ref name="Gaye1840">{{cite book |last1=Gaye |first1=Giovanni |title=Carteggio inedito d'artisti dei secoli 14., 15., 16. pubblicato ed illustrato con documenti pure inediti dal dott. Giovanni Gaye: 1500-1557. 2 |year=1840 |publisher=G. Molini |pages=454–455 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y46k8pH16isC&pg=PA454}}</ref> as "a certain figure of marble called David, badly blocked out and supine."<ref name="Frey1909">{{cite journal |last1=Frey |first1=Karl |title=Studien zu Michelagniolo Buonarroti und zur Kunst seiner Zeit. III |journal=Jahrbuch der Königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen |date=1909 |volume=30 |page=106 |jstor=25168702 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25168702 |issn=1431-5955 |quote=In Latin: 1501 die II.o Julii. Prefati omnes operarii et per tres fabas nigras ex relatu consulum deliberaverunt etc. (sic), quod quidem homo ex marmarmore (sic), vocato Davit, male abbozzatum et resupinum existentem (sic) in curte dicte Opere, et desiderantes tam dicti consules quam operarii dictum talem gigantem erigi et elevari in altum per magistros dicte Opere et in pedes stare, ad hoc ut videatur per magistros in hoc expertos possit absolvi et finiri. (AOD. Del. 1498–1507 fol. 36 b. Milanesi) p. 620.}}</ref><ref name="Poggi1909">{{cite book |last1=Poggi |first1=Giovanni |title=Il duomo di Firenze: documenti sulla decorazione della chiesa e del campanile tratti dall'archivio dell'opera |year=1909 |publisher=B. Cassirer |page=83 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MsZLAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA83 |language=la}}</ref><ref>Seymour, 1967, 134–137, doc. 34.</ref><ref name="Bohm-Duchen2001" /> A year later, documents showed that the ''Operai'' were determined to find an artist who could take this large piece of marble and turn it into a finished work of art. They ordered that the block of stone, which they called ''il gigante'' (the giant),<ref name="Hodson1999">{{cite book |last1=Hodson |first1=Rupert |title=Michelangelo: Sculptor |year=1999 |publisher=Summerfield |isbn=978-88-8138-051-0 |page=42 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jOBOAAAAYAAJ&q=%22il%20gigante%22}}</ref><ref name="Coonin2016116">{{cite book |last1=Coonin |first1=Arnold Victor |editor1-last=Bourne |editor1-first=Molly |editor2-last=Coonin |editor2-first=Arnold Victor |title=Encountering the Renaissance: Celebrating Gary M. Radke and 50 Years of the Syracuse University Graduate Program in Renaissance Art |year=2016 |publisher=WAPACC Organization |isbn=978-0-9785461-2-0 |pages=116–120 |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/25281003 |chapter=How the ''Giant'' of Florence Became Michelangelo's David}}</ref> be "raised on its feet" so that a master experienced in this kind of work might examine it and express an opinion. Though [[Leonardo da Vinci]] among others was consulted, and [[Andrea Sansovino]] was also keen to get the commission,<ref name="Paoletti2015">{{cite journal |last1=Paoletti |first1=John T. |title=The David and Sculpture at the Cathedral |journal=Michelangelo's David: Florentine History and Civic Identity |date=2015 |pages=111–112 |doi=10.1017/cbo9781107338784.004 |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107338784.004 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781107338784 }}</ref> it was Michelangelo, at 26 years of age, who convinced the ''Operai'' that he deserved the commission.<ref>{{cite book|last=Coughlan|first=Robert|title=The World of Michelangelo: 1475–1564|others=et al|publisher=Time-Life Books|year=1966|page=85}}</ref> On 16 August 1501, Michelangelo was given the official contract to undertake this task. It said (English translation of the Latin text):

{{blockquote|...&nbsp;the Consuls of the ''Arte della Lana'' and the Lords Overseers being met, have chosen as sculptor to the said Cathedral the worthy master, Michelangelo, the son of Lodovico Buonarrotti, a citizen of Florence, to the end that he may make, finish and bring to perfection the male figure known as the Giant, nine ''braccia'' in height, already blocked out in marble by Maestro Agostino ''grande'', of Florence, and badly blocked; and now stored in the workshops of the Cathedral. The work shall be completed within the period and term of two years next ensuing, beginning from the first day of September&nbsp;...<ref name="BuonarrotiMilanesi1875a">{{cite book |last1=Buonarroti |first1=Michelangelo |last2=Milanesi |first2=Gaetano |title=La lettere di Michelangelo Buonarroti |year=1875 |publisher=Successori Le Monnier |pages=620–623 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4Oj03pRf1ssC&pg=PA620 |quote=in Latin: Spectabiles etc. viri Consules Artis Lane una cum dominis Operariis adunati in Audentia dicte Opere, elegerunt in sculptorem dicte Opere dignum magistrum Michelangelum Lodovici Bonarroti, civem florentinum, ad faciendum et perficiendum et perfecte finiendum quendam hominem vocato Gigante abozatum, brachiorum novem ex marmore, existentem in dicta Opera, olim abozatum per magistrum Augustinum grande de Florentia, et male abozatum, pro tempore et termino annorum duorum proxime futurorum, incipiendorum kalendis septembris.}}</ref>}}

He began carving the statue early in the morning on 13 September,<ref name="Unger2015">{{cite book |last1=Unger |first1=Miles J. |title=Michelangelo: A Life in Six Masterpieces |date=2015 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-4516-7878-9 |page=90 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0LYrCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA90}}</ref> a month after he was awarded the contract. The contract provided him a workspace in the ''Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore'' behind the ''Duomo'', paid him a salary of six [[Florin|''fiorini'']] per month, and allowed him two years to complete the sculpture.<ref name="BambachBarryCaglioti2017">{{cite book |last1=Bambach |first1=Carmen C. |last2=Barry |first2=Claire |last3=Caglioti |first3=Francesco |last4=Elam |first4=Caroline |last5=Marongiu |first5=Marcella |last6=Mussolin |first6=Mauro |title=Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer |year=2017 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |isbn=978-1-58839-637-2 |page=70 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3zQ7DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA70}}</ref>

When the finished statue was moved from the [[Museo dell'Opera del Duomo (Florence)|Opera del Duomo]] to the [[Piazza della Signoria]] over the course of four days, as reported by two contemporary diarists, [[Luca Landucci]] and Pietro di Marco Parenti, a guard was placed to protect it from violence by other artists in Florence who had hoped for the commission.<ref name="Paoletti201596">{{cite book |last1=Paoletti |first1=John T. |title=Michelangelo's David: Florentine History and Civic Identity |year=2015 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-316-24013-7 |pages=96–97 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4FuXBgAAQBAJ&pg=PT96}}</ref><ref name="Hirst2000">{{cite journal |last1=Hirst |first1=Michael |title=Michelangelo in Florence: 'David' in 1503 and 'Hercules' in 1506 |journal=The Burlington Magazine |date=2000 |volume=142 |issue=1169 |page=490 |jstor=888855 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/888855 |issn=0007-6287}}</ref> They were hostile to Michelangelo because of his bold request to the wardens of the [[Florence Cathedral|Cathedral]] and the [[Gonfaloniere of Justice|governor]] of the city, [[Piero Soderini]].<ref name="Vasari1988">{{cite book |last1=Vasari |first1=Giorgio |author-link=Giorgio Vasari |translator-last=Bull |translator-first=George |translator-link=George Bull |title=Lives of the Artists: Volume 1 |year=1988 |publisher=Penguin Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-14-044500-8 |pages=337–339 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ujJWakBfVpsC |language=en}}</ref> Despite the precaution, the sculpture was damaged by stones, leaving still visible marks on the upper part of its back.<ref name="Falletti2004">{{cite book |last1=Falletti |first1=Franca |title=Michelangelo's David: A Masterpiece Restored |year=2004 |publisher=Giunti Editore |isbn=978-88-09-03760-1 |pages=9, 12 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iCOznEZzY0cC&pg=PA9}}</ref> Four youths from prominent Florentine families were subsequently arrested by the Otto di Guardia and all but one were imprisoned for what may have been simple vandalism without a political motive.<ref name="Hirst2000" /><ref name="Paoletti201596" />

===Process===
Michelangelo regarded a single block of stone as containing all the possible conceptions for a work of art, and believed that the artist's task is sculpting the marble block to reveal the ideal form within, an expression of his [[Neoplatonism|Neo-Platonic]] belief that body and mind are separate, and must work in concert and strive to attain union with one another and with the divine.<ref name="Angier2001">{{cite web |last1=Angier |first1=Jeremy |title=The Process of Artistic Creation in Terms of the Non-finito |date=7 May 2001 |url=http://www.machinegraphics.com/writings/non-finito/non-finito.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071008092120/http://www.machinegraphics.com/writings/non-finito/non-finito.html |archive-date=8 October 2007}}</ref><ref name="RusbultFinkelKumashiro2009">{{cite journal |last1=Rusbult |first1=Caryl |last2=Finkel |first2=Eli J. |last3=Kumashiro |first3=Madoka |title=The Michelangelo phenomenon |journal=Current Directions in Psychological Science |date=1 December 2009 |volume=18 |issue=6 |page=307 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-8721.2009.01657.x |s2cid=14417940 |url=https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/5363/1/Michelangelo%20Phenomenon%20Rusbult%20et%20al%202009%20Current%20Directions.pdf}}</ref> In later years, speaking of his early commissions sculpting marble, he contended that he was merely liberating figures that were already existent in the stone, and that he could see them in his mind's eye.<ref name="Coates2016">{{cite book |last1=Coates |first1=Victoria C. Gardner |title=David's Sling: A History of Democracy in Ten Works of Art |year=2016 |publisher=Encounter Books |isbn=978-1-59403-722-1 |page=96 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kwEaAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA96}}</ref>

[[Giorgio Vasari]] wrote of Michelangelo sculpting the ''Prisoners'' that his method was to chisel the parts in highest relief first, then gradually revealing the lower parts. According to Franca Falletti, the passage describes Michelangelo's process of working marble in general. Lengthy preparatory work was done before the actual sculpting began – this included sketches, drawings and the making of small-scale terracotta  or wax models. After these preliminary studies he went directly to sculpting the marble, using the method described by Vasari. He chiseled layer after layer from the main face of the stone, and then gradually more and more of the other sides. The unfinished state of the ''Prisoners'' demonstrates this process, and ''David'' must have been sculpted in the same manner.<ref name="Falletti2004"/>

The massive block of white marble that was to become the ''David'', measuring nine ''[[Italian units of measurement#Length|braccia]]'' in length, was of ''bianco ordinario'' grade stone, rather than the superior ''[[Carrara marble#Quarries|statuario]]''. It came from the old Roman Fantiscritti quarry at the centre of the Carrara marble basins,<ref name="Barron2018" /> and had been transported by oxen-pulled carts to the [[Tyrrhenian Sea|sea]], whence it was carried on barges dragged by oxen up the river [[Arno]] to Florence.<ref name="Falletti2004"/><ref name="Scigliano2005">{{cite book |last1=Scigliano |first1=Eric |title=Michelangelo's Mountain: The Quest For Perfection in the Marble Quarries of Carrara |year=2005 |publisher=New York : Free Press |isbn=978-0-7432-5477-9 |page=94 |url=https://archive.org/details/michelangelosmou0000scig/page/94/mode/2up}}</ref>

The Operai del Duomo had raised the block to an upright position prior to the first inspection of their purchase, but a scaffolding had to be built so that Michelangelo could reach every part. The artist, who made his steel chisels himself,<ref name="Barron2018" /> began cutting the stone with the ''subbia'', a heavy, pointed iron tool used to rough out the main mass, before he employed the two-toothed shorter blade called the ''calcagnuolo''.<ref name="Unger2015" /> By the time he began to use the three-toothed ''gradina'',<ref name="Scigliano200747">{{cite book |last1=Scigliano |first1=Eric |title=Michelangelo's Mountain: The Quest For Perfection in the Marble Quarries of Carrara |year=2007 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-4165-9135-1 |pages=48–49 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QKDeyBjXzB8C&pg=PA48}}</ref> a serrated claw chisel whose marks are seen in his unfinished sculptures,<ref name="Carradori2002">{{cite book |last1=Carradori |first1=Francesco |title=Elementary Instructions for Students of Sculpture |year=2002 |publisher=Getty Publications |isbn=978-0-89236-688-0 |page=98 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CRZquQOMPWgC&pg=PA98}}</ref> the basic form of the statue was emerging from the matrix. When he sculpted ''David'''s hair and the pupils of his eyes, he used the ''trapano'', a drill worked with a bow,<ref name="Vasari1907">{{cite book |last1=Vasari |first1=Giorgio |translator-last=Maclehose  |translator-first=Louisa S. |title=Vasari on Technique: Being the Introduction to the Three Arts of Design, Architecture, Sculpture and Painting, Prefixed to the Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects |year=1907 |publisher=J.M. Dent |isbn=978-0-486-20717-9 |page=48 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_X0EAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA48}}</ref>{{sfn|Goffen|2002|p=131}} like the ancient sculptors.<ref name="Gill2013">{{cite book |last1=Gill |first1=Anton |title=Il Gigante: Michelangelo, Florence, and the David 1492–1504 |year=2013 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-1-4668-5504-5 |page=219 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7YfWAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT219}}</ref>

Michelangelo did without flat chisels in his sculpturing, and brought his pieces to the state of ''[[non finito]]'' almost entirely with toothed chisels. During the 2003 restoration of ''David'', Italian researchers observed marks of the ''subbia'', the sharpened ''subbia da taglio'', the slightly flattened ''unghietto'' (fingernail), and the ''gradina'', as well as marks from a smaller-toothed chisel, the ''dente di cane'' (dog's tooth). They found no evidence of Michelangelo using flat chisels in the work.<ref name="Scigliano200747" />

A node of marble on the ''gigante'' that Michelangelo chiseled away before he began work on ''David'' in earnest has been interpreted by historians as a knot of drapery, based on the surmise that Agostino di Duccio's figure was intended to be clothed. [[Irving Lavin]] proposes that the node may have been a point, that is, a knob of marble left purposely by Agostino as a fixed reference for a mechanical transfer measuring off his statue from the model.<ref name="Wittkower1977">{{cite book |last1=Wittkower |first1=Rudolf |title=Sculpture: Processes and Principles |date=1977 |publisher=Allen Lane |isbn=978-0-7139-0878-7 |page=86 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JCg3AQAAIAAJ&q=%22nodus%22%20%22David%22%20%22Michelangelo%22}}</ref> Lavin suggests that Agostino's aborted attempt was the result of an error in his pointing system, and that if his conjecture is correct, it may illuminate a note added in the margin next to the passage in the commission giving ''il gigante'' to Michelangelo:<ref name="Lavin1967">{{cite journal |last1=Lavin |first1=Irving |title=Bozzetti and Modelli {{!}} Notes on Sculptural Procedure from the Early Renaissance through Bernini |journal=Stil und Überlieferung in der Kunst des Abendlandes |date=1967 |volume=III |pages=93–94, 97–98 |url=https://publications.ias.edu/sites/default/files/Lavin_BozzettiModelli_1967.pdf |publisher=Akten des 21. internationalen Kongresses für Kunstgeschichte in Bonn 1964}}</ref> {{blockquote|The said Michelangelo began to work on the said giant on the morning of 13 September 1501, although a few days earlier, on 9 September, he had with one or two blows of the chisel (''uno vel duo ictibus'') removed a certain nodus (''quoddam nodum'') that it had on its chest.<ref name="Lavin1967" />}}

===Placement===
[[File:Michelangelo David Philpot.jpg|thumb|left|The ''David'' in front of the Palazzo Vecchio before 1873, with a leaf covering his genitals]]
On 25 January 1504, when the sculpture was nearing completion, Florentine authorities had to acknowledge there would be little possibility of raising the  5.17 metre high statue<ref>The height of the ''David'' was recorded incorrectly and the mistake proliferated through many art history publications (434 cm, e.g. by Pope-Hennessy 1996 and Poeschke 1992). The accurate height was only determined in 1998–99 when a team from [[Stanford University]] went to Florence to try out a project on digitally imaging large [[Three-dimensional space|3D]] objects by photographing sculptures by Michelangelo and found that the sculpture was considerably taller than any of the sources had indicated. See {{Cite web|url=http://graphics.stanford.edu/projects/mich/more-david/more-david.html|author=Levoy, Marc|title=We finish scanning the David|date=March 28, 1999}} and about the process {{Cite web|url=https://accademia.stanford.edu/mich/head-of-david/head-of-david.html|title=A 3D computer model of the head of Michelangelo's David}}</ref> weighing approximately 8.5 tons<ref name="Wallace2017">{{cite book |last1=Wallace |first1=William E. |editor1-last=Helmstutler Di Dio |editor1-first=Kelley |title=Making and Moving Sculpture in Early Modern Italy |year=2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-351-55951-5 |page=47 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nTQrDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA47 |chapter=An Impossible Task}}</ref> to the roof of the cathedral. They convened a committee of 30 Florentine citizens that included many artists, including Leonardo da Vinci and [[Sandro Botticelli]], to decide on an appropriate site for ''David''.<ref name="Levine1974">{{cite journal |last1=Levine |first1=Saul |title=The Location of Michelangelo's David: The Meeting of January 25, 1504 |journal=The Art Bulletin |date=1974 |volume=56 |issue=1 |pages=31–32 |doi=10.2307/3049194 |jstor=3049194 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3049194 |issn=0004-3079}}</ref><ref>The minutes of the meeting were published in Giovanni Gaye, ''Carteggio inedito d'artisti del sec. XIV, XV, XVI'', Florence, 1839–40, 2: 454–463. For an English translation of the document, see Seymour 1967, 140–155, and for an analysis, see Levine 1974, 31–49; N. Randolph Parks, "The Placement of Michelangelo's ''David:'' A Review of the Documents," ''Art Bulletin'', 57 (1975) 560–570; and Goffen 2002, 123–127.</ref> While nine different locations for the statue were discussed, the majority of members seem to have been closely split between two sites.<ref name="Levine1974" />

One group, led by [[Giuliano da Sangallo]] and supported by Leonardo and [[Piero di Cosimo]], among others, believed that, due to the imperfections in the marble, the sculpture should be placed under the roof of the [[Loggia dei Lanzi]] on [[Piazza della Signoria]]; the other group thought it should stand at the entrance to the Palazzo della Signoria, the city's town hall (now known as [[Palazzo Vecchio]]). Another opinion, shared by Botticelli and [[Cosimo Rosselli]], was that the sculpture should be situated in front of the cathedral.<ref name="Levine197435">{{cite journal |last1=Levine |first1=Saul |title=The Location of Michelangelo's David: The Meeting of January 25, 1504 |journal=The Art Bulletin |date=1974 |volume=56 |issue=1 |page=35, note 16 |doi=10.2307/3049194 |jstor=3049194 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3049194 |issn=0004-3079}}</ref><ref name="Poeschke199641">{{cite book |last1=Poeschke |first1=Joachim |title=Michelangelo and His World: Sculpture of the Italian Renaissance |year=1996 |publisher=Harry N. Abrams |isbn=978-0-8109-4276-9 |page=41 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=inNgQgAACAAJ}}</ref>

In June 1504, ''David'' was installed next to the entrance to the Palazzo della Signoria, replacing Donatello's [[bronze sculpture]] of [[Judith and Holofernes (Donatello)|''Judith and Holofernes'']],<ref name="Pope-Hennessy1985">{{cite book |last1=Pope-Hennessy |first1=John Wyndham |title=Italian High Renaissance and Baroque sculpture |year=1985 |publisher=New York : Vintage Books |isbn=978-0-394-72934-3 |page=12 |url=https://archive.org/details/italianhighrenai0000pope/page/12/mode/2up}}</ref> which also embodied a theme of heroic resistance.<ref name="McHam2001">{{cite journal |last1=McHam |first1=Sarah Blake |title=Donatello's Bronze David and Judith as Metaphors of Medici Rule in Florence |journal=The Art Bulletin |date=2001 |volume=83 |issue=1 |doi=10.1080/00043079.2001.10786967 |doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00043079.2001.10786967 |access-date=9 July 2023}}</ref><ref name="Broude2018">{{cite book |last1=Broude |first1=Norma |title=The Expanding Discourse: Feminism And Art History |year=2018 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-97246-1 |page=217 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zJZNDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT217}}</ref> It took four days to move it the half mile from the cathedral's workshop into the Piazza della Signoria. The statue was suspended in a wooden frame and rolled on fourteen greased logs by more than 40 men.<ref name="PaolettiRadke2005">{{cite book |last1=Paoletti |first1=John T. |last2=Radke |first2=Gary M. |title=Art in Renaissance Italy |year=2005 |publisher=Laurence King Publishing |isbn=978-1-85669-439-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EFhVehAvVyUC&pg=PA388}}</ref> Later that summer, the sling and tree-stump support were gilded, and the figure was given a gilt loin-garland.{{sfn|Goffen|2002|p=130}}<ref name="Coonin2014">{{cite book |last1=Coonin |first1=Arnold Victor |title=From Marble to Flesh: The Biography of Michelangelo's David |year=2014 |publisher=B'Gruppo |isbn=978-88-97696-02-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zIZsoAEACAAJ |pages=90–94}}</ref>

===Later history===
In 1525 the block of marble intended to be the [[Pendant (art)|pendant]] for the ''David'' fell off a barge into the river Arno as it was being transported to Florence. Vasari wrote that it had jumped into the river in despair when it heard that [[Baccio Bandinelli]] would be carving it rather than Michelangelo, to whom the commission for a colossal statue of ''Hercules and Cacus'' at the entrance to the Palazzo della Signoria had originally been given.<ref name="Zirpolo202020">{{cite book |last1=Zirpolo |first1=Lilian H. |title=Michelangelo: A Reference Guide to His Life and Works |year=2020 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-5381-2304-1 |page=20 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UTXsDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA20}}</ref><ref name="Smithers2022219">{{cite book |last1=Smithers |first1=Tamara |title=The Cults of Raphael and Michelangelo: Artistic Sainthood and Memorials as a Second Life |year=2022 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-000-62438-0 |chapter=Michelangelo's Suicidal Stone |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=shN1EAAAQBAJ&pg=PT219 |page=219}}</ref>

[[File:Moving Michelangelo's statue of David from Piazza della Signoria to Galleria.jpg|thumb|300px|Moving the ''David'' from Piazza della Signoria to the Galleria dell'Accademia]]
In the mid-1800s, small cracks were noticed on the left leg on the ''David'', which can possibly be attributed to an uneven sinking of the ground under the massive statue.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Borri|first=A.|year=2006|title=Diagnostic analysis of the lesions and stability of Michelangelo's David|journal=Journal of Cultural Heritage|volume=7|issue=4|pages=273–285|doi=10.1016/j.culher.2006.06.004}}</ref>
In 1873, it was removed from the piazza to protect it from damage, and was moved to the [[Galleria dell'Accademia|Accademia Gallery]] where it would attract many visitors. The sculpture was secured in a wheeled wooden crate, and moved slowly across the city from 30 July to 10 August that year. Its 16th-century base, said to be decrepit in contemporary reports, was lost when the crate was disassembled. A model of the crate is in the Museo di Casa Buonarroti, the house-museum in Florence's Via Ghibellina where Michelangelo lived. The statue was not placed in its permanent setting in the Accademia until 1882. The architect Emilio De Fabris, professor at the Accademia, designed a [[Tribune (architecture)#Meanings|tribune]] to house the ''David'' in a vaulted interior [[exedra]], towards the apse, where it was bathed in light that streamed in through windows in the dome above.<ref name="PaolucciAmendola2006" /> A replica was placed in the Piazza della Signoria in 1910.<ref name="Poeschke1996">{{cite book |last1=Poeschke |first1=Joachim |title=Michelangelo and His World: Sculpture of the Italian Renaissance |year=1996 |publisher=Harry N. Abrams |isbn=978-0-8109-4276-9 |pages=85–86 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=inNgQgAACAAJ}}</ref><ref>Coonin 2014, p. 89</ref>

In 1991, Piero Cannata, an artist whom the police described as deranged, attacked the statue with a hammer he had concealed beneath his jacket and damaged the second toe of the left foot. He later said that a 16th-century Venetian painter's model ordered him to do so. Cannata was restrained by museum patrons until the police arrived.<ref name=damage>"a man the police described as deranged, broke part of a toe with a hammer, saying a 16th century Venetian painter's model ordered him to do so." Cowell, Alan. [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE3DC103CF936A2575AC0A967958260 "Michelangelo's David Is Damaged"], ''New York Times'', 1991-09-15. Retrieved on 2008-05-23.</ref>  Fragments fell to the floor, and three tourists were caught by guards as they were trying to leave the gallery with pieces in their pockets.<ref name="Smithers2022">{{cite book |last1=Smithers |first1=Tamara |title=The Cults of Raphael and Michelangelo: Artistic Sainthood and Memorials as a Second Life |year=2022 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-000-62438-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=shN1EAAAQBAJ&pg=PT62 |page=62}}</ref>

The state of preservation of the ''David'' has been monitored and evaluated since 2000 using high-resolution [[3D scanning]], [[photogrammetry]], [[Finite element method in structural mechanics|finite element method]] (FEM)  analyses, and ''[[in situ]]'' fracture monitoring through fibre optic [[Fiber Bragg grating|Bragg gratings]]. These observations have shown that in its present vertical orientation, with the basal [[plinth]] horizontal, the centre of gravity of the base does not align with the ''David'''s centre of gravity. Nevertheless, FEM analysis suggests that the statue is stable in its current position and indicates that its forward inclination of 1 degree to 3 degrees has played a major part in the development of cracks in the ankles.

[[File:Florence, Italy - panoramio (73).jpg|thumb|left|The Pallazzo Vecchio today, with the ''[[Fountain of Neptune, Florence|Fountain of Neptune]]'' (1560 and 1574) and other sculptural works]]
In 2006, Borri and Grazini, using historical analysis and a finite element model of the ''David'', identified the probable cause of the cracks in its legs as a slight forward inclination of the statue that developed after the flood of 1844 in Florence.<ref name="Miccinesi et al. 2021">{{cite journal |last1=Miccinesi |first1=Lapo |last2=Beni |first2=Alessandra |last3=Monchetti |first3=Silvia |last4=Betti |first4=Michele |last5=Borri |first5=Claudio |last6=Pieraccini |first6=Massimiliano |title=Ground Penetrating Radar Survey of the Floor of the Accademia Gallery (Florence, Italy) |journal=Remote Sensing |date=26 March 2021 |volume=13 |issue=7 |pages=1273 |doi=10.3390/rs13071273 |url=https://mdpi-res.com/d_attachment/remotesensing/remotesensing-13-01273/article_deploy/remotesensing-13-01273-v2.pdf?version=1617937220 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2021RemS...13.1273M }}</ref> The statue being located outdoors in front of the Palazzo della Signoria (Palazzo Vecchio) from 1504 to 1873, this inclination likely occurred because of the "uneven subsidence and rotation of the statue's foundations".<ref name="Corti et al. 2015">{{cite journal |last1=Corti |first1=Giacomo |last2=Costagliola |first2=Pilario |last3=Bonini |first3=Marco |last4=Benvenuti |first4=Marco |last5=Pecchioni |first5=Elena |last6=Vaiani |first6=Alberto |last7=Landucci |first7=Francesco |title=Modelling the failure mechanisms of Michelangelo's David through small-scale centrifuge experiments |journal=Journal of Cultural Heritage |date=January 2015 |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=26–31 |doi=10.1016/j.culher.2014.03.001 |url=https://www.academia.edu/download/45305374/Modelling_the_failure_mechanisms_of_Mich20160503-13640-1jw06pe.pdf}}</ref> Further damage occurred with the additional weight placed on the statue when, in 1847,<ref name="Pieraccini et al. 2017">{{cite journal |last1=Pieraccini |first1=Massimiliano |last2=Betti |first2=Michele |last3=Forcellini |first3=Davide |last4=Dei |first4=Devis |last5=Papi |first5=Federico |last6=Bartoli |first6=Gianni |last7=Facchini |first7=Luca |last8=Corazzi |first8=Riccardo |last9=Kovacevic |first9=Vladimir Cerisano |title=Radar detection of pedestrian-induced vibrations on Michelangelo's David |journal=PLOS ONE |date=10 April 2017 |volume=12 |issue=4 |pages=e0174480 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0174480 |pmid=28394932 |pmc=5386262 |language=en |issn=1932-6203 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2017PLoSO..1274480P }}</ref> Clemente Papi made a plaster mould composed of more than 1,500 separate segments, some weighing as much as 680&nbsp;kg.<ref name="Paoletti2015114">{{cite book |last1=Paoletti |first1=John T. |title=Michelangelo's David: Florentine History and Civic Identity |year=2015 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-316-24013-7 |page=114 |chapter=Naked Men in Piazza |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4FuXBgAAQBAJ&pg=PT114}}</ref> The sculpture was also inclined on other occasions, such as when it was moved in 1873 to its placement in the Galleria dell'Accademia,<ref name="Corti et al. 2015"/> after which the tilt was corrected.<ref name="Pieraccini et al. 2017"/> [[Ultrasound|Ultrasonic]] crack assessment tests carried out by Pascale and Lolli in 2014 determined that cracks in the ''broncone'', the tree trunk against which the ''David'''s right leg rests, are the most worrisome of those in the statue. The left ankle and the area where the left heel and the base are attached also show cracks of critical concern.<ref name="PascaleLolli">{{cite journal |last1=Pascale |first1=Giovanni |last2=Lolli |first2=Antonio |title=Crack assessment in marble sculptures using ultrasonic measurements: Laboratory tests and application on the statue of David by Michelangelo |journal=Journal of Cultural Heritage |date=1 November 2015 |volume=16 |issue=6 |page=820 |doi=10.1016/j.culher.2015.02.005 |url=https://www.academia.edu/download/45305374/Modelling_the_failure_mechanisms_of_Mich20160503-13640-1jw06pe.pdf |issn=1296-2074}}</ref>

Some scholars have suggested that the relative weakness caused by the cracks in its legs could make the statue vulnerable to the vibrations of foot traffic from visitors to the gallery. Nearly a million and a half tourists (about four thousand people each day it is open) visit the Accademia Gallery annually to see the ''David''. In 2015, Pieraccini et al. measured its dynamic movements with [[Interferometric synthetic-aperture radar#Terrestrial or ground-based|interferometric radar]]. Measurements were made of such displacements on two days: Monday, 27 July and Tuesday, 28 July 2015;<ref name="Pieraccini et al. 2017"/> on Monday the Accademia is closed, while Tuesday is statistically the peak attendance day. Their results did not show a significant increase in the vibration amplitude on days the Accademia was open, compared to days it was closed.<ref name="Miccinesi et al. 2021"/>

In 2010, a dispute over the ownership of ''David'' arose when, 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 disputes the municipal claim.<ref>{{cite news|title=Who Owns Michelangelo's 'David'?|first=Elisabetta|last=Povoledo|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/01/world/europe/01david.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=31 August 2010|access-date=1 September 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Florence vs Italy: Michelangelo's David at centre of ownership row|first=Nick|last=Pisa|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/7946627/Florence-vs-Italy-Michelangelos-David-at-centre-of-ownership-row.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/7946627/Florence-vs-Italy-Michelangelos-David-at-centre-of-ownership-row.html |archive-date=2022-01-11 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|publisher=[[The Daily Telegraph]] (London)|date=16 August 2010|access-date=1 September 2010}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
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