Editing David (Michelangelo) (section)

===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" />