Editing David (Michelangelo) (section)

==Interpretation==
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| caption1 = His slender profile and elegant lines of the arms from the left
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| caption2 = The free leg of the ''contrapposto'' in back view
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| caption3 = Back view with the sling running down his spine into his right hand
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| caption4 = A sling handle in his right hand
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| caption5 = ''David''{{'}}s gaze
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| caption6 = Modelling of his chest and belly
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The pose of Michelangelo's ''David'' is unlike that of earlier Renaissance depictions of David. The bronze statues by [[David (Donatello, bronze)|Donatello]] and [[David (Verrocchio)|Verrocchio]] represented the hero standing victorious over the head of [[Goliath]],<ref name="DeTolnay1995">{{cite book |last1=De Tolnay |first1=Charles |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 |pages=85–87 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bye6Xt375N4C&pg=PA85 |chapter=The Art and Thought of Michelangelo}}</ref> and the painter [[Andrea del Castagno]] had shown the boy in mid-swing, even as Goliath's head rested between his legs,<ref name="Haitovsky1985">{{cite journal |last1=Haitovsky |first1=Dalia |title=The Sources of the Young David by Andrea del Castagno |journal=Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz |date=1985 |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=174–182 |jstor=27653158 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27653158 |issn=0342-1201}}</ref> but no earlier Florentine artist had omitted the giant altogether. According to such scholars as Howard Hibbard, ''David'' is depicted ''before'' his battle with Goliath.<ref name="Hibbard2018">{{cite book |last1=Hibbard |first1=Howard |title=Michelangelo |year=2018 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-97857-9 |page=78 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F3-YDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT78}}</ref> Rather than being shown victorious over a foe much larger than he, ''David'' looks wary as he sizes up the giant Goliath before the battle has actually taken place. His brow is drawn, his neck tense, and the veins bulge out of his lowered right hand.<ref name="Partridge2009">{{cite book |last1=Partridge |first1=Loren W. |title=Art of Renaissance Florence, 1400-1600 |year=2009 |publisher=Berkeley : University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-25773-3 |page=116 |url=https://archive.org/details/artofrenaissance0000part/page/116/mode/2up}}</ref> His left hand holds a sling that is draped over his shoulder and down to his right hand, which holds the handle of the sling.<ref name="Ellison1908">{{cite book |last1=Ellison |first1=Daniel James |title=Italy Through the Stereoscope: Journeys in and about Italian Cities |year=1908 |publisher=Underwood & Underwood |page=449 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bzQlzBimn_EC&pg=PA449}}</ref><ref name="Coonin2016116" />

The twist of his body in ''[[contrapposto]]'', standing with most of its weight on his right foot and the other leg forward, effectively conveys to the viewer a sense of potential energy, the feeling that he is about to move.<ref name="Wallace2011">{{cite book |last1=Wallace |first1=William E. |title=Michelangelo: The Artist, the Man and his Times |date=2011 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-50568-0 |page=63 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NU0hAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT63}}</ref> The statue is a Renaissance interpretation of a common ancient Greek theme of the standing [[Heroic nudity|heroic male nude]]. In the Renaissance, contrapposto poses were thought of as a distinctive feature of antique sculpture, initially manifested in the [[Doryphoros]] of [[Polykleitos]] (c. 440 BC). This is typified in ''David''; this classic pose causes both hips and shoulders to rest at opposing angles, giving a slight s-curve to the entire torso. The contrapposto stance is emphasized by the left leg stepping forward,<ref name="Poeschke1996" /> and by the contrasting positions of the arms: the left arm raised with its hand to the shoulder and the other hand touching the thigh.<ref name="Coonin2016">{{cite journal |last1=Coonin |first1=A. Victor |title=Bellotto's Blunder and Michelangelo's David |journal=Notes in the History of Art |date=Spring 2016 |volume=35 |issue=3 |page=250 |doi=10.1086/686711 |s2cid=192817217 |url=https://www.academia.edu/download/51444247/Coonin_Bellotto.pdf}}</ref>

Michelangelo's ''David'' has become one of the most recognized works of Renaissance sculpture; a symbol of strength and youthful beauty. The colossal size of the statue alone impressed Michelangelo's contemporaries. [[Giorgio Vasari|Vasari]] described it as "certainly a miracle that Michelangelo was able to raise up one who had died",<ref name="Günther2017">{{cite book |last1=Günther |first1=Hubertus |editor1-last=Williams |editor1-first=Robert |title=The Beholder: The Experience of Art in Early Modern Europe |year=2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-351-54598-3 |pages=62, 65 |chapter=Michelangelo's works in the eyes of his contemporaries |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vy4rDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA62}}</ref> and then listed all of the largest and most grand of the ancient statues that he had ever seen, concluding that Michelangelo's work surpassed "all ancient and modern statues, whether Greek or Latin, that have ever existed."<ref>Giorgio Vasari, ''Le vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori nelle redazioni del 1550 e 1568,'' ed. [[Rosanna Bettarini]] and [[Paola Barocchi]], Florence, 1966–87, 6: 21.</ref>

The proportions of the ''David'' are atypical of Michelangelo's work as well as of antique models; the figure has an unusually large head and hands (particularly apparent in the right hand).<ref name="Hibbard2018a">{{cite book |last1=Hibbard |first1=Howard |title=Michelangelo |year=2018 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-97857-9 |page=174 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F3-YDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT74}}</ref> These enlargements may be due to the fact that the statue was originally intended to be placed on the cathedral roofline, where the important parts of the sculpture may have been accentuated in order to be visible from below. The small size of the genitals, though, is in line with his other works and with Renaissance conventions in general. The statue is unusually slender (front to back) in comparison to its height, which may be a result of the work done on the block before Michelangelo began carving it.

A naturalistic rendition of the nude human body, if rendered successfully, has an erotic aspect.<ref name="Günther2017" /> Vasari alludes to the statue's sexual locus when he acclaims the figure's "very divine flanks". The flanks (''fianchi'') frame this part of the body, the nexus of its carnality.<ref name="Barolsky1997">{{cite book |last1=Barolsky |first1=Paul |title=Michelangelo's Nose: A Myth and Its Maker |year=1997 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-0-271-03272-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KwM03ken-S4C&pg=PA12}}</ref> Antonio Forcellino calls the ''David'''s sexual organs "the most disquieting genitals of Renaissance sculpture", referring to the manner in which the small bulge, typical of adolescence, frames a tuft of pubic hair that "supports a penis full of energy and displays the testicles, also full of vigour".<ref name="Forcellino2023">{{cite book |last1=Forcellino |first1=Antonio |title=Michelangelo: A Tormented Life |year=2023 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-5095-3997-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wOfLEAAAQBAJ&pg=PP53 |page=53}}</ref>
[[File:'David' by Michelangelo JBU11.JPG|thumb|right|The presence of a [[foreskin]] on ''David''{{'s}} penis, though at odds with the [[Brit milah|Judaic practice]] of [[circumcision]], is in keeping with the conventions of Renaissance art.]]

Commentators have noted the presence of a [[foreskin]] on ''David''{{'s}} penis, which may appear at odds with the [[Brit milah|Judaic practice]] of [[circumcision]]. An artistic deviation from what very likely would have been accurately portrayed as a circumcised penis, it is in keeping with the conventions of Renaissance art,<ref>{{cite journal | pmc = 1279184 | pmid=12356979 | volume=95 | issue=10 | title=Michelangelo and medicine | journal=J R Soc Med | pages=514–5 | last1 = Strauss | first1 = R. M. | last2 = Marzo-Ortega | first2 = H. | doi=10.1177/014107680209501014 | year=2002}}</ref><ref>Coonin 2014, 105–108.</ref> in which the [[Christ Child]], for example, is represented as being uncircumcised, although clearly older than the eight days compelled by Jewish scripture.<ref name="Steinberg2018">{{cite book |last1=Steinberg |first1=Leo |editor1-last=Schwartz |editor1-first=Sheila |title=Michelangelo's Sculpture: Selected Essays |year=2018 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-48257-6 |page=182 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UUNxDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA182}}</ref>