Accademia Artists | Location | Opening Hours Tickets | Authorizations
Artists Sculptors | Painters | Music
Sculptors Michelangelo | Giambologna
Michelangelo David | Tomb Pope Julius II | Pietà - St. Matthew
David David Goliath | Masterpiece | Consecration Pictures Pages: 01 | 02 | 03 | 04
Michelangelo's David Consecration: On the Signoria Square in Florence
Michelangelo David On January 25, 1504, the work was almost complete, and Michelangelo had largely earned his 400 golden ducats for this exceptional work whose beauty exceeded all expectations.
Consecration and Place of Honour for Michelangelo's David
The gonfalonier Soderini suggested that he deserved a place of honour where everyone could admire him up close.Two possible sites were proposed, already occupied by two masterpieces of Donatello of strong symbolic and political value: either next to the entrance to the palace of the seigneury where the Judith was located, or in the inner courtyard of the same palace where the bronze David who had belonged to the Medici was located.
The gonfalonier preferred to summon all Florentine artists to ask their opinion.
Michelangelo was therefore considered the great heir to the famous Donatello so admired. For him, it was consecration!
Michelangelo David He had become the equal of these great renaissance artists gathered at the Palace of the Lordship in honour of his David: Piero Perugino, David Ghirlandaio, Piero di Cosimo, Filipino Lippi, Cosimo Rosselli, Andrea della Robbia, Antonio and Giuliano da Sangallo, Simone del Pollaiolo, Andrea Sansovino, his friend Francis Esco Granacci, Sandro Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci!
The David placed in front of the Signoria Palace!
It was decided to install it in front of the Signoria Palace.Antonio and Giuliano da Sangallo had been instructed to build a suitable machine on moving it safely while avoiding vibrations during its transport from the Duomo to the Signoria Square.
Michelangelo David
300 metres, 40 men and four days to move Michelangelo's statue of David
They made a wooden structure around the statue by hanging it inside with ropes to cushion the shaking of transport on the cobblestones, a delicate transport that lasted four days to travel the 300 and a few metres that separated it from the square.According to an account of the time, opponents of the government had thrown stones at the statue the first night following its exit from the workshop without having been able to cause any damage to it, thanks to the rapid intervention of the guard.
On May 18 1504, at noon, it had arrived at its destination, but its installation in the place of the Judith was not completed until June 8 after a long and challenging work done by a team of 40 men.
Michelangelo's David “Il Gigante” !
Michelangelo David Michelangelo's David dominated the Signoria Square from all its height where the Florentines, accustomed to the human-sized statues of Donatello and Verrocchio, were so impressed that they nicknamed him “il Gigante”, “the Giant”.
Il Gigante stayed in this square until the municipality of Florence decided to permanently shelter it from bad weather at the Accademia, 369 years later.
To highlight this masterpiece, the architect Emilio de Fabris planned to build at the end of the gallery of old paintings a stand naturally illuminated from above.
David left the Signoria Square in August 1873 for the Accademia Museum, where it was not until the completion of the work (1882) before installing it in the place where it is still today.
Michelangelo's Monumental David Masterpiece
David David Goliath | Masterpiece | Consecration Pictures Pages: 01 | 02 | 03 | 04
Michelangelo David | Tomb Pope Julius II | Pietà - St. Matthew
Sculptors Michelangelo | Giambologna
Artists Sculptors | Painters | Music
Accademia Artists | Location | Opening Hours Tickets | Authorizations
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