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8 September 1504 (carved 1501-1504)Reputable source · 2 sourcesWell documented

Michelangelo Carves the David

A block of marble other sculptors had given up on becomes Florence's civic symbol

On the timeline · around 8 September 1504 (carved 1501-1504) · The High RenaissanceThe High RenaissanceMichelangelo Carves the David1496149815001502150415061508151015121514

Quick facts

Sculptor
Michelangelo, 1475-1564
Material
Carrara marble
Height
5.17 metres (517 cm) with base
Now in
Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence

What happened

The Florence cathedral workshop assigned Michelangelo, then 26, the commission for a monumental statue of the biblical David on 16 August 1501, offering 400 ducats for the work. He carved it from a single massive block of Carrara marble that other sculptors had already attempted and abandoned as flawed or unworkable. On 25 January 1504, a commission of Florentine artists, including Botticelli and Leonardo, decided the finished statue, standing 5.17 meters tall including its base, should stand at the entrance of the Palazzo Vecchio as a civic symbol rather than atop the cathedral as originally planned, and it was unveiled to the city on 8 September 1504.

Why it matters

The David announced that Florence saw its republic as heir to the ancient world, in scale as well as subject, and the statue's shift from a religious commission to a secular civic monument shows how far Renaissance sculpture had moved from its original church context by 1504.

How we know

The commission, the artists' committee that chose its placement, and the David's dimensions are documented in the Florentine cathedral workshop's own records and preserved today by the Galleria dell'Accademia, where the statue has stood since 1873.

Sources

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