41 Fun Facts About Michelangelo's David

How did workers get the finished David out of its workshop in 1504?

Broke the wall above the door, the diarist Luca Landucci wrote, since the 5.17-metre statue was too tall to leave the cathedral workshop through it.

Which ideal did the David come to symbolise for the people of its city?

Republican liberty was what Florentines read into it: like the young hero facing a giant, their small republic stood up to more powerful rival states.

Which famous work had Michelangelo just finished before he returned to Florence to carve the David?

The Pietà is the only work he ever signed: Vasari says he carved his name on it at night after hearing visitors credit another sculptor.

Which unfinished Michelangelo statues line the corridor leading to the David in Florence's Accademia?

The Prisoners were meant for Pope Julius II's tomb, but when its design was scaled back they stayed in Michelangelo's studio and later decorated a grotto in the Boboli Gardens.

Which sculptor was contracted in 1464 to carve a marble David for the cathedral, decades before Michelangelo?

Agostino di Duccio had lost the commission by late 1466, possibly after Donatello's death, and the block he had begun to shape was left unused for a decade.

From which quarrying town did the marble for the David come?

Carrara's Fantiscritti quarry, worked since Roman times, supplied the block, which was dragged to the coast by oxen and then shipped on to Florence.

What nickname did the Florentine cathedral overseers give the neglected marble block?

Il gigante, the giant, was what the overseers called the block, and the name stuck: Florentines went on calling the finished statue The Giant.

In 2010, what did Florence's mayor cite to claim the David for the city?

An 1871 transfer of buildings to the city was his proof, but the state's lawyers said the deal never named the David.

Which two famous artists sat on the 1504 committee deciding where the David should stand?

Leonardo da Vinci and Botticelli both sat on the committee; of nine sites discussed, Leonardo favoured the sheltered Loggia dei Lanzi while Botticelli wanted the statue beside the cathedral.

Which bronze did the David replace beside the entrance of Florence's town hall in 1504?

Judith and Holofernes, Donatello's bronze of a widow beheading an enemy general, had to be taken down and moved into the palace, the diarist Luca Landucci wrote.

How was the David moved half a mile to the piazza in 1504?

Rolled on fourteen greased logs, the statue hung from ropes inside a wooden frame so it would rock gently instead of knocking against the beams, and more than 40 men took four days.

What happened to the David during its four-day move to the piazza in 1504?

It was pelted with stones by youths at night, the diarist Luca Landucci recorded, so a guard was posted over the statue as it inched across the city between 14 and 18 May 1504.

Which part of the David was broken into three pieces during an anti-Medici riot in 1527?

Its left arm broke in the riot, and Giorgio Vasari later said he and his friend Francesco Salviati saved the pieces as boys.

Why was the David moved from the piazza into the Accademia in 1873?

To protect it from damage, the statue was taken in after almost 370 years outdoors, though planners also hoped it would draw crowds to a new Michelangelo museum.

What is unusual about the David compared with earlier Davids by Donatello and Verrocchio?

Goliath is left out entirely: Donatello and Verrocchio showed the victor standing over the giant's severed head, but Michelangelo's David stares into the distance, brow tense, in the moment before the fight.

Which classical term names the weight-shifted stance that Michelangelo's David adopts?

Contrapposto rests the weight on one leg so the hips and shoulders tilt opposite ways, which makes the figure look as if it is about to move.

Which parts of the David are unusually large for both Michelangelo's work and antique models?

Head and hands are outsized, the right hand especially, probably because the figure was meant to be read from far below on the cathedral roofline.

What does David hold in his left hand, draped over his shoulder?

A sling lies in his left hand, draped over his shoulder, its strap running down to the right hand; the strap was gilded the summer after the statue was installed.

What did Michelangelo carve behind David's right leg to help support the statue's weight?

A tree stump braces the right leg, which carries most of the statue's weight, a prop ancient sculptors had long used to steady standing marble figures.

In 1991 a man named Piero Cannata attacked the David with what?

A hammer smashed a toe on the statue's left foot, and that toe then had to be restored.

In 2023 a lesson showing the David cost a principal her job in which US state?

Florida: principal Hope Carrasquilla was forced out after complaints that sixth-graders were shown the statue without parental notice.

What did the sculptor Aristodemo Costoli use to clean the David, causing lasting damage?

Hydrochloric acid stripped away a protective coating of wax that had been applied to the statue.

Why did the first restorer hired for the David's 2004 restoration quit?

She opposed the wet cleaning method, fearing water poultices would harm the marble, and quit rather than use them; her successor cleaned it mostly with distilled water.

Which part of the David has developed cracks that engineers monitor closely?

Its ankles carry the load, and a slight forward lean the statue picked up while the ground settled under it in the piazza is thought to have opened the cracks.

To whom did Grand Duke Leopold II of Tuscany give a plaster cast of the David in 1857?

Queen Victoria was sent the cast, reportedly to soothe feelings after Tuscany refused to let a Ghirlandaio painting go to London, and she gave it to the museum now called the V&A.

What was kept ready for a museum's plaster cast of the David, to put on before important visits?

A detachable fig leaf was hung on the cast from two hooks before important visits, since the nude figure was thought too shocking for distinguished guests.

Why did Tuscany's ruler order a full-size copy of the David in the 1840s?

To test new sites for it, the copy was to be set up in different spots around the city, and later casts have been taken from it instead of from the marble itself.

What were engineers checking when they aimed radar at the David in 2015, worried about crowds?

Vibrations from footsteps were the concern, so readings taken on a Monday, when the gallery is closed, were compared with a Tuesday, its busiest day.

Which tool did Michelangelo use to carve the pupils of David's eyes and the curls of his hair?

A drill, spun with a bow, bored the pupils, and their dark hollows catch shadow so the statue's gaze still reads clearly from a distance.

Why was the David never placed high on the cathedral it was carved for?

It was judged too fine for the roof, so on seeing the finished statue a committee chose a public square for it instead.

Whose Hercules and Cacus was set up beside the David outside the Palazzo Vecchio in 1534?

Baccio Bandinelli's statue was mocked so savagely when unveiled that Duke Alessandro jailed some of the critics who pinned satirical verses to its base.

In which film does an android choose his name after gazing at a copy of Michelangelo's David?

In Alien: Covenant, when the android says that unlike his maker he will never die, Peter Weyland curtly orders him to pour the tea.

In Vasari's telling, what did the block for the David's companion statue do in 1525?

Fell into the Arno in despair: the block slipped into the river on its way to the city, and Vasari relates the joke that it despaired on learning a lesser sculptor, not Michelangelo, would carve it into Hercules and Cacus.

Which method made the life-size copy of the David shown at Expo 2020 in Dubai?

3D printing turned laser scans of the original into an exact full-size copy, which went on show in Italy's pavilion once the pandemic-delayed fair opened in 2021.

In 2024, how often was scaffolding put up around the David so it could be dusted?

Every two months, a restorer spent half a day on a scaffold going over the statue with soft brushes and a brush-tipped vacuum to lift dust and cobwebs.

What was made for the David's head in 1504, soon after the statue was moved into place?

A gilt victory wreath was made for the head, but like the statue's other gilded trimmings it has since disappeared.

Which Florentine guild dominated the Operai del Duomo, the committee that commissioned the David?

Wool merchants ran the Arte della Lana, the guild that had charge of the cathedral's building and upkeep.

Who refuses to join the crusade against the David in a 1990 Simpsons episode?

Marge Simpson calls the statue a masterpiece, and when she is told that makes her anti-violence campaign hypocritical, she concedes and gives the campaign up.

Which biblical figure did Donatello sculpt in 1410 as the first of the cathedral's series of giants?

Joshua, Donatello's colossal terracotta of 1410, was gessoed and painted white to pass for marble when seen from below; it has long since been lost.

Which city turned down Florence's 1995 gift of a David replica because the statue is nude?

Jerusalem, marking 3,000 years since David conquered it, feared offending religious residents, so it took a copy of Verrocchio's clothed bronze David instead.

In the Bible story the statue depicts, whose armour did David hand back before the fight?

Saul's armour went back, and the unarmoured young shepherd then brought down a heavily armed champion.