50 Fun Facts About Michelangelo's David

How tall is Michelangelo's David?

It was the first colossal marble statue carved since classical antiquity, and it weighs roughly 8.5 tons.

In which Italian city was the David carved and unveiled?

It was unveiled in front of the Palazzo della Signoria, the seat of the city's republican government, on 8 September 1504.

Between which years did Michelangelo work on the David?

His contract of 16 August 1501 gave him two years; he began carving early on the morning of 13 September that year.

How old was Michelangelo when he won the commission for the David in 1501?

Leonardo da Vinci was among those consulted and Andrea Sansovino also wanted the job, but the young Michelangelo convinced the cathedral overseers.

For which building was the David originally commissioned?

It was meant to be one of twelve prophets standing on the buttresses at the east end, high above the ground, which may explain its oversized head and hands.

Which sculptor first began roughing out the marble block in 1464, decades before Michelangelo touched it?

He got as far as the torso, legs and feet before stopping in 1466, the year his master Donatello died; the block then lay in the cathedral yard for years.

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

The block was bianco ordinario grade, not the finer statuario, from the old Roman Fantiscritti quarry; it travelled by ox cart to the sea and by barge up the Arno.

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

A 1500 inventory described it as 'a certain figure of marble called David, badly blocked out and supine'.

How long did the cathedral overseers' contract give Michelangelo to finish the statue?

He was paid six fiorini a month and given a workspace behind the Duomo; the statue was in fact finished in early 1504.

Which sculptor was contracted in 1476 to resume work on the block, only for the deal to fall through?

After that failure the block lay exposed to the weather in the workshop yard for another 25 years.

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

Nine sites were discussed; Leonardo favoured the sheltered Loggia dei Lanzi, while Botticelli wanted the statue in front of the cathedral.

Whose bronze sculpture did the David replace at the entrance to the Palazzo della Signoria in 1504?

Both works embodied a theme of heroic resistance, which suited the republic's defiance of the exiled Medici.

How was the finished statue moved the half mile from the cathedral workshop to the piazza in 1504?

It hung in a wooden frame and took more than 40 men four days; a guard was posted because rival artists were hostile.

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

The marks are still visible on its upper back; four youths from prominent families were arrested and three imprisoned.

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

Giorgio Vasari later claimed that he and a friend, still boys, braved the violence to rescue the fragments.

In which year was the David moved indoors to the Galleria dell'Accademia?

It travelled across the city in a wheeled wooden crate from 30 July to 10 August; a replica took its old place in the piazza in 1910.

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

Scholars such as Howard Hibbard read the tense brow and bulging neck veins as David sizing up the giant before the fight rather than celebrating after it.

What is the classical stance, weight on one leg with hips and shoulders at opposing angles, that the David adopts?

Renaissance artists saw the pose as a hallmark of antiquity, traced back to the Doryphoros of Polykleitos from around 440 BC.

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

The likely reason is that the figure was designed to be read from far below on the cathedral roofline.

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

Its strap runs down to the right hand; soon after installation the strap and tree stump were gilded and a copper vine was hung around the groin.

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

Contemporary documents called it the broncone, the same word used for Lorenzo de' Medici's emblem of a dead laurel branch sprouting new growth.

Which Florentine satirist proposed women offenders be forced to gaze at Michelangelo's David 'with eyeglasses'?

Eyeglasses were a notable Florentine product; the satire poked fun at the gilt garland that failed to hide the statue's erotic charge.

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

He broke off the tip of the second toe of the left foot and said a 16th-century Venetian painter's model had told him to do it; three tourists were caught pocketing fragments.

What did analysis of the fragments from the 1991 attack reveal about the marble?

The tests also confirmed the stone came from the Fantiscritti quarries in Miseglia, the central of Carrara's three valleys.

In 1843 the sculptor Aristodemo Costoli cleaned the David with what, causing lasting damage?

The 50 per cent acid solution stripped the protective wax and left the surface pitted and porous, worse than 400 years of weather had managed.

How was the David protected during the Second World War?

Michelangelo's other sculptures in the Accademia were sealed up in the same way.

The 2004 restoration was the David's first major cleaning since which year?

It was timed for the 500th anniversary of the unveiling; the first restorer resigned in a row over wet poultices versus dry brushing.

Which restorer resigned from the 2004 project after refusing to use the wet 'poultice' cleaning method?

She wanted soft brushes and motorised erasers; the job passed to Cinzia Parnigoni under Accademia director Franca Falletti.

Which parts of the David have developed cracks that engineers monitor closely?

A forward tilt of one to three degrees, probably dating from the 1844 Arno flood, is blamed; a 1,500-piece plaster mould made in 1847 added to the strain.

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

It was a diplomatic sweetener after he refused to lend a Ghirlandaio painting to London; the surprised queen passed it to the South Kensington Museum.

What accessory does the Victoria and Albert Museum's plaster cast of the David come with?

It was hung on two hooks before royal visits after Queen Victoria was reportedly shocked by the nudity, and is now displayed nearby.

Where was a bronze cast of the David raised in 1875?

Clemente Papi's cast was shown at the 1867 Paris Exposition first; the 1875 unveiling marked the 400th anniversary of Michelangelo's birth.

In 2010 a fibreglass replica of the David was hoisted for a week onto what?

The photographs showed the statue as the cathedral overseers who commissioned it in the 1460s had expected to see it.

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

He made his own steel chisels and, unusually, avoided flat chisels altogether, finishing with toothed blades such as the gradina.

What is the heavy pointed iron tool Michelangelo used first, to rough out the main mass of the block?

He followed it with the two-toothed calcagnuolo and then the three-toothed gradina, whose claw marks show on his unfinished works.

Roughly how many tourists visit the Accademia each year to see the David?

That is roughly 4,000 people a day; radar tests in 2015 found visitor footfall did not measurably increase the statue's vibrations.

Which architect designed the domed tribune in the Accademia where the David has stood since 1882?

He was a professor at the Accademia; the statue waited nine years after its move for the tribune to be ready.

In 2010 the Italian Culture Ministry found itself in a dispute over the David's ownership with whom?

The city's claim rested on a legal review of the historical documents; the ministry disputes it.

According to Vasari, what did the marble block meant to be the David's companion piece do in 1525?

Vasari's joke was that the stone despaired on hearing Baccio Bandinelli, not Michelangelo, would carve it into Hercules and Cacus.

How many people were on the committee that debated where to place the David in 1504?

Nine sites were discussed; the majority split between the Loggia dei Lanzi and the entrance of the Palazzo della Signoria.

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

The half-day operation used soft brushes and a bristle-tipped vacuum to remove dust and spiders' webs.

What was the David given the summer after its installation, in addition to a gilded sling and stump?

A vine of copper leaves was also strung around the groin; all these adornments have since disappeared.

On what date was Michelangelo given the official contract for the David?

The Latin contract called him 'the worthy master, Michelangelo, the son of Lodovico Buonarrotti' and set the figure at nine braccia.

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

The Arte della Lana consuls signed the contract along with the cathedral overseers.

A parody 'Leather David' that drew attention in 1966 appeared in which city?

The statue is the most reproduced work ever made in Florence, turning up in casinos, beach resorts and model railways.

Roughly how much does the David weigh?

That weight is why Florentine officials abandoned the plan of hoisting it onto the cathedral roof and convened a committee to find it a home on the ground.

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

Donatello's colossal figure was terracotta, gessoed and painted white so it would pass for marble from a distance.

In which year was a replica of the David placed in the Piazza della Signoria?

The original had left the square in 1873 for the Accademia, whose domed tribune was not ready to receive it until 1882.

What was strung around the David's groin soon after its 1504 installation?

The stump and sling strap were gilded at the same time; all of these adornments have since disappeared.

Which 1844 event is blamed for the slight forward tilt that cracked the David's legs?

A 2006 finite-element study traced the cracks to uneven subsidence of the foundations after the Florence flood, made worse by a 1,500-piece plaster mould in 1847.