Q 01/05

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

A) Took off the roof

B) Broke the wall above the door

C) Dug under the doorway

D) Hoisted it over the wall

Answer · why

B) Broke the wall above the door

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.

Q 02/05

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

A) Divine right of kings

B) Republican liberty

C) Loyalty to the Church

D) Military conquest

Answer · why

B) Republican liberty

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.

Q 03/05

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

A) Moses

B) The Medici Madonna

C) The Pietà

D) The Sistine Chapel ceiling

Answer · why

C) The Pietà

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.

Q 04/05

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

A) 44

B) 26

C) 37

D) 31

Answer · why

B) 26

Born in March 1475, Michelangelo was 26 when the cathedral overseers handed him the block in summer 1501; the older Andrea Sansovino had also sought t...

Q 05/05

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

A) The Times of Day

B) The Sibyls

C) The Four Seasons

D) The Prisoners

Answer · why

D) The Prisoners

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 gro...