Welcome to my sunlit world!
This is the first installment of my new art blog where I will be discussing art: finding it, buying it, caring for it, preserving it, enjoying it, art history, art creation, artist interviews, and anything else I can think of that revolves around one of the things I love most. I hope that you will visit often!
Preservation of Michelangelo's David - Galleria dell'Accademia - Friends of Florence
This might be one of the most perfect works of art ever created - yet it was carved from a rejected block of stone.
1. The colossal figure is 17 feet tall, equivalent to a 2-story building. It was carved from one enormous block of Carrara marble.
2. The block it was hewn from was damaged. Two sculptors were tasked with the commission before Michelangelo took over, but neither could successfully work the low-quality stone provided.
3. David’s form accounted for the limitations of the stone. He is slim in figure and his head is pointed to the side - because the block was too narrow for him to face forward. His contrapposto poise accounted for a hole that already existed in the marble between the legs.
4. Michelangelo was only 26 when he started it and 28 when he finished. He was already one of the finest sculptors alive at that point, having completed the “Pietà” to the total disbelief of Rome when he was 24.
5. It was originally meant to sit atop the Florence Cathedral roofline. When it was complete, it was simply too beautiful, and large, to be hoisted up there, and was instead displayed at the Palazzo della Signoria.
6. Modern studies have found it to be anatomically perfect, except for one tiny muscle missing in the back. Michelangelo, who studied anatomy scrupulously, was aware of this - he later wrote that he was limited by a defect in the marble.
7. The jugular vein in David’s neck is bulging, appropriate for someone in a state of fear or excitement (as the young shepherd would have been). Michelangelo evidently knew this was a feature of the circulatory system, but medical science didn’t document this discovery for another 124 years.
8. It was stylistically groundbreaking. Earlier interpretations of David, such as by Donatello and Verrocchio, depicted him victorious over the already slain Goliath. Here, he’s at the precipice of battle, his intense stare and furrowed brow depicting a contemplative moment.
Today, around 1.5 million people visit David every year. It has lived in the Accademia Gallery in Florence now for 150 years, since it was moved inside in 1873 to protect it from the elements.
As owner of one of the most beautiful art galleries in the world, I look forward to sharing my knowledge and passion with you. You can find me at Quent Cordair Fine Art, on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Linda Cordair