We've walked into the Academia in Florence, which is an old art school, and is now number one tourist destination in Florence, I think. There's a lot of people here. And there's a long line of people waiting outside to get in, and it's hard to blame them because...
inside is Michelangelo's David, and it's unspeakably beautiful. So this is a sculpture that's often seen as a perfect exemplar of high Renaissance art. And I suppose it's important to get the story out of the way first. Sure.
It's an Old Testament story, and it speaks to a young man whose name is David, who's brave enough to take on this terrible giant, this terrible enemy, Goliath, that all of the older men are too fearful of to confront. And he does so without any armor. He goes to battle against Goliath on behalf of the Israelites and defeats Goliath with the help of God.
Specifically with a slingshot and a single rock, but clearly with the help of God. And you can see the slingshot in his left hand and the rock in his right. And although the Bible says that David fought Goliath without armor, He doesn't say completely nude. If you look at the body, of course, it's in a kind of classical contrapposto, right?
The weight is clearly on the right leg. The left leg is free. But the body is engaged in something even more complex and more specific. Much of the body is still relaxed.
His right hand is just beginning. to tense, and you can see his eyes have darted to his left. His body, it seems to me, is about to swivel and follow the head's movement. You have this sense that David has just caught sight of his enemy, and his body is just beginning to tense. He's just preparing to meet Goliath.
It's impossible not to notice the remarkable knowledge that Michelangelo brings of the human body and how it works and the muscles and the skeletal structure. and he created this ideally beautiful figure. Michelangelo had dissected the human body, understood its internal structure, and this is a fascinating thought. It was not long before this age that in the West we had no idea how the human body functioned.
When we take for granted now in the 21st century that we understand the mechanics of the body, and so that kind of analysis of the structure of the body, this is really an extraordinary achievement. This is a sculpture that is about potential. It is showing this idealized body. but in a sense, we can begin to see ourselves in this kind of heroic stance as well. This is nearly three times the size of a human being.
You can see why Michelangelo later got the name Il Divino, the divine one. It's important to remember that Michelangelo is a relatively unknown sculptor at this point. He's young. really young, he had had one major commission, which is the Pietà, and then he comes out with this tour de force, which will bring him an enormous amount of attention.
It was commissioned by the city government of Florence in 1501. It was originally going to be placed on one of the tribunes high atop the roofline of the Duomo in Florence, that is, of the main cathedral of Florence. So it was meant to be seen from very far below. When Michelangelo showed what he completed three years later to his patrons, the city government of Florence, they were astounded at how unbelievably beautiful it was and thought, there's no way we want to put this high up. We're going to put it in the piazza, in the square, in front of the Signoria, in front of the government building of Florence. That's because not only was this sculpture so extraordinarily beautiful, but because the story of David had come to be aligned with the story of Florence.
It was a symbol of the Republic of Florence. In our... in opposition to the notion of tyranny. This was a very particular moment in Florentine history.
The Medici had by that time actually assumed a great amount of power and had really subverted the Republican ideals of the city. And so this was a brief moment of the flourishing again of these democratic ideals. There were ways in which the pose referred specifically back to classical images of Hercules. And Hercules was a long-standing symbol of Florence as well.
So there's a whole set of symbols that surround this figure. By making a colossal male nude, and by that we mean way over life size, Michelangelo's taking on a type of sculpture that the ancient Greeks and Romans had made, and in a way surpassing what the ancient Greeks and Romans had done. showing that Florence itself has surpassed ancient Greece and Rome too.
We know that Florence saw itself as sometimes the new Athens or the new Rome. And in fact, an important part of the mythology of Florence was that it had been founded by the ancient Romans. It was an inherent part of their identity. So this all makes sense.
It makes total sense that the government of Florence, the signoria... would see this sculpture and bring it to the Palazzo Vecchio, bring it to the seat of government. As this potent symbol. A special conveyance was built to bring it to the Signoria.
There were 14 greased logs that rolled it with the power of 40 men. Over several days. From the studio to the palazzo. And they didn't want it to go up in the cathedral. They wanted it close.
They celebrated it. The city fell in love with this sculpture. And saw it as the most powerful sculpture.
symbol they could imagine of their renewed Republic.