Michelangelo's David stands in the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence, Italy, at Via Ricasoli 58/60, and has stood there since 1873. The statue in front of the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence's town hall, where the David stood for nearly four centuries, is a marble copy.
Michelangelo carved it between 1501 and 1504, and it stands 517 centimeters tall, about 17 feet. The gallery itself is older than the David. Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo of Tuscany founded it in 1784, eighty-nine years before the statue arrived.
Cool Stories About Art is a newsletter to learn art the fun way.
Join 200,000+ readers and get:
10 new art stories / month
The entire archive of content (1,000+ articles)
Comment, ask questions, and chat with other readers
The David in the Accademia is the only one Michelangelo carved, but it was not the only David people could see. In 1857, sixteen years before the marble came indoors, a full-size David was already standing in London.
Florence's ruler, Grand Duke Leopold II of Tuscany, had ordered molds taken from the statue in 1846, and the sculptor Clemente Papi cast plaster copies from them. The first went on show on 16 July 1854 under the Loggia dei Lanzi, the open gallery at the edge of the very square where the marble stood.
The second plaster copy became a present for Queen Victoria, a gesture of goodwill after the Grand Duke vetoed the export of a painting that the National Gallery in London had hoped to buy.
The cast sailed from Livorno in three crates aboard a ship called the Cheshire Witch, and the queen gave it to the museum in South Kensington, today the Victoria and Albert Museum. The V&A says Victoria was apparently shocked by its nakedness. The museum had a plaster fig leaf made, and it was hung on the figure from two hooks for royal visits.
That was London's David. In Florence, the marble itself was still standing in the square, and the city had not yet decided what to do with it.
What You'll Discover
Why it left the square.
How it crossed the city.
Why a room was built around him.
What stands on the way to him.
Who made the copies outdoors.