Michelangelo's David is famous because Florence made it the emblem of the city. Michelangelo was twenty-six when he began carving it in 1501, for a spot on the roof of the cathedral. By 1504 the city had put it instead at the door of its government.
It stands 5.17 meters tall, about 17 feet, and it still draws crowds: the Accademia, the Florence museum that holds it, counted 2,013,974 visitors in 2023, a record.
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Nobody in Florence set out to make a symbol. The marble was a leftover. In 1464 the cathedral works, the Opera del Duomo, hired the sculptor Agostino di Duccio to carve a David for the roofline of the cathedral. He roughed out little more than the legs and left. Twelve years later Antonio Rossellino took over and backed out almost at once, citing the poor quality of the stone.
The slab lay outdoors for about twenty-five years. When an official described it in 1501, he wrote of "a certain man of marble, named David, badly blocked out and laid on its back in the courtyard." Nothing in that sentence suggests a masterpiece. Nothing suggests a symbol either.
Even finished, the statue had no home. Officials judged it too heavy for the roofline, so in January 1504 the cathedral works called together the leading artists of the city to decide where it should go. The places the artists argued for were not the place Florence picked.
What You'll Discover
Who nearly got the marble instead.
Who wanted it kept under cover.
What happened the night it moved.
What David is about to do.
What broke its arm and its foot.