Naked Man Alert

It occurred to me that I haven't shared art on my blog in quite a while. I am working on a manuscript about a sculptor whose hands I compared to those of the statue "David," by Michelangelo. So, here's a little bit about that renowned statue.

It stands at 17 feet and portrays the Biblical King David at the moment that he decides to do battle with Goliath. What you probably didn't know is that Michelangelo was finishing a statue that had already been started by someone else. This is from Wikipedia:

Agostino was commissioned to create a sculpture of David. He only got as far as beginning to shape the legs, feet and chest of the figure, roughing out some drapery and probably gouging a hole between the legs. His association with the project, for reasons unknown, ceased with the death of his master Donatello in 1466, and Antonio Rossellino was commissioned to take up where Agostino had left off.

Rossellino's contract was terminated soon thereafter, and the block of marble remained neglected for twenty-five years, all the while exposed to the elements in the yard of the cathedral workshop. This was of great concern as such a large piece of marble was both costly, and represented a large amount of labor and difficulty in its transportation to Florence. In 1500, an inventory of the cathedral workshops described the piece as, "a certain figure of marble called David, badly blocked out and supine." A year later, the block of stone was "raised on its feet" so that a master experienced in this kind of work might examine it and express an opinion. Though Leonardo da Vinci and others were consulted, it was young Michelangelo, only twenty-six years old, who received the commission. He worked on the massive biblical hero for a little more than three years.

The proportions are not quite true to the human form; the head and upper body are somewhat larger than the proportions of the lower body. The most commonly accepted explanation for this is that the statue was originally intended to be placed on a church façade or high pedestal, and that the proportions would appear correct when the statue was viewed from some distance below.

I think this might be true, only because when I read extensively about the Sistine Chapel, I learned that Michelangelo was a master of foreshortening. The high ceiling of the Sistine is curved and he painted the figures so that they appear normal to someone standing on the ground.

And speaking of proportions, if the statue somehow came to life and got an erection, it would be about seventeen inches long. Yikes!