Michelangelo's David

Today we went to The Accademia in Florence!

This museum is famous for the statue of David that as built in the year 1502, during the Renaissance in Florence, by Michelangelo . This story of David is popular and famous. David killed a giant named Goliath with a sling and a stone when he was only a teenager. Now you might think its weird that somebody can be so famous by just killing someone, but Goliath was not just a person on the street. This story is a biblical one so everyone in David's town was a believer in one god and believed in Christianity. Goliath belonged to a group of giants who didn't have the same religion as the people who were in the town with David. What Goliath's group did was stand outside the walls of the city and call people from the town to go out and fight them. Nobody in the city wanted to go fight the giants but David volunteered. David went out to the giants and took his stone and sling and he slung his rock, it hit Goliath, and killed him. In many paintings from the Florence Renaissance time period (1400-1550) there is David holding the head of Galaeith in his hand or in a bowl. The statue of David, though, is not of him holding the head of the awful giant, but of him before the fight. He is naked, looking courageous yet cautious. He is naked, to show every little bit about him, from showing how tense he is to also showing his strength. This statue stands 14 feet tall and is white, made out of a one slab of beautiful, breathtaking marble. The statue practically glows under the huge glass dome that stands over it.
Now the statue of David has some interesting parts to it as well. For example, his hands are very large, hairy, and muscular. His hands are like this because Michael Angelo wanted to show that David had strength from god. That he was strong and could beat Goliath. Also his hands are large because ethe statue was meant to Be put on top of the Duomo, this way the people below could see his strong hands from that angle. Another interesting thing about the statue was David's head. It is a little too large for his body also for the same reasons.

Today David is the most popular tourist attraction in the Accademia . People from all over the world come to see it everyday. If you get a chance to go and experience italy, you most definitely need to go to the Accademia and see Michelangelo's David.


This is a replica of David where the original used to stand in the Palazzo della Signoria before it was moved to the Accademia. It was moved to keep it safe from weather and one unfortunate incident of a desk flying out of a window and breaking off his arm....

-Marin-

Location:Florence, Italy