- This article is about the sculptures by Donatello, for other uses see David (disambiguation)
King David was the second king of the United Kingdom of Israel and a major figure in the Bible and the Qur'an.David may also refer to:* David , a common given namePeople: * Saint David, the patron saint of Wales...
.
David is the name of two statues by Italian early Renaissance sculptor
DonatelloDonato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi , also known as Donatello, was an early Renaissance Italian artist and sculptor from Florence...
.
The biblical text
The story of David and Goliath comes from 1 Samuel 17. The Israelites are fighting the Philistines, whose best warrior - Goliath - repeatedly offers to meet the Israelites' best warrior in man-to-man combat to decide the whole battle. None of the trained Israelite soldiers is brave enough to fight the giant Goliath, until David - a shepherd boy who is too young to be a soldier - accepts the challenge. Saul, the Israelite leader, offers David armor and weapons, but the boy is untrained and refuses them. Instead, he goes out with his slingshot, and confronts the enemy. He hits Goliath in the head with a stone, knocking the giant down, and then grabs Goliath's sword and cuts off his head. The Philistines honorably retired as pacted and the Israelites are saved. David's special strength comes from God, and the story illustrates the triumph of good over evil.
The marble David
DonatelloDonato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi , also known as Donatello, was an early Renaissance Italian artist and sculptor from Florence...
was first commissioned to carve a statue of David in 1408. The commission came from the
operai of the cathedral of Florence, who intended to decorate the buttresses of the tribunes of the cathedral with 12 statues of prophets.
Nanni di BancoNanni d'Antonio di Banco was an Italian sculptor from Florence.He helped create the winning model for the Duomo of the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral in Florence , under the leadership of Filippo Brunelleschi, alongside Donatello...
was commissioned to carve a marble statue of
IsaiahIsaiah ; Greek: ', Ēsaïās ; "Yahu is salvation") was a prophet in the 8th-century BC Kingdom of Judah.Jews and Christians consider the Book of Isaiah a part of their Biblical canon; he is the first listed of the neviim akharonim, the later prophets. Many of the New Testament teachings of Jesus...
, at the same scale, in the same year. One of the statues was lifted into place in 1409, but was found to be too small to be easily visible from the ground and was taken down; both statues then languished in the workshop of the
opera for several years. In 1416 the
Signoria of FlorenceThe Signoria was the government of medieval and renaissance Florence. Its nine members, the Priori, were chosen from the ranks of the guilds of the city: six of them from the major guilds, and two from the minor guilds...
commanded that the
David be sent to their palazzo; evidently the young David was seen as an effective political symbol, as well as a religious hero. Donatello was asked to make some adjustments to the statue (perhaps to make him look less like a prophet), and a pedestal with an inscription was made for it: PRO PATRIA FORTITER DIMICANTIBUS ETIAM ADVERSUS TERRIBILISSIMOS HOSTES DII PRAESTANT AUXILIUM (To those who fight bravely for the fatherland the gods lend aid even against the most terrible foes).
The marble
David is Donatello's earliest known important commission, and it is a work closely tied to tradition, giving few signs of the innovative approach to representation that the artist would develop as he matured. Although the positioning of the legs hints at a classical
contrappostoContrapposto is an Italian term that means counterpose. It is used in the visual arts to describe a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs. This gives the figure a more dynamic, or alternatively relaxed...
, the figure stands in an elegant Gothic sway that surely derives from
GhibertiLorenzo Ghiberti , born Lorenzo di Bartolo, was an Italian artist of the early Renaissance best known for works in sculpture and metalworking.-Early life:...
. The face is curiously blank (curiously, that is, if one expects naturalism, but very typical of the Gothic style), and David seems almost unaware of the head of his vanquished foe that rests between his feet. Some scholars have seen an element of personality - a kind of cockiness - suggested by the twist of the torso and the akimbo placement of the left arm, but overall the effect of the figure is rather bland.
The bronze David
DonatelloDonato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi , also known as Donatello, was an early Renaissance Italian artist and sculptor from Florence...
's bronze statue of David (circa 1440s) is famous as the first unsupported standing work of
bronzeBronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
cast during the
RenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
, and the first freestanding nude
maleMale refers to the biological sex of an organism, or part of an organism, which produces small mobile gametes, called spermatozoa. Each spermatozoon can fuse with a larger female gamete or ovum, in the process of fertilization...
sculpture made since antiquity. It depicts David with an enigmatic smile, posed with his foot on Goliath's severed head just after defeating the giant. The youth is completely naked, apart from a
laurelThe bay laurel , also known as sweet bay, bay tree, true laurel, Grecian laurel, laurel tree, or simply laurel, is an aromatic evergreen tree or large shrub with green, glossy leaves, native to the Mediterranean region. It is the source of the bay leaf used in cooking...
-topped hat and boots, bearing the sword of Goliath.
There are no documents related to the commission or production of the bronze
David. The earliest secure reference to the statue occurred in 1469, when it was described at the center of the courtyard of the Medici Palace in Florence. The
MediciThe House of Medici or Famiglia de' Medici was a political dynasty, banking family and later royal house that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the late 14th century. The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside,...
were exiled from Florence in 1494, and the statue was moved to the courtyard of the Palazzo della Signoria (the marble
David was already in the palazzo). It was moved to the
Pitti PalaceThe Palazzo Pitti , in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast mainly Renaissance palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio...
in the 17th century, to the
UffiziThe Uffizi Gallery , is a museum in Florence, Italy. It is one of the oldest and most famous art museums of the Western world.-History:...
in 1777, and then finally, in 1865, to the
BargelloThe Bargello, also known as the Bargello Palace or Palazzo del Popolo is a former barracks and prison, now an art museum, in Florence, Italy.-Terminology:...
museum, where it remains today.
According to Vasari, the statue stood on a column designed by
Desiderio da SettignanoDesiderio da Settignano, real name Desiderio de Bartolomeo di Francesco detto Ferro was an Italian sculptor active during the Renaissance.-Biography:...
in the middle of the courtyard of the Palazzo Medici; an inscription seems to have explained the statue's significance as a political monument: "Victor est quisquis patriam tuetur/Frangit immanis Deus hostis iras/En puer grandem domuit tiramnum/Vincite cives" (The victor is whoever defends the fatherland. God crushes the wrath of an enormous foe. Behold! A boy overcame a great tyrant. Conquer, o citizens.) Although a political meaning for the statue is widely accepted, exactly what that meaning is has been a matter of considerable debate among scholars.
Most scholars assume the statue was commissioned by
Cosimo de' MediciCòsimo di Giovanni degli Mèdici was the first of the Medici political dynasty, de facto rulers of Florence during much of the Italian Renaissance; also known as "Cosimo 'the Elder'" and "Cosimo Pater Patriae" .-Biography:Born in Florence, Cosimo inherited both his wealth and his expertise in...
, but the date of its creation is unknown and widely disputed; suggested dates vary from the 1420s to the 1460s (
DonatelloDonato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi , also known as Donatello, was an early Renaissance Italian artist and sculptor from Florence...
died in 1466), with the majority opinion recently falling in the 1440s, when the new Medici Palace designed by
Michelozzothumb|250px|[[Palazzo Medici]] in Florence.Michelozzo di Bartolomeo Michelozzi was an Italian architect and sculptor.-Biography:...
was under construction. The iconography of the bronze
David follows that of the marble
David: a young hero stands with sword in hand, the decapitated head of his enemy at his feet. Visually, however, this statue is startlingly different. Naked, but for hat and shoes, David is both physically frail and strikingly effeminate. His physique, which
Mary McCarthyMary Therese McCarthy was an American author, critic and political activist.- Early life :Born in Seattle, Washington, to Roy Winfield McCarthy and his wife, the former Therese Preston, McCarthy was orphaned at the age of six when both her parents died in the great flu epidemic of 1918...
called "a
transvestiteTransvestism is the practice of cross-dressing, which is wearing clothing traditionally associated with the opposite sex. Transvestite refers to a person who cross-dresses; however, the word often has additional connotations. -History:Although the word transvestism was coined as late as the 1910s,...
's and
fetishSexual fetishism, or erotic fetishism, is the sexual arousal a person receives from a physical object, or from a specific situation. The object or situation of interest is called the fetish, the person a fetishist who has a fetish for that object/situation. Sexual fetishism may be regarded, e.g...
ist's dream of alluring ambiguity," contrasted with the absurdly large sword by his side, shows that David has conquered Goliath not by physical prowess, but through the will of
GodGod is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
. The boy's nakedness further enhances the idea of the presence of God, contrasting the youth with the heavily-armored giant. David is presented uncircumcised, which is generally customary for male nudes in Italian Renaissance art.
Controversy
There are no indications of contemporary responses to the
David, although the statue could not have been placed in the town hall of Florence in the 1490s were it generally viewed as controversial. In the early 16th century, the Herald of the
SignoriaA Signoria was an abstract noun meaning 'government; governing authority; de facto sovereignty; lordship in many of the Italian city states during the medieval and renaissance periods....
mentioned the sculpture in a way that suggested there was something unsettling about it: "The David in the courtyard is not a perfect figure because its right leg is tasteless." By mid-century Vasari was describing the statue as so naturalistic that it must have been made from life. However, among 20th and 21st century art historians there has been considerable controversy about how to interpret it.
While the Bible describes David as a beautiful youth, and we can accept a classical basis for the pose and the nudity of the statue (Greco-Roman heroes were typically portrayed as nude males standing in contrapposto), there are nevertheless several disconcerting elements to Donatello's
David. David's pose is languid and his expression dreamy, neither of which seems to express the narrative moment. A pre-pubescent boy could not be expected to have the muscular development of an adult, but the softness of his body and the emphasis on his lower stomach strike most viewers as surprisingly effeminate. The nudity can be explained by David's refusal to wear armor in his confrontation with Goliath, as well as by references to classical heroes, but the fact that he wears a hat and boots makes no sense in terms of either the Biblical narrative or the classical connection and tends to make his lack of clothing seem strange. He places his left foot on Goliath's head; on the one hand, this pose allows Donatello to connect David more strongly to his fallen foe than he did in the marble version.
On the other hand, there's something disturbing about the way the beard on the decapitated head curls around David's sandaled foot. Goliath is wearing a winged helmet. David's right foot stands firmly on the short right wing, while the left wing, considerably longer, works its way up his right leg to his groin.
The strangeness of the figure has been interpreted in a variety of ways. One has been to suggest that Donatello was homosexual and that he was expressing that sexual attitude through this statue. A second is to suggest that the work refers to homosocial values in Florentine society without expressing Donatello's personal tendencies. During Classical antiquity, homosexuality had been something that was practiced regularly, and men believed that they could only achieve great love with other men. However, during the time of the Renaissance, when the statue was created, sodomy was illegal, and over 14,000 people had been tried in Florence for this crime. So this homosexual implication was very risky and dangerous. A third interpretation - probably the most accepted among scholars - is that
David represents Donatello's effort to create a unique version of the male nude, to exercise artistic license rather than copy the classical models that had thus far been the sources for the depiction of the male nude in Renaissance art. What is certain in this statue is that Donatello has not followed any traditions, and the representation is far from bland.
Donatello has spent much time into his art works to get them to look the way that they do today.
Change in identification
The traditional identification of the figure was first questioned in 1939 by Jeno Lanyi, with an interpretation leaning toward ancient mythology, the hero's helmet especially suggesting
HermesHermes is the great messenger of the gods in Greek mythology and a guide to the Underworld. Hermes was born on Mount Kyllini in Arcadia. An Olympian god, he is also the patron of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of the cunning of thieves, of orators and...
. A number of scholars over the last 70 years have followed Lanyi, sometimes referring to the statue as
David-Mercury. If the figure were indeed meant to represent
MercuryMercury was a messenger who wore winged sandals, and a god of trade, the son of Maia Maiestas and Jupiter in Roman mythology. His name is related to the Latin word merx , mercari , and merces...
, it may be supposed that he stands atop the head of the vanquished giant
Argus PanoptesIn Greek mythology, Argus Panoptes or Argos, guardian of the heifer-nymph Io and son of Arestor, was a primordial giant whose epithet "Panoptes", "all-seeing", led to his being described with multiple, often one hundred, eyes. The epithet Panoptes was applied to the Titan of the Sun, Helios, and...
. However, this identification is certainly mistaken; all
quattrocentoThe cultural and artistic events of 15th century Italy are collectively referred to as the Quattrocento...
references to the statue firmly identify it as David.
Restoration
The statue underwent restoration from June 2007 to November 2008. This was the first time the statue had ever been restored, but concerns about layers of "mineralized waxings" on the surface of the bronze led to the 18-month intervention. The statue was scraped with scalpels (on the non-gilded areas) and lasered (on the gilded areas) to remove surface build-up.
Copies and influence
There is a full-size
plaster castA plaster cast is a copy made in plaster of another 3-dimensional form. The original from which the cast is taken may be a sculpture, building, a face, a fossil or other remains such as fresh or fossilised footprints – particularly in palaeontology .Sometimes a...
(with a broken sword) in the
Victoria and Albert MuseumThe Cast Courts of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England, comprise two large halls. Unusually for a museum, the Cast Courts house a collection not of originals, but copies. Here are to be found reproductions of some of the most famous sculptures in the world...
,
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. There is also a full-size white marble copy in the Temperate House at the
Royal Botanic Gardens, KewThe Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, usually referred to as Kew Gardens, is 121 hectares of gardens and botanical glasshouses between Richmond and Kew in southwest London, England. "The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew" and the brand name "Kew" are also used as umbrella terms for the institution that runs...
, Surrey, a few miles outside central London. In addition to the copies in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, there is also another copy at the
Slater MuseumThe J. F. Slater Memorial Museum, also known as Slater Memorial Museum, is a historic building and an art museum in the Norwich Free Academy in Norwich, Connecticut....
at the
Norwich Free AcademyThe Norwich Free Academy founded in 1854 and in operation since 1856, is a high school located in the city of Norwich, Connecticut. The Academy serves as the primary high school for Norwich and the surrounding towns of Canterbury, Bozrah, Voluntown, Sprague, Lisbon, Franklin, Preston andseveral...
in
Norwich, ConnecticutRegular steamship service between New York and Boston helped Norwich to prosper as a shipping center through the early part of the 20th century. During the Civil War, Norwich once again rallied and saw the growth of its textile, armaments, and specialty item manufacturing...
,
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
David continued to be a subject of great interest for Italian patrons and artists. Later representations of the Biblical hero include Antonio del Pollaiuolo's
David (Berlin,
Staatliche MuseenThe Berlin State Museums, in German Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, are a group of museums in Berlin, Germany overseen by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and funded by the German federal government in collaboration with Germany's federal states...
, c. 1470, panel painting),
Verrocchio's DavidAndrea del Verrocchio's bronze statue of David was most likely made between 1473 and 1475. It was commissioned by the Medici family. It is sometimes claimed that Verrocchio modelled the statue after a handsome pupil in his workshop, the young Leonardo da Vinci.The statue represents the youthful...
(Florence,
BargelloThe Bargello, also known as the Bargello Palace or Palazzo del Popolo is a former barracks and prison, now an art museum, in Florence, Italy.-Terminology:...
, 1470s, bronze),
Domenico GhirlandaioDomenico Ghirlandaio was an Italian Renaissance painter from Florence. Among his many apprentices was Michelangelo.-Early years:Ghirlandaio's full name is given as Domenico di Tommaso di Currado di Doffo Bigordi...
's
David (Florence, S. Maria Novella, c. 1485, fresco),
Bartolomeo BellanoBartolomeo Bellano, also known as Bartolomeo Vellano, was an Italian renaissance sculptor and architect who was born in Padua in 1437 or 1438...
's
David (New York,
Metropolitan Museum of ArtThe Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
, 1470s, bronze),
Michelangelo's DavidDavid is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture created between 1501 and 1504, by the Italian artist Michelangelo. It is a marble statue of a standing male nude. The statue represents the Biblical hero David, a favoured subject in the art of Florence...
(Florence,
AccademiaThe Accademia di Belle Arti is an art academy in Florence, Italy and it is now the operative branch of the still existing Accademia delle Arti del Disegno that was the first academy of drawing in Europe.-History:The Accademia delle Arti del Disegno The Accademia di Belle Arti ("Academy of Fine...
, 1501-4, marble), and
Bernini's DavidDavid is a life-size marble sculpture by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The sculpture was part of a commission to decorate the villa of Bernini's patron Cardinal Scipione Borghese – the Galleria Borghese – where it still resides...
, (Rome,
Galleria BorgheseThe Borghese Gallery is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana. It is a building that was from the first integral with its gardens, nowadays considered quite separately by tourists as the Villa Borghese gardens...
, 1623–24, marble).
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