According to one theory, it was commissioned by the
Medici family in the 1430s to be placed in the center of the courtyard of the old Medici Palace. Alternatively it may have been made for that position in the new
Palazzo Medici, where it was placed later, which would place the commission in the mid-1440s or even later. The statue is only recorded there by 1469. The Medici family were exiled from Florence in 1494, and the statue was moved to the courtyard of the
Palazzo della Signoria along with Donatello's bronze
Judith, which had an equal topic and potent symbolic meaning. The
David lost its place (and its column) in the middle of the courtyard to a fountain in the 1450s and was installed in a niche flanking the doorway near the stairs, where the
Judith stood since the early 1500s. In the 17th century, the
David was moved to the
Palazzo Pitti, then to the
Uffizi in 1777, and then finally, in 1865, to the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, where it remains today. According to
Vasari, the statue stood on a column designed by
Desiderio da Settignano in the middle of the courtyard of the old Palazzo Medici; an inscription seems to have explained the statue's significance as a political monument. A quattrocento manuscript containing the text of the inscription is probably an earlier reference to the statue; unfortunately the manuscript is not dated. Although a political meaning for the statue is widely accepted, what that meaning is has been a matter of considerable debate among scholars.
Reception No contemporary responses to the
David have been found. Nevertheless, the fact that the statue was placed in the main government building of the
Republic of Florence in the 1490s suggests that, at least by then, it was not viewed as controversial. In the early 16th century, the Herald of the
Signoria mentioned the sculpture in an unsettling light: "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 cast from a live model. Modern 20th- and 21st-century art historians have not been able to reach a consensus on the correct interpretation. Goliath's beard curls around David's sandaled foot, as if the young hero is running his toes through his dead opponent's hair. Goliath is wearing a winged helmet. David's right foot stands firmly on the short right wing, while the left wing, considerably longer, extends up his right leg to his groin. 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. A third interpretation is that
David represents Donatello's effort to create a unique version of the male nude, to exercise artistic licence rather than copy the classical models that had thus far been the sources for the depiction of the male nude in Renaissance art.
Identification The traditional identification of the figure was questioned in 1939 by , with an interpretation leaning toward ancient mythology, the hero's helmet especially suggesting
Hermes or
Mercury. A number of scholars since have followed Lányi, sometimes referring to the statue as
David-Mercury. If the figure were indeed meant to represent Mercury, it may be supposed that he stands atop the head of the vanquished giant
Argus Panoptes. However, all
quattrocento references to the statue 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 "mineralised 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 David continued to be a subject of great interest for Italian patrons and artists. Later representations of the biblical hero include •
Desiderio da Settignano,
Martelli David, marble, c. 1462–64, finished by someone else, possibly by
Bertoldo di Giovanni(?), c. 1465–70, Washington,
National Gallery of Art •
Verrocchio's, partly gilded bronze, c. 1468–70,
Bargello, Florence •
Antonio del Pollaiuolo, panel painting, c. 1470,
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin •
Bartolomeo Bellano,
ormolu bronzetto, 1470s,
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York •
Domenico Ghirlandaio, fresco, c. 1485,
S. Maria Novella, Florence •
Michelangelo's David, marble, 1501–1504,
Accademia, Florence •
Bernini's David, marble, 1623–24,
Galleria Borghese, Rome. Following the model of Donatello's
David for other figures are for example Pollaiuolo's bronzetto of
Hercules at Rest (c. 1480), two figures of
Andrea del Castagno's cycle of
Illustrous Men and Women from the
Villa Carducci at Legnaia (detached frescoes, 1448–49,
Uffizi, Florence).
Pontormo and
Francesco da Sangallo are among the artists who made sketches of the bronze
David, that have been preserved (c. 1514 and 1455 resp., Uffizi).
Plaster casts taken from original sculptures that were otherwise unobtainable, were bought by museums and other collections; some had their own plaster workshops, like the
Staatliche Museen in
Berlin. Among the 7000 casts the workshop produced since 1819 is also a copy of the bronze
David, that was taken from the original some time before 1880, and served itself again for over a dozen plaster copies in the last century alone. The
Cast Courts of the
Victoria and Albert Museum in
London has also a
David in their huge plaster collection, although with a broken sword. Full-size white marble copies are to be found in the Temperate House at the
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Surrey (near London), and at the
Slater Museum at the
Norwich Free Academy in
Norwich, Connecticut, United States. ==See also==