Michelangelo's David unveiled in Florence - September 8, 1504

On this day in 1504, Michelangelo's David was unveiled to the public. 

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hi, I'm Eves and welcome to This Day
in History Class, a show that on covers history one
day at a time. Today is September eight, nineteen. The

(00:25):
day was September eighth, four. Michelangelo's famous statue of David
was unveiled in Florence, Italy, in the Piazza de la Signoria.
In the early fifteenth century. The overseers of the Office
of Works of the Duomo Florence's Cathedral church commissioned twelve
sculptures of figures from the Old Testament. The sculptures would

(00:48):
be placed on the buttresses of the Florence Cathedral. Don
Tello made a sculpture of Joshua in terra cotta in
fourteen ten. More than fifty years later, in fourteen sixty four,
the Open Eye commissioned a sculpture of David by Agostino
di Duccio, but Augustino did not finish the project. He

(01:09):
only managed to sculpt some of the legs, Torso and
drapery out of a block of Guerrara marble before his
involvement with the project ended. A decade later, Antonio Rossellino
was assigned to finish the task of sculpting David, but
he ceased to work on the project too, and the
block of marble remained in the yard of the cathedral

(01:31):
workshop for years. It wasn't until the sixteenth century when
the Opened Eye would find someone who would finish the sculpture.
It commissioned the job to twenty six year old Michelangelo
in August of fifteen o one. The next month he
began creating the statue, and for more than two years
Michelangelo worked on the sculpture of David. The statue is

(01:55):
seventeen feet or five meters tall. David is depict did
before his battle with Goliath, standing in contrapasto and holding
a sling draped over his left shoulder. His hands and
head are disproportionately large. But as the statue was nearing
its completion in early fifteen o four, it was determined

(02:16):
that it would not be installed on the roof of
the Florence Cathedral. It weighed six tons and lifting it
would prove difficult, so a group of Florentine artists, including
Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli and Perugino, was brought together
to determine a more fitting location for David. After months

(02:37):
of debate, it was decided that David would be placed
in the Piazza de la Signoria, in front of the
entrance to the city's town hall. The statue was installed
in June, replacing Donatello's bronze sculpture of Judas and Holofernes.
It took four days for the statue to be moved
the half mouth from its courtyard to its spot at

(02:58):
the piazza. It was suspended from ropes in a wooden
cage and pulled along on greased beams. David was installed
facing Rome on September eight. The statue was unveiled to
the public. Though a religious statue, David became a civic
symbol for Florence's struggle against the powerful Medici family. In

(03:20):
eighteen seventy three, David was removed from the piazza for
protection from damage and put inside the Academia Gallery of Florence.
A replica of the sculpture was installed at the piazza
in nineteen ten. David is one of Michelangelo's most recognizable artworks,
and it's considered a masterpiece of high Renaissance sculpture. In

(03:43):
a fiberglass reproduction of Miclangelo's David was placed on the
roofline of the Florence Cathedral for a day. I'm each
to Coote and hopefully you know a little more about
history today than you did yesterday. And if you're so inclined,
you can follow us at T D i h C

(04:03):
Podcast on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. We'll see you here
in the same place tomorrow. For more podcasts from I

(04:29):
Heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.