"The intellectual man requires a fine bait; the sots are easily amused." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I'm still reading "Florence, just add water", the children's book about Florence. I have a few excuses - It's the only one we have in the house, our home wireless crashes frequently, etc. etc. The simple truth is that there are a lot of interesting facts in this book. I was reading about Michelangelo and "David". This is a listing of interesting facts I've dug up about the work.

1) The marble block he was born from was flawed because it was poorly hewn. Many local artists had refused to work the block because of the flaw.
2) When Michelangelo agreed to take on the work, he build a solid fence around the work area so no one could see the work in progress.
3) The head and the hands are out of proportion to the rest to draw your attention to the "action" areas of the statue.
4) The sculpture captures David moments before he is engaging in battle with Goliath. This is unlike Donatello's earlier work which show David after it's all over.
5) David was originally supposed to be placed up high on one of the spots on the Duomo. After it was revealed, it was decided it was too beautiful to be placed where no one could appreciate it. A panel decided it should be placed at the entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio. DaVinci, a contemporary of Michelangelo's but by no means a friend, was on the panel and recommended that be placed in the Loggia di Lanzi - a much less prominent placing.
6) The look of defiance and challenge on his face - Florentines placed him facing Rome. The 500 year old version of "Oh yeah! Just try and make me."
7) The statue has been damaged several times over the years. When it was being moved to it's display spot at the Palazzo Vecchio, two local "critics" threw rocks at it. In 1527, the left arm was broken by a wooden bench thrown out of a window of the Palazzo during a heated argument, In 1544, a shoulder fell off and hit a bystander. When it was moved to its current location in the 1870's, the museum left it wrapped up for too long and mold grew on the marble. In 1992, a visitor smashed one of David's big toes with a hammer.
8) It took Michelangelo three years to create this masterpiece.


Did you know that Spongebob is educational ?

Have you ever seen the Spongebob episode where Squidward is teaching art class at community college and Spongebob is his only student. It's called "Artist Unknown". I looked for it on Youtube with no luck so if anyone can find a link to the episode, please post it. With one tap on a block of marble, Spongebob creates "David" (with perfect censorship). Squidward says it's not finished and places a squidward-style nose on "David".

Pop culture reference! While working on "David", Piero Soderini is credited with commenting that the nose was too thick. Michelangelo climbed the scaffolding and pretended to alter the nose. He even had the foresight to drop marble dust while pretending to work. Michelangelo then asked Soderini’s for his opinion of the ‘new’ nose. ‘Ah, that’s much better,’ said Soderini, ‘Now you’ve really brought it to life.’

Later in the same Spongebob episode, the art collector visits the classroom and declares "perfect censorship!" for David's shell undies. Not only is the shell appropriate for a children's cartoon, it's also a reference to Queen Victoria. A copy of Michelangelo’s "David" was presented to Queen Victoria by the Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1857 and was soon afterwords donated to the South Kensington Museum. Urban legend says that Queen Victoria was so shocked by David's nudity that the staff had a proportionally accurate fig leaf commissioned. When female students or dignitaries were visiting the museum, the leaf was hung on the figure using two strategically placed hooks. The fig leaf was most likely made by the Anglo-Italian firm D. Brucciani & Co., based in London. Currently, the fig leaf is housed in its own case on the back of the plinth of the figure.

Who knew?