To start with the history of the king David, David who was the most iconic person of Israel. He governed there about four decade and, he was the only person who preside there much longer than other kings. Let’s talk more about his background, the Christian holy book represents the many stories about David. For instance, the philistine story who was the main opponent of Israel dwellers. Philistine was creating the trouble for common people and killing them. David took stand for common people and he defeated the philistine and killed him. From that time David became the superstar for the Florence people and after that, he became the king of Judah. Moreover, from that time he did so many sacrifices for Judah dwellers and did so many combats with other country to get more power in his country. Eventually he was also get successful in his all war and won the other country and called as king David. (Meyers)
Moving further about sculpture history, In the early 16th century Michelangelo got contract from the guild of wool merchant of Florence to carve the marble for one of the buttresses of the cathedral of Florence. (Shaikh) After getting contract Michelangelo started to make the David sculpture and he made this statue in four years, which was the long time for this sculpture. He spent his most of the time to make expression on that sculpture because he wanted to show the humanity and ideal human body because at that time no any artist was able to express humanity or represents the human emotion on the statues so that why Michelangelo took this commission as a challenge, which after that became the symbol of the new republic or knowns as a Michelangelo greatest invention of human representation. (Summers)
Going ahead about the positioning of this sculpture, the Florentines government was very anxious about the placing of the statue. They held a conference with some Florence people. At that session government participant decided to change the place of Judith, which looked unsuitable in the front of whole people. In contrast, the David was very known figure for all the people and seemed appropriate for the Florence square. At last people decided to replace the Judith sculpture by the Michelangelo David statue. Finally, now these day this statue is see in the Galleria dell’ Accademia Florence. (Johnson 115-117)
To conclude, from above point of view David was successful king in his own time because he brought the golden age (Shaikh) in his own period and he was the hero for Florence people because he killed the many enemies of Florence people. Moreover, he was also associated with the symbolic interaction and became the new republic figure in his city. Furthermore, this statue was also able bring the positive thinking in the mind of people, because he was placed in the front of city square, which was main square market of Florence city. At last, he may be on the high position, but he did not have any ego in his mind and he was only come in the world for helping the people and helping the people from evil people.
Work cited: –
Johnson, Geraldine A. Renaissance Art: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2005. EBSCOhost, ezproxy.columbia.bc.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com?login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat06213a&AN=ccc.333151&site=eds-live.
Meyers, Eric M. “David.” World Book Student, World Book, 2018, https://www.worldbookonline.com/student-new/#/article/home/149200. Accessed 21 July 2018.
Shaikh, Saad and James Leonard-Amodeo. “The Deviating Eyes of Michelangelo’s David.” Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, vol. 98, no. 2, Feb. 2005, p. 75. EBSCOhost, ezproxy.columbiacollege.bc.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=23138073&site=eds-live.
Stokstad, Marilyn and Michael W. Cothren. Art: A Brief History. Pearson Education Inc., 2016. EBSCOhost, ezproxy.columbiacollege.bc.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.asp
