Chasing David

20 years ago, we visited Florence, Italy, the home of David.

You know David. 

He's from the Old Testament ... David and Goliath.

The Bible states that the young, Jewish, shepherd challenged the evil giant, Goliath and won. His image of victory was the subject of the most famous sculpture in history by Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni in 1504.

You may know the artist as, simply, Michelangelo because he also painted a few things. 

It took him 3 years to put the finishing touches on his masterpiece that was originally destined to be placed on top of the Florence cathedral. The Art Council of Florence along with advice from Michelangelo's creative competition, Da Vinci and Botticelli changed its mind when they saw the final product and ordered to have the masterpiece placed at the Palazzo della Signoria where visitors could get a better look. 

Michelangelo's unsigned, 17' tall statue was his calling card to announce that he was the most gifted artist/sculptor in the world. Perhaps, the best, even today, 750 years later. He didn't need to sign it because nobody else was capable of coaxing David out of that 8.5 tons of marble.

I couldn't wait to see it.

20 years ago, when we arrived in the port of Levorno on a cruise ship on the first Monday of our journey, we frantically scurried to make the transportation connection to get to Florence. I actually had butterflies as I stepped off the train and could see our destination only meters away. Then, tragedy.

The City of Florence and all of its museums take a rest on Mondays. Florence was closed. How could that be? I had waited for 50 years to have a chance to spend time with history's most famous sculptured image.

This time, a few weeks ago close to my November 17, 2023, 77th birthday, a Tuesday, Florence was open and David was waiting.

I booked tickets online to make sure we wouldn't line up.

I needed to spend time with the statue. First, just to inhale it. Make no mistake. I'm not an artist of any kind. I have no sense of the dedication or artistry that's needed to nurture a creative talent. But, I wanted to see if I could feel what the master would have felt the first time he looked at that monstrous marble block and visualized the image inside. Then, although there were a million photos of David, I had to take my own.

My mouth was dry as I entered the Galleria dell Accademia, his new home since 1873. Now, we'd finally meet. I could see the statue in the main salon at the end of the corridor. I didn't want to look at it from a distance. I wanted to be close. Our meeting couldn't be casual because I'd been chasing David for a while. 

When I reached him, others were taking selfies and also creating silly photos using the statues' body parts (knowing what I've learned about the master, he may have actually been amused by their display of irreverence for his work).

I circled David several times and others around me seemed to sense my interest and provided me room and access to take the pictures that were important to me. I looked for an angle or a shaded, unexpected part of the image -- any part that hadn't already been featured several times in art history books.

I'm not sure I did anything different or found that image that hadn't been exposed before but the images I did capture are mine and you can see them below.

David is a wonder.

Perhaps the 8th wonder of the world. 

He is magnificent.

Chasing David is now over. 

I'm very happy to have finally met him.

It was well worth the wait.

Three Observations:  Millions of people visit David every year. The David shop at the Accademia sells millions of dollars worth of books, photos and nick-knacks all featuring images of the statue. For the past 550 years, the masterpiece has created billions of dollars of revenue for the city of Florence and all of the licensing companies that pay to use the image to create miniature copies. If he were alive today to reap the financial benefits of this one, single treasure, he would be wealthier than the world's richest person.

But, Michelangelo died at 89 years and lived in a one-bedroom apartment in Florence with enough money to pay his rent. 

It seems very strange to me that the list of creative geniuses that includes Da Vinci and Raphael, Bramante, Botticelli and Lorenzo de Medici all showed up in the same city at the same time in history ... it's called the Golden Age of Florence

Michelangelo may have made a mistake with his creation of the David statue. David was a Jew and he would have been circumcised. Michelangelo's marble version has him uncircumcised. Mistakes by the master were rare but he was a Roman Catholic and may not have been aware that Jewish males would be circumcised.