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Michelangelo - 1504 David
Identifier
024424
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
But by a series of incidents, Michelangelo arrived in Rome 25 June 1496 at the age of 21. This was to change his entire fortunes. Commissions started to appear on the strength of the tiny St John the Baptist figure he had done for the Medicis.
Cardinal Raffaele Riario, to whom the figure had been sold, was so impressed by the quality of the sculpture that he invited the artist to Rome. On 4 July 1496, he began work on a commission for Cardinal Raffaele Riario. In November 1497, the French ambassador to the Holy See, Cardinal Jean de Bilhères-Lagraulas, commissioned him to carve the Pietà, a sculpture which became one of his most famous. Michelangelo was 24 at the time of its completion.
Michelangelo returned to Florence in 1499. The republic was changing after the fall of its leader, anti-Renaissance priest Girolamo Savonarola, who was executed in 1498, and the rise of the gonfaloniere Piero Soderini. Michelangelo was asked by the consuls of the Guild of Wool to complete an unfinished project begun 40 years earlier by Agostino di Duccio: a colossal statue of Carrara marble portraying David. Michelangelo completed his most famous work, the statue of David, in 1504.
A description of the experience
Michael Ayrton – Introduction to Michelangelo’s Sonnets
In 1501 Michelangelo returned to Florence and worked on a number of commissions, including the colossal 'David' adapted with incredible ingenuity from a block of marble botched and abandoned by another sculptor.
Wikipedia
The Statue of David, completed by Michelangelo in 1504, is one of the most renowned works of the Renaissance.
Michelangelo returned to Florence in 1499. The republic was changing after the fall of its leader, anti-Renaissance priest Girolamo Savonarola, who was executed in 1498, and the rise of the gonfaloniere Piero Soderini. Michelangelo was asked by the consuls of the Guild of Wool to complete an unfinished project begun 40 years earlier by Agostino di Duccio: a colossal statue of Carrara marble portraying David as a symbol of Florentine freedom to be placed on the gable of Florence Cathedral. Michelangelo responded by completing his most famous work, the statue of David, in 1504. The masterwork definitively established his prominence as a sculptor of extraordinary technical skill and strength of symbolic imagination. A team of consultants, including Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci, was called together to decide upon its placement, ultimately the Piazza della Signoria, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. It now stands in the Academia while a replica occupies its place in the square.
