The "David" sculpture by Michelangelo

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Autor sandi2001

Veröffentlicht am 22.08.2018

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Michelangelo David

Zusammenfassung

Dieses Referat beinhaltet eine ausführliche Beschreibung der Marmorskulptur "David" des legendären Künstlers Michelangelo Buonarotti sowie dessen Kurzbiografie. Das Referat ist in englischer Sprache verfasst.

The David sculpture by Michelangelo

Michelangelo Buonarroti - Short biography

Michelangelo is considered the most famous artist in the history of mankind. He was an important or the most important representative of the Italian Renaissance and lived in the fifteenth to sixteenth centuries. He was not only a respected painter and sculptor, but, as many probably do not know, a master builder as well as a poet.
Everyone knows the famous artist under the abridged name Michelangelo. However, the full name of the universal talent is Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni.

Michelangelo Buonarotti was born on 6 March 1475 in the Tuscan town of Caprese (in the present province of Arezzo). He was one of five sons of a respected and wealthy middle-class family. Already as a child, Michelangelo showed a strong interest in art. However, his father did not agree with his plan to become an artist. Nevertheless, thirteen-year-old Michelangelo managed to get his way and began painting; he was taught by the artist Domenico Ghirlandaio. In In the years that followed, he made various experiences and over time became a trained, respected artist. During this time he worked for Lorenzo il Magnifico dei Medici in Florence, among others, and also spent some time in Bologna. In the following years, the artist commuted repeatedly between the two cultural centres of Florence and Rome.Michelangelo died in Rome on the 18 February of the year 1564. He left behind numerous breathtaking sculptures, frescoes and other works, which are still highly regarded and admired today.

Important artworks

Some of his most famous works of art are for example the following:

1. The “David” (detailed description below)

2. The Creation of Adam (painted in the year 1510, fresco, Sistine Chapel in Rome, Italy)

3. Pietà (made in the year 1499, marble sculpture, St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Italy)

4. The Last Judgement (painted in the year 1540, fresco, Sistine Chapel in Rome, Italy)

The “David” sculpture

The famous “David” by Michelangelo is considered an outstanding masterpiece and is still very well known all over the world. The marble sculpture was completed within four years (it was made between the years 1501 to 1504). It is the first colossal statue of the High Renaissance and is now in the Galleria dall’Academia in Florence, Italy. With a proud height of 5.17 meters, the sculpture is by far superhumanly large.

Detailled description

This Work of art shows a naked man, who has put a slingshot on his left shoulder, ready for the fight. The body of the man is in the classical contrapost position. The statue shows the young David, who is in the fight against the giant Goliat. David’s posture is casual and the young man seems relaxed at first. With his left arm, as already mentioned, he put a slingshot behind his left shoulder. He also has his head tilted to the left side and his gaze is slightly turned backwards or upwards. But if you look closely at the detailed marble sculpture, you can see, that David is not relaxed, but rather extremely tense. You can tell by his right hand in particular. The individual fingers are tensed and protruding veins can be seen on his arm as well as on his neck. Also from his lips and nostrils one can conclude a certain tension.

The tense body and protruding veins also indicate a willingness to fight. David prepares to finally defeat the giant Goliath. The apparent serenity and relaxation is only a pretence.

(There are many different paintings and sculptures from the battle between David and Goliat, for example David with the head of Goliat of Michelangelo Merisi, well known as “Caravaggio”. What is special about this depiction of David, however, is, that Michelangelo does not represent the battle that has already ended or the fight that has not yet begun, but exactly this moment in which the fight decides; the moment shortly before David defeats the giant Goliat.
Michelangelo and his David created a work of art for eternity. From a single large block of marble, the artist carved a detailed, extremely realistic sculpture that went down in history and is still highly regarded and admired from all sides on the whole world.

The History of the famous David Sculpture

After Michelangelo Buonarotti completed the famous marble sculpture in the year 1504, it was brought to the “Piazza dalla Signoria” in Florence, Italy and unveiled there. Shortly thereafter, the arm of David was smashed due to disputes with the most famous florentine family at this time, the “Medici”. Thereupon the fragments were collected and later the arm was restored. In the nineteenth century, the David sculpture was finally taken to the “Galleria dall’Academia”, Florence, to protect it from possible dangers. The statue is still there today and has become an important tourist attraction. Every day, David gets visited by hundreds of artlovers.

*The “Contrapposto”

The so called “Contrapposto”-position is a specific position of the human body in which the entire body weight is shifted to one leg. (“Contrapposto” is italian and means “counterpoise”)

This is referred to as the “mainstay”. The other leg, on the other hand, has no load to carry, has, so to speak, free play; this is accordingly called “play leg”. The human pelvis is in an oblique position; it emerges from the vertical body axis. With the introduction of the Contrapposto by the Greek sculptor Polyklet, people were now presented in works of art in a much more relaxed, natural and realistic way. The strictly upright, unnatural-looking attitude of earlier human representations was no longer modern from this time on. At the time of the Middle Ages, however, the contrapposto was no longer present until it was finally taken up and modernised again at the time of the Renaissance.