David

David is a statue by Michelangelo, begun in 1501 and completed in 1504. It is made of marble and is 17 feet tall. It is a statue of a shepherd, David, whose story is told in the Bible. David fought a battle with a giant soldier called Goliath. He beat Goliath by knocking him down with a small stone from his slingshot. David later became King of Israel. Michelangelo has carved the figure naked, in the way that Ancient Roman statues of Classical Gods were often made.

find this; work of art/statue incredible, the sheer scale of the piece is massive and the fact is that it took 3 years to sculpt is astonishing. The detail and accuracy to real human likeness in this statue is among the greatest ever seen. Michelangelo uses lines and shapes for the definition on ‘David’ very well. He cannot use colour so he had to rely on the shadows and the tones it creates for definition of the lines he sculpted out of it.

The Statue of David has influenced modern artists to recreate and use the image of him for posters, graphic design and other pieces of art. There are modern day replicas of David all over the world. Of most notes is the Bronze in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and in 2007 a Modern Artist created a 1:220 Bronze replica of David as a toy along with a museum for kids. 

Gian Lorenzo Bernini was a Baroque period artist/sculpture and ultimately the successor to Michelangelo, in 1624 he finished a piece also called David which was life sized and its influence was directly from Michelangelo’s David. He is standing in a different pose but the similarities are that it is sculpted from marble. Bernini’s statue differs from Michelangelo because, in Bernini’s, David is in motion. Although not the same size it is easy to see the links between the two different statues.