Finding David

When you hear the name David, who do you think of?

A father, your husband or son; or maybe David Letterman, David Bowie, David McCullough, or David Copperfield? Or do you think of the Biblical David, son of Jesse, King of Israel and father of Solomon, or slayer of Goliath?

Here is a brief synopsis: Samuel 17: 4-12. You can skip this if you know the story of David vs Goliath.

The Philistines and the Israelites are at war. 

The Philistines giant, Goliath, is clothed in a bronze helmet, a coat of scale armor of bronze, bronze greaves on his legs and a bronze javelin sling on his back. The spear shaft has an iron point. He is ready for combat.

After insulting messages to the Israelites, he challenges them to send a man to fight him – the winner takes the opposing tribe as slaves.

The Israelite King Saul is terrified.

David, the youngest son of Jesse and also shepherd for Jesse’s flock, is from Bethlehem.

Following a 40-day standoff, Jesse sent David to the line with supplies for his older brothers. David arrived as the battle lines were drawn and heard Goliath’s ranting.

The rest of the Israelites ran.

David asked “Who is this uncircumcised man who can defy the armies of the living God?”

At this point David’s oldest brother, Eliab, scolded him for conceit and said that he had no business there.

Then Saul appeared and questioned David’s responsive challenge to Goliath.

“You are just a boy.”

David then reminded Saul that he had killed both a lion and a bear while tending Saul’s sheep – and God had protected him from the claws of both animals.

So Saul agreed to let David proceed, and dressed him in his own armor and put a bronze helmet on his head.

David was uncomfortable in the heavy protection, took off the items, and with his staff he gathered five smooth stones from the stream and put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and approached the Philistine.

And you know that a stone hit Goliath between the eyes – instant death.

How do YOU see David? This “boy”, according to Saul.

There are three major sculptures that present different attitudes and ages of David. They were done in three consecutive periods of art – Donatello’s David of the Early Renaissance, Michelangelo’s David of the High Renaissance and Bernini’s David of the Baroque period.

Could David have been an adolescent approaching puberty? After all, Saul called him “a boy”. And was he so self-assured, as his brother claimed, that he casually stood on the head of Goliath after the contest?

Donato di Niccolo di Betto Bardi, known as Donatello (1386-1466): “David”, 1430-32, bronze, life-size, Bargello, Florence.

The early Renaissance sculptor, Donatello, known for self-sufficient figures, created this first bronze male and the first free-standing nude since ancient times, inspired by nature, the new rise in humanism, platonic thought, and an interest in the human body that was not permitted during the Medieval period where the nude was considered idolatrous and indecent (the exceptions being Adam and Eve and bodies in hell).

This breathtaking and fresh approach of almost innocence –  an adolescent who is neither a Greek god nor athlete – recalls the sensuousness of ancient sculptures but adds the new dimension of ponderation, a psychological drama of thought unknown to the ancients.

There is discovery of the self in Donatello’s David. He is thoughtful and introverted, although a bit cocky, resting on his trophy but also conscious of his body, his attire, and of the viewer. He exudes an “oh, shucks” charm and an eroticism in his sway-back posture, his only garments being his toeless boots and his hat.

Donatello’s “David” was commissioned by Cosimo de’ Medici, one of the greatest patrons of the Early Renaissance. 

This youth has authority – a revelation about man that began in the Early Renaissance.

And an amazing fact about this famous and successful sculptor Donatello: he kept a bucket of cash hanging from the ceiling in his workshop for anyone who needed help.

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564), of the High Renaissance period, was a devout Catholic yet very complex in nature. He is described as irascible, impatient, jealous and antagonistic towards his rivals and sometimes his patrons, forever complaining, obsessed by guilt, desperate for friends, and yet very loving and supportive of his family. He is considered the greatest genius of the Renaissance.

Michelangelo subscribed to the Platonic thought that the image produced by the artist’s hand must come from the Idea in his mind. The “Idea” is the reality that has to be brought forward out of nature. He believed that the Idea, the image, was locked in the stone, struggling to be released and that he could do that by removing the excess stone, allowing the figure to escape.

The 18’ block of Carrara (a town in the Alps in N Tuscany) marble, termed “the Giant”, belonged to the city of Florence. It had been discarded, rejected by other sculptors, and neglected for 25 years.

At age 26 in 1501, Michelangelo, the highest paid artist in Florence, accepted, without reservation, a commission for a sculpture of David to be placed on one of the buttresses of the Florence Cathedral (Opera del Duomo), David being a symbol of liberty and the guardian of the city of Florence.

Michelangelo worked on the marble in isolation until January 1504.

It took 4 days and 40 men to move the completed statue ½ mile on a large cart.

It was discovered that the 17′ “David” was too large for the top of the Cathedral. 

It was moved on June 8 near the entrance of the Palazzo Vecchio (the city hall). Michelangelo continued to work on it. It was unveiled September 8, 1504 in the Piazza della Signoria, the square in front of the Palazzo Vecchio.

It remained in the Piazza della Signoria until 1873 when it was moved to the current location in the Galleria deli Accademia in order to preserve it.

A little back history: In an anti-Medici riot in 1527, the left arm was broken in 3 places and during WWII it was entombed in brick for protection from bombs. In 1991 the left foot was damaged by a man with a hammer.

Here you can get a sense of the scale.

Michelangelo: “David”, marble, 17’, 1504, Galleria dell’ Accademia, Florence                    

Looking at David, we observe that this is the very moment of sight. Goliath has been spotted.

Tenseness is gathering in David’s face and throughout his body; muscles are tightening and the brow frowns. Michelangelo mistrusted mathematical methods to measure proportions, such as the Greek and Egyptian canons. He believed that measurement and proportion should be kept in the eye. David’s torso is not fully developed but the large hands and feet give the promise of more growth and giant strength. The disproportionality gives an individuality to his youth. 

Look at his face. His concentration is unbroken.

He is coiled, ready to strike, mentally active, engaged. 

He is compositionally connected to an unseen presence.

He guards the sling – almost invisible. So is the stone, in his right hand.

His confidence, intelligence and cleverness defeat Goliath, not sheer force.

David is a hero, not a god.

This is a pinnacle of Renaissance art – faith in man and faith in God.

120 years later, in the 17th century period called Baroque, Gianlorenzo Bernini sculpted a third David.

The Baroque period was “born” in Rome. It spans the years 1600-1750 and spread through Europe like fire, stimulated by the paintings of Caravaggio, the radical rebel of dramatic lighting and shockingly sometimes violent paintings, who used street models and lower class scenery for his mostly religious works. The art climate was ripe for drama, emotion, movement, gesture, conflict, violence, grandeur, richness, turbulence, tension and sexuality. The classicism of the Renaissance was not ignored or limited but was freed. In this Baroque period, the world view changed also because now the sun was the center of the Universe. Man’s world was larger.

Gianlorenzo Bernini: ( 1598-1680) “David”, 1623, marble, life size, Galleria Borghese, Rome.

The previous Davids have been in states of relaxation or tension.

Bernini’s David explodes. If the viewer bats his eyes, he will miss the strike.

Marble has become flexible. David moves outside of the marble. He is no longer inhibited by a block or column.

With a bag of stones at his waist in preparation for a long siege, David’s force, his “contrapposto” (a counterpoise, a twisting balance) addresses the implied presence of Goliath.

David moves through time and space. His controls the space around him.

Observers need to back up or they risk being hit. 

Legend has it that Pope Urban VIII (Barberini) held a mirror while Bernini studied his own face to achieve the desired expression. The sculpture was commissioned by Cardinal Borghese to decorate his palace where it remains.

Bernini’s “David” was executed in 7 months.

Comparing the Davids: Donatello tells us the aftermath; Michelangelo describes the sighting and tension and Bernini creates the dynamic movement for death.

A little aside: Did you notice that both the Michelangelo “David” and the Bernini “David” have a strut. This is a detail of Greek and Roman antiquity, especially in postures of contrapposto. It was believed that the marble, in positions of “imbalance”, needed support. Donatello’s, being bronze, and cast from clay, did not need the strut using instead the staff and the elbow for balance.

Do you favor one of the Davids more than another?