David (Donatello) - The Bronze David

The Bronze David

Donatello's bronze statue of David (circa 1440s) is famous as the first unsupported standing work of bronze cast during the Renaissance, and the first freestanding nude male sculpture made since antiquity. It depicts David with an enigmatic smile, posed with his foot on Goliath's severed head just after defeating the giant. The youth is completely naked, apart from a laurel-topped hat and boots, bearing the sword of Goliath. This piece was commissioned by the Medici family and placed in the center of the courtyard of the Medici Palace in Florence. This daring move showed that the Medici family thought that they could take ownership of David, a symbol of the city of Florence. Because this was such a scandalous idea at the time, Donatello put some shifts on the subject matter that could explain away the identity of David as "just another sculpture". For example, David was supposed to have gone into battle completely nude, but this statue shows him wearing boots and a helmet. Goliath's helmet also has a feather protruding that can be seen as attached to David's foot, and thus characterized as Hermes, the Greek god. The Medici were exiled from Florence in 1494, and the statue was moved to the courtyard of the Palazzo della Signoria (the marble David was already in the palazzo). It was moved to the Pitti Palace in the 17th century, to the Uffizi in 1777, and then finally, in 1865, to the Bargello museum, where it remains today.

According to Vasari, the statue stood on a column designed by Desiderio da Settignano in the middle of the courtyard of the Palazzo Medici; an inscription seems to have explained the statue's significance as a political monument. Giorgio Vasari, Le Vite..., ed. G. Milanesi, Florence, 1878-1885, III, 108. A quattrocento manuscript containing the text of the inscription is probably an earlier reference to the statue; unfortunately the manuscript is not dated. Christine M. Sperling, "Donatello's Bronze 'David' and the Demands of Medici Politics," The Burlington Magazine, 134 (1992), 218-219. Although a political meaning for the statue is widely accepted, exactly what that meaning is has been a matter of considerable debate among scholars.

Most scholars assume the statue was commissioned by Cosimo de' Medici, but the date of its creation is unknown and widely disputed; suggested dates vary from the 1420s to the 1460s (Donatello died in 1466), with the majority opinion recently falling in the 1440s, when the new Medici Palace designed by Michelozzo was under construction. The iconography of the bronze David follows that of the marble David: a young hero stands with sword in hand, the decapitated head of his enemy at his feet. Visually, however, this statue is startlingly different. David is both physically delicate and remarkably effeminate. The head has been said to have been inspired by classical sculptures of Antinous, a favorite of Hadrian renowned for his beauty. The statue's physique, which Mary McCarthy called "a transvestite's and fetishist's dream of alluring ambiguity," contrasted with the absurdly large sword in hand, shows that David has overcome Goliath not by physical prowess, but through God. However, the intention of Donatello is still debated among scholars. The boy's nakedness further implies the idea of the presence of God, contrasting the youth with the heavily-armored giant. David is presented uncircumcised, which is generally customary for male nudes in Italian Renaissance art.