~ this 1st statue was sculpted in 1496 and 1497
~ when he was only 21 and 22 years old !!
~ (he was born in March 1475)
~ (DaVinci was already 23 years old ~ b.1452)
~ (when Michelangelo was born)
~ his first free standing nude
~ was designed to stand in a garden
~ and that's where it stood
~ until the middle of the 16th century
~ which is why the surface looks so weathered
~ you can always tell if a sculpture is a masterpiece
~ if it is beautiful from every angle ~ all 360 degrees
~ and ~ this statue is
~ it was actually designed to be walked around
~ based on a old drawing of it ~ in the garden
~ and also because you can't see the young satyr
~ if you view it front-on ~ it's hidden from the front
~ you have to walk around it ~ to see the satyr
~ where did he get that idea ?
~ he was only a kid ~ and there were very few
~ Renaissance sculptures available
~ and even fewer were nudes
~ it stands "10 palms high" in the Bargello Museum
~ and you can get amazingly close to it
~ it was like shooting a real nude person
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~
~ upon completion of Bacchus ~ he sculpted the Pieta
~ but that piece is protected by glass
~ and you are quite limited in your approach to it
~ it was completed in 1500 ~ at 25 years old
~ the stone-cutter then turned to his finest work
~ David was commissioned on August 16, 1501
~ when Michelangelo was 26 years old
~ the finished 14 foot block of marble ~ was unveiled
~ 3 years later ~ on September 8, 1504
~ when the artist was just 29 years old
~ it also was designed to stand outside
~ where it stood until 1873 ~ 369 years later !!
~
~ what amazed me was the rose-coloured hue
~ of the marble ~ which looked almost chalky
~ giving it a surface ~ that looks much like real skin
~ the last two photos in this series
~ show the statue (from the back)
~ where it stood outside
~ and the last is a bronze that sits across
~ the Arno River ~ from Florence
~ the republic-city that saw itself as
~ "the little David"
~ against the dual 'Goliaths'
~ of the royalty ~ and the papacy
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~ after spending many years on the Sistine Chapel
~ Michelangelo returned to marble in 1513 ~ at age 38
~ with his plans for the "Tomb for Julius II"
~ however ~ only 3 of the forty planned statues
~ were ever completed ~ and the project abandoned
~ by 1550 ~ the statue was moved to the Louvre
~ where it stands today ~ magnificently !!
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