|Location||Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence| David is a
masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture created between 1501 and
1504, by the Italian artist Michelangelo. It is a 5.17-metre
(17.0 ft)marble statue of a standing male nude. The statue
represents the Biblical hero David, a favoured subject in the
art of Florence. Originally commissioned as one of a series of
statues of prophets to be positioned along the roofline of the
east end of Florence Cathedral, the statue was instead placed in
a public square, outside the Palazzo della Signoria, the seat of
civic government in Florence, where it was unveiled on 8
September 1504. Because of the nature of the hero that it
represented, it soon came to symbolize the defence of civil
liberties embodied in the Florentine Republic, an independent
city-state threatened on all sides by more powerful rival states
and by the hegemony of the Medici family. The eyes of David,
with a warning glare, were turned towards Rome. The statue was
moved to the Accademia Gallery in Florenc