How tall is Michelangelo's David?
Hercules and Cacus
The "colossus" (height: 5.05 m) was originally given to Michelangelo and meant to complement the "David" but later appropriated by the Medici family as a symbol of their renewed power after their return from exile in 1512, and again in 1530. Although descriptions of its unveiling in 1534 provided verbal and written criticisms of the marble, most were instead aimed at the Medici family for dissolving the Republic and were not aesthetic.
A few of the writers of these hypercritical verses were imprisoned by Alessandro de'Medici, further suggesting a political commentary. The two harshest critics were Giorgio Vasari and Benvenuto Cellini, both of whom were champions of Michelangelo and rivals of Bandinelli for Medici patronage. Vasari lamented the change of hands from Michelangelo to Bandinelli, and the change of design. Cellini referred to the emphatic musculature as "a sack full of melons", forgetting that Michelangelo had received similar deprecation previously by Leonardo da Vinci. Neither Vasari nor Cellini can be viewed as unbiased resources due to their rivalries. The patrons (Medici family) were quite satisfied and rewarded Bandinelli greatly for his efforts with land, money, and he was later placed in charge of all sculptural and architectural programs for the Medici under Cosimo I.
David (Donatello)
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, and bears the sword of Goliath.
The creation of the work is entirely undocumented, and it has been given a range of datings. According to one theory, it was commissioned by the Medici family in the 1430s to be placed in the centre of the courtyard of the old Medici Palace. Alternatively it may have been for that position in the new Palazzo Medici Riccardi, where it certainly was placed later, which would place the commission in the mid-1440s or even later. The statue is recorded there by Vasari and other sources. The Medici family 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 Palazzo Pitti in the 17th century, to the Uffizi in 1777, and then finally, in 1865, to the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, where it remains today.
David (Michelangelo)
In 1873, the statue of "David" was removed from the piazza, to protect it from damage, and displayed in the Accademia Gallery, Florence, where it attracted many visitors. A replica was placed in the Piazza della Signoria in 1910.
Cloak of Conscience
The Cloak of Conscience is a sculpture by Anna Chromý carved from a single block of white marble excavated from the Michelangelo Quarry in Carrara, Italy. It represents her largest work of art since Chromy turned to sculpture from surrealist oil paintings in 1992. As a result of her work on The Cloak, Chromy was the first woman to be awarded the Premio Michelangelo, the annual award for sculpture, in 2008.
From the original 250 tonne block, the final sculpture of the "Cloak" weighs 45 tonnes and features a hollow space in the centre large enough to accommodate two adults standing. The entrance is at the front where one fold of the cloak overlaps the other. The "Cloak" is 470 cm high on its plinth. By comparison, "David" is 517 cm and the height of an average adult male is 180 cm.
The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus
The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus is the name of a painting by artist Salvador Dalí, begun in 1958 and finished in 1959. It is over 14 feet tall and over 9 feet wide (410 x 284 cm; 161.4 x 111.8 in), one in a series of large paintings Dalí did during this era.
Renaissance art
The art of Leonardo's younger contemporary Michelangelo took a very different direction. Michelangelo, in neither his painting nor his sculpture demonstrates any interest in the observation of any natural object except the human body. He perfected his technique in depicting it, while in his early twenties, by the creation of the enormous marble statue of "David" and the group "the Pieta", in St Peter's Basilica, Rome. He then set about an exploration of the expressive possibilities of the human anatomy. His commission by Pope Julius II to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling resulted in the supreme masterpiece of figurative composition, which was to have profound effect on every subsequent generation of European artists. His later work, "The Last Judgement", painted on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel between 1534 and 1541 shows a Mannerist (also called Late Renaissance) style with generally elongated bodies which took over from the High Renaissance style between 1520 and 1530.
David (Bernini)
The subject of the work is the biblical David, about to throw the stone that will bring down Goliath, which will allow David to behead him. Compared to earlier works on the same theme (notably the "David" of Michelangelo), the sculpture broke new ground in its implied movement and its psychological intensity.
Michael Naranjo
Naranjo has become widely recognized. The Italian government allowed Naranjo to mount a specially-built scaffold and to come into actual physical contact with Michelangelo's David in Florence. He was permitted to "visit by touch" sculptures in Louvre.
3D scanning
In 1999, two different research groups started scanning Michelangelo's statues. Stanford University with a group led by Marc Levoy used a custom laser triangulation scanner built by Cyberware to scan Michelangelo's statues in Florence, notably the David, the Prigioni and the four statues in The Medici Chapel. The scans produced a data point density of one sample per 0.25 mm, detailed enough to see Michelangelo's chisel marks. These detailed scans produced a large amount of data (up to 32 gigabytes) and processing the data from his scans took 5 months. Approximately in the same period a research group from IBM, led by H. Rushmeier and F. Bernardini scanned the Pietà of Florence acquiring both geometric and colour details. The digital model, result of the Stanford scanning campaign, was thoroughly used in the 2004 subsequent restoration of the statue.
Isidore of Miletus
Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles originally planned on a main hall of the Hagia Sophia that measured 70 by 75 metres (230 x 250 ft), making it the largest church in Constantinople, but the original dome was nearly 6 metres (20 ft) lower than it was constructed, “Justinian suppressed these riots and took the opportunity of marking his victory by erecting in 532-7 the new Hagia Sophia, one of the largest, most lavish, and most expensive buildings of all time.”
History of Italian Renaissance domes
Michelangelo inherited the project to design the dome of St. Peter's basilica in 1546. It had previously been in the hands of Bramante (with Giuliano da Sangallo and Fra Giovanni Giocondo) until 1514, Raphael Sanzio (assisted by Giuliano da Sangallo and Fra Giovanni Giocondo) until 1520, and Antonio da Sangallo the Younger (with Baldassare Peruzzi), whose work was disrupted by the sack of Rome in 1527. The design had been altered by Giuliano da Sangallo from being hemispherical to being 9 meters taller, segmental, and ribbed, and he had strengthened the piers and completed building the pendentives.
Piazzale Michelangelo
The square, dedicated to the Renaissance sculptor Michelangelo, has bronze copies of some of his marble works found elsewhere in Florence: the David and the four allegories of the Medici Chapel of San Lorenzo. The monument was brought up by nine pairs of oxen on 25 June 1873.
Michelangelo
In 1505 Michelangelo was invited back to Rome by the newly elected Pope Julius II and commissioned to build the Pope's tomb, which was to include forty statues and be finished in five years. Under the patronage of the pope, Michelangelo experienced constant interruptions to his work on the tomb in order to accomplish numerous other tasks. Although Michelangelo worked on the tomb for 40 years, it was never finished to his satisfaction. It is located in the Church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome and is most famous for the central figure of Moses, completed in 1516. Of the other statues intended for the tomb, two, known as the "Rebellious Slave" and the "Dying Slave", are now in the Louvre.
Apollo (Michelangelo)
Hallmarks of his style and methods exist on the unfinished work that support the attribution of the statue to Michelangelo. The subject of the unfinished statue was never noted by Michelangelo, however, and contemporary historical sources disagree about the subject. According to Vasari it is an "Apollo", perhaps in the act of taking an arrow from a quiver. In the inventory of Cosimo I of 1553, however, it is identified as, "David", by whoever drew up the historic catalogue. Art critics therefore identify the sculpture as one or the other, or, by showing a hyphenated title, "Apollo-David" or "David-Apollo", to note the uncertainty. Factors favoring the identity as Apollo are: the body is stocky and mature, as Apollo often was portrayed, rather than the typical portrayal of a youthful David; no bow is represented in the carving and, no unfinished portion of the statue allows enough area for one.
Victor Victori
Victori uses an unconventional medium for his sculptures by mixing concrete and sand into a mortar. Early in his sculpting career clay was the preferred medium, but clay is relatively more expensive and too fragile to create large works to be displayed outdoors. The concrete mix would allow for the malleability of clay and upon drying would have more permanence as a building block. One of Victori's largest scale projects of the past decade is an 11-foot high 10,000-pound sculpture named "Minds of Moses" that rests on the property of Victori's corner home depicting the many sides of the religious figure. Alongside the sculpture are 3 slightly smaller cement statues of Zeus, Jesus, and Buddha. The completion of these pieces spurred much local news coverage for the artist and he has since added various other abstract pieces to the outdoor collection. Most notable sculpture models have been Moses, Jesus, Zeus, and Buddha, all measuring at over 9 & 11'.
Separation of Light from Darkness
Several authors have proposed that Michelangelo concealed anatomical images in this fresco and that these anatomical images account for its unusual features. In an article published in the journal "Neurosurgery" in May 2010, Ian Suk, a medical illustrator, and Rafael Tamargo, a neurosurgeon, both from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, suggested that Michelangelo concealed three neuroanatomical images in the "Separation of Light from Darkness." Suk and Tamargo explained that Michelangelo started to dissect cadavers at the age of 17–19 years and continued his anatomical studies throughout his life. As a result of his dissections, Michelangelo probably developed a detailed understanding of gross anatomy of the brain and spinal cord. They showed that the anatomical details in God's neck are unlike those of either other necks painted by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel or of other necks painted by Michelangelo's contemporaries, such as Leonardo da Vinci and Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael). The unusual anatomy of God's neck is particularly evident when it is contrasted with the anatomy of the neck of the ignudo facing God in the upper left corner of the panel. The position of the neck of this ignudo is almost identical to that of God's neck, yet the ignudo's neck does not have any of the unusual lines found in God's neck. It is possible that Michelangelo placed these two analogous neck perspectives side by side to emphasize and contrast the hidden image in God's neck.
Lord of Miracles of Buga
The Lord of Miracles of Guadalajara of Buga has at present the size of a short adult man (1.30 m, about 4.5 ft). It has a distinctive look that is not really European, due to the relative dark color of his skin, but definitively of a man of middle east, resembling a lot the depictions of Christ from the Holy Mandylion and Keramion, or the mount Sinai monastery:
David (Michelangelo)
Michelangelo's "David" has become one of the most recognized works of Renaissance sculpture, a symbol of strength and youthful beauty.
David and Goliath (Caravaggio)
David and Goliath (or "David with the Head of Goliath" or "David Victorious over Goliath") is a painting by the Italian Baroque master Caravaggio (1571–1610). It was painted in about 1599, and is held in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. Two later versions of the same theme are currently to be seen in Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna ("David with the Head of Goliath"), and in Rome's Galleria Borghese ("David with the Head of Goliath").
Rucellai Madonna
The work, measuring 4.5 by 2.9 meters, may be the largest surviving painting of Italian 13th century art. It is tempera on a five-pieced poplar panel; the frame is of the same wood. The Virgin's robe was found during its 1989 cleaning to be azurite-based paint. The Virgin is shown looking directly at the viewer, as the Christ Child is seen sitting on her lap, giving a blessing. The Madonna is large in scale, taking up the majority of the frame. Her robe is finely modelled and her gold halo incised as if to illuminate her presence. Duccio's use of gold represents the family's holiness and the unearthly realm they inhabit. Six angels are seen holding the ornate throne, and are painted in shades of green, pink, lilac and blue. Their positions in front and behind the throne suggest they are either lifting it up, or bringing it down to earth. The frame is decorated with thirty roundels containing portraits of Apostles, prophets, saints and patriarchs. It is clear from the attention to detail that Duccio was highly concerned with idealism and beauty, rendering each figure softly, with delicate features and adoration.
David (Michelangelo)
In 1991, the foot of the statue was damaged by a man with a hammer. The samples obtained from that incident allowed scientists to determine that the marble used was obtained from the Fantiscritti quarries in Miseglia, the central of three small valleys in Carrara. The marble in question contains many microscopic holes that cause it to deteriorate faster than other marbles. Because of the marble's degradation, from 2003 to 2004 the statue was given its first major cleaning since 1843. Some experts opposed the use of water to clean the statue, fearing further deterioration. Under the direction of Franca Falleti, senior restorers Monica Eichmann and Cinzia Parnigoni undertook the job of restoring the statue.
Night (Michelangelo)
Night is a sculpture in marble (155x150 cm, maximum length 194 cm diagonally) by the Italian Renaissance sculptor Michelangelo Buonarroti. Dating from 1526–1531, it is part of the decoration of Michelangelo’s Sagrestia nuova (New Sacristy) in the Basilica di San Lorenzo in Florence, Italy.
David (Michelangelo)
David is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture created in marble between 1501 and 1504 by the Italian artist Michelangelo. "David" is a marble statue of a standing male nude. The statue represents the Biblical hero David, a favoured subject in the art of Florence.
Eddie Carmel
Eddie Carmel (March 16, 1936 – August 14, 1972) was an entertainer with gigantism and subsequent acromegaly resulting from a pituitary adenoma. Popularly known as "The Jewish Giant", Carmel was billed at the height of 8 ft 9 in (268 cm) and 9 ft 0.625 (276 cm) inches tall, though he may have more realistically been around 7 ft 3 tall. At the time of his death at age 36, he had shrunk several inches, due to kyphoscoliosis (curvature of the spine, a mixture of scoliosis, and kyphosis).
Galleria dell'Accademia
The Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze, or "Gallery of the Academy of Florence", is an art museum in Florence, Italy. It is best known as the home of Michelangelo's sculpture "David". It also has other sculptures by Michelangelo and a large collection of paintings by Florentine artists, mostly from the period 1300–1600, the Trecento to the Late Renaissance. It is smaller and more specialized than the Uffizi, the main art museum in Florence. It adjoins the Accademia di Belle Arti or academy of fine arts of Florence, but despite the name has no other connection with it.
Sistine Chapel
Michelangelo used bright colours, easily visible from the floor. On the lowest part of the ceiling he painted the ancestors of Christ. Above this he alternated male and female prophets, with Jonah over the altar. On the highest section, Michelangelo painted nine stories from the Book of Genesis. He was originally commissioned to paint only 12 figures, the Apostles. He turned down the commission because he saw himself as a sculptor, not a painter. The Pope offered to allow Michelangelo to paint biblical scenes of his own choice as a compromise. After the work was finished, there were more than 300. His figures showed the creation, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and the Great Flood.
Michelangelo
Michelangelo, with Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael, is one of the three giants of the Florentine High Renaissance. Although their names are often cited together, Michelangelo was younger than Leonardo by 23 years, and older than Raphael by eight. Because of his reclusive nature, he had little to do with either artist and outlived both of them by more than forty years. Michelangelo took few sculpture students. He employed Francesco Granacci, who was his fellow pupil at the Medici Academy, and became one of several assistants on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Michelangelo appears to have used assistants mainly for the more manual tasks of preparing surfaces and grinding colours. Despite this, his works were to have a great influence on painters, sculptors and architects for many generations to come.
David (Michelangelo)
The statue appears to show David after he has made the decision to fight Goliath but before the battle has actually taken place, a moment between conscious choice and action. His brow is drawn, his neck tense and the veins bulge out of his lowered right hand. His left hand holds a sling that is draped over his shoulder and down to his right hand, which holds a rock. The twist of his body effectively conveys to the viewer the feeling that he is in motion, an impression heightened with contrapposto. The statue is a Renaissance interpretation of a common ancient Greek theme of the standing heroic male nude. In the High Renaissance, contrapposto poses were thought of as a distinctive feature of antique sculpture. This is typified in "David", as the figure stands with one leg holding its full weight and the other leg forward. This classic pose causes the figure's hips and shoulders to rest at opposing angles, giving a slight s-curve to the entire torso. The contrapposto is emphasised by the turn of the head to the left, and by the contrasting positions of the arms.
David (Michelangelo)
It is possible that the "David" was conceived as a political statue before Michelangelo began to work on it. Certainly David the giant-killer had long been seen as a political figure in Florence, and images of the Biblical hero already carried political implications there. Donatello's bronze "David," made for the Medici family, perhaps 1440, had been appropriated by the Signoria in 1494, when the Medici were exiled from Florence, and the statue was installed in the courtyard of the Palazzo della Signoria, where it stood for the Republican government of the city. By placing Michelangelo's statue in the same general location, the Florentine authorities ensured that "David" would be seen as a political parallel as well as an artistic response to that earlier work. These political overtones led to the statue being attacked twice in its early days. Protesters pelted it with stones the year it debuted, and, in 1527, an anti-Medici riot resulted in its left arm being broken into three pieces.
David and Bathsheba (film)
David and Bathsheba is a 1951 historical Technicolor epic film about King David made by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Henry King, produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, from a screenplay by Philip Dunne. The cinematography was by Leon Shamroy. Gregory Peck stars as King David and the film follows King David's life as he adjusts to ruling as a King, and about his relationship with Uriah's wife Bathsheba (Susan Hayward). Goliath of Gath was portrayed by 203 cm-tall (6'8") Lithuanian wrestler Walter Talun.
Diana (Saint-Gaudens)
"Diana" was unveiled atop Madison Square Garden's tower on September 29, 1891. The 304-foot (92.66 m) building had been completed a year earlier, and was the second-tallest in New York City. But the addition of the statue made it the city's tallest, by 13 feet (3.96 m). The figure's billowing copper foulard (scarf) was intended to catch the wind, but the statue did not rotate smoothly because of its weight. "Diana"s nudity offended moral crusader Anthony Comstock and his New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. To placate Comstock and to increase the likelihood of its catching the wind, Saint-Gaudens draped the figure in cloth, but the cloth blew away.
Soon after installation, both White and Saint-Gaudens concluded that the figure was too large for the building, and decided to create a smaller, lighter replacement. Following less than a year atop the tower, the statue was removed and shipped to Chicago to be exhibited at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. New Yorker W. T. Henderson wrote a tongue-in-cheek poetic tribute – "Diana Off the Tower" – a play on both the statue's name and situation.
Milan Cathedral
In 1762 one of the main features of the cathedral, the Madonnina's spire, was erected at the dizzying height of 108.5 m. The spire was designed by Carlo Pellicani and sports at the top a famous polychrome Madonnina statue, designed by Giuseppe Perego that befits the original stature of the cathedral. Given Milan's notoriously damp and foggy climate, the Milanese consider it a fair-weather day when the Madonnina is visible from a distance, as it is so often covered by mist.
St. Proclus (Michelangelo)
The statue of "St. Proclus" (1494–1495) was created by Michelangelo out of marble. Its height is 58.5 cm. It is situated in the Basilica of San Domenico, Bologna. Its subject is Saint Proculus (Proculus), a martyr of Bologna.
Christ at El Picacho
The Christ is a sculpture of 2,500 tons and 98 feet in total height (an image of 65 feet high on a pedestal of 33 feet). Its opening was on January 16, 1997. The massive Christ rises on the west side of Cerro El Picacho, and can be seen from far away by at least sixty percent of the population of the Central District, especially at night. The reinforced concrete religious figure was artfully designed by the prestigious Honduran sculptor Mario Zamora Alcantara residing in Mexico for several years. The Design and Construction of the building in its share of Structural Engineering was conducted by the construction company CONSULCRETO, led by Engineer Jose Francisco Paredes and architectural design of the park was designed by Arch. Luciano Duron. The artist prepared a giant fiberglass mold in the Mexican capital, which is then melted into El Picacho on a concrete base also ten meters high. The construction hard work seven months a team of 40 people.
Michelangelo
With the completion of the "David" came another commission. In early 1504 Leonardo da Vinci had been commissioned to paint "The Battle of Anghiara" in the council chamber of the Palazzo Vecchio, depicting the battle between Florence and Milan in 1440. Michelangelo was then commissioned to paint the "Battle of Cascina". The two paintings are very different: Leonardo depicts soldiers fighting on horseback, while Michelangelo has soldiers being ambushed as they bathe in the river. Neither work was completed and both were lost forever when the chamber was refurbished. Both works were much admired, and copies remain of them, Leonardo's work having been copied by Rubens and Michelangelo's by Bastiano da Sangallo.
David Cal
Cal is 183 cm (6 ft 0 in) tall and weighs 91 kg (200 lbs).
Andrea del Verrocchio
A bronze statue of "David" was commissioned by Piero de'Medici. On grounds of style and technique it was dated by Butterfield to the mid-1460s; he considered it a masterpiece of Verrocchio's early career. It was purchased by the Signoria of Florence from his heirs Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici in 1476 and is now at the Bargello in Florence. Verrocchio's David is a young lad, modestly clad, contrasting with Donatello's provocative "David". For this figure, the Master is purported to have used the young Leonardo, a newcomer to his workshop, as his model.
Angel (Michelangelo)
The statue of an "Angel" (1494–1495) was created by Michelangelo out of marble. Its height is 51.5 cm. It is situated in the Basilica of San Domenico, Bologna.
Goliath
American actor Ted Cassidy portrayed Goliath in the TV series "Greatest Heroes of the Bible" in 1978. Italian actor Luigi Montefiori portrayed this nine-foot-tall giant in Paramount's 1985 live-action movie "King David" as part of a flashback. This movie includes the King of the Philistines saying, "Goliath has challenged the Israelites six times and no one has responded." It's then on the seventh time that David meets his challenge.
Hugh M‘Neile
In May the following year, the statue committee announced that its target amount had been reached and that an eminent sculptor, George Gammon Adams, had been commissioned to produce the work and that Adams had already had several sittings with M‘Neile. The statue was carved from a pure white 8-ton block of Italian Carrara marble (the same marble as Michelangelo's "David").
David with the Head of Goliath (Caravaggio, Vienna)
The model for David in both versions appears to be a more mature version of the pubescent Cupid of "Amor Vincit Omnia" and the Capitoline and Pamphilij "John the Baptist", all painted around 1602. The model for these works has been identified by some, most notably Peter Robb, as Cecco, a boy known to have been Caravaggio's servant in Rome in the early 17th century and believed by Robb to be identical with Cecco del Caravaggio, an artist active in Rome in the period 1610–1625 and painting very much in Caravaggio's manner. There is no record of Cecco having been with Caravaggio after the artist's flight from Rome in 1606.
Madonna with the Long Neck
Parmigianino has distorted nature for his own artistic purposes, creating a typical Mannerist figura serpentinata. Jesus is also extremely large for a baby, and he lies precariously on Mary's lap as if about to fall at any moment. The Madonna herself is of hardly human proportions—she is almost twice the size of the angels to her right. Her right foot rests on cushions that appear to be only a few inches away from the picture plane, but the foot itself seems to project beyond it, and is thus on "our" side of the canvas, breaking the conventions of a framed picture. Her slender hands and long fingers have also led the Italian medical scientist Vito Franco of the University of Palermo to diagnose that Parmigianino's model had the genetic disorder Marfan syndrome affecting her connective tissue.
The Raising of Lazarus (Sebastiano del Piombo)
The Raising of Lazarus is a large altarpiece of 1517–1519 by the Italian High Renaissance artist Sebastiano del Piombo, for which Michelangelo supplied drawings for some figures. Intended for Narbonne Cathedral in France, it is now normally in Room 18 of the National Gallery in London, where it is "NG1", the first painting catalogued at the founding of the gallery in 1824. Until 25 June 2017 it is in the exhibition "Michelangelo & Sebastiano" at the National Gallery, together with several of the preparatory drawings for it by both artists, and letters between them.
Donatello
Around 1430, Cosimo de' Medici, the foremost art patron of his era, commissioned from Donatello the bronze "David" (now in the Bargello) for the court of his Palazzo Medici. This is now Donatello's most famous work, and the first known free-standing nude statue produced since antiquity. Conceived fully in the round, independent of any architectural surroundings, and largely representing an allegory of the civic virtues triumphing over brutality and irrationality, it is arguably the first major work of Renaissance sculpture. Also from this period is the disquietingly small "Love-Atys", housed in the Bargello.
Michelangelo
Michelangelo returned to Florence in 1499. The republic was changing after the fall of its leader, anti-Renaissance priest Girolamo Savonarola, who was executed in 1498, and the rise of the "gonfaloniere" Piero Soderini. Michelangelo was asked by the consuls of the Guild of Wool to complete an unfinished project begun 40 years earlier by Agostino di Duccio: a colossal statue of Carrara marble portraying David as a symbol of Florentine freedom to be placed on the gable of Florence Cathedral. Michelangelo responded by completing his most famous work, the statue of David, in 1504. The masterwork definitively established his prominence as a sculptor of extraordinary technical skill and strength of symbolic imagination. A team of consultants, including Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci, was called together to decide upon its placement, ultimately the Piazza della Signoria, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. It now stands in the Academia while a replica occupies its place in the square.
Michelangelo
During the same period, Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which took approximately four years to complete (1508–1512). According to Condivi's account, Bramante, who was working on the building of St. Peter's Basilica, resented Michelangelo's commission for the pope's tomb and convinced the pope to commission him in a medium with which he was unfamiliar, in order that he might fail at the task. Michelangelo was originally commissioned to paint the Twelve Apostles on the triangular pendentives that supported the ceiling, and to cover the central part of the ceiling with ornament. Michelangelo persuaded Pope Julius to give him a free hand and proposed a different and more complex scheme, representing the Creation, the Fall of Man, the Promise of Salvation through the prophets, and the genealogy of Christ. The work is part of a larger scheme of decoration within the chapel that represents much of the doctrine of the Catholic Church.
Madonna of Zahražany
The 84 cm tall sculpture is made of lime wood, with traces of the original polychromy. The strikingly S-shaped figure of the Madonna holds the Infant Jesus in her right arm. Putting his finger to his lips, Jesus symbolises the nuns’ vow of silence. The Virgin Mary’s garments fit closely around her body, accentuating its natural movement and, on the right-hand side, compositionally balancing the figure of the child. The drapery is elaborated into an intricate system of folds and combines transverse deep hollows and the complex pleating of the merging bottom edges of her clothes. The use of perspectival shortening and the downward views of both Mary and the Infant Jesus indicate that the sculpture was originally located on a high console or in the uppermost part of an altar.
Tityus Drawing by Michelangelo
The drawings that Michelangelo created for Tommaso Cavalieri were complete and finished works of art. The first set of drawings that Michelangelo made for Cavalieri were given in the same year that the two met in 1532. This grouping is made up of the drawings Tityus and Ganymede. Due to the nature of Michelangelo’s feeling for Cavalieri revealed in their correspondence, scholars have interpreted the two drawings in this grouping to have homoerotic undertones. For example, the character of Tityus from mythology tried to rape Leto, Apollo’s mother. For his punishment, Tityus was chained to a rock in Hades so that two vultures could eternally peck out his liver. In this framework, the drawing could be interpreted as a representation of pining and a love that will never be realized. Since the liver is continuously pecked out only to grow back again for all of eternity and the liver is often referred to as the “seat of the passions,” the scene could refer to Michelangelo’s unrequited love for Cavalieri.
A similar homoerotic interpretation could be made for the Ganymede drawing as well. In mythology, Ganymede was a cupbearer for Zeus. Zeus fell into such lust for the young cupbearer that he took on the form of an eagle to sweep Ganymede off to Mt. Olympus to be with him. In this context, Ganymede could represent the young Cavalieri and the eagle could represent the mature and overpowering Michelangelo. The scene could be a visual representation of Michelangelo’s physical desire for Cavalieri.
It would make sense that Michelangelo would use such drawings, sonnets and letters to profess his affections because of the social stigma attached to homosexuality. Even though Florence did have a prevalent homosexual community, Michelangelo’s faith would not allow him to be open about his feeling for the young nobleman. Also, Michelangelo had been accused numerous times of having affairs with other young men. The homoerotic drawings could have been a way for Michelangelo to express his feelings out of the public eye and away from gossip.
Italian art
In his sculptures, Donatello tried to portray the dignity of the human body in realistic and often dramatic detail. His masterpieces include three statues of the Biblical hero David. In a version finished in the 1430s, Donatello portrayed David as a graceful, nude youth, moments after he slew the giant Goliath. The work, which is about 5 feet (1.5 meters) tall, was the first large free-standing nude created in Western art since classical antiquity.
Epifania (Michelangelo drawing)
Epifania () is a cartoon or full-scale drawing in black chalk by Michelangelo, produced in Rome around 1550–53. It is 2.32 metres tall by 1.65 m wide, and is made up of 26 sheets of paper.
Italophilia
Michelangelo was born in Florence in 1475 and, like Leonardo, was a true Renaissance man. He was a sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. He was considered the greatest living artist in his lifetime and, since then, one of the greatest artists of all time. His two best-known sculptures, the Pietà and David, are famous throughout the world. Michelangelo also created two of the most famous and influential frescoes in the history of Western art: the scenes from Genesis covering the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and The Last Judgment on the altar wall of the Chapel.
Sistine Madonna
The oil painting measures 265 cm by 196 cm. In the painting the Madonna, holding the Christ Child and flanked by Saint Sixtus and Saint Barbara, stands on clouds before dozens of obscured cherubim, while two distinctive winged cherubim rest on their elbows beneath her.
The Creation of Adam
Michelangelo's main source of inspiration for his Adam in his "Creation of Adam" may have been a cameo showing a nude Augustus Caesar riding sidesaddle on a Capricorn. This cameo is now at Alnwick Castle, Northumberland. The cameo used to belong to cardinal Domenico Grimani who lived in Rome while Michelangelo painted the ceiling. Evidence suggests that Michelangelo and Grimani were friends. This cameo offers an alternative theory for those scholars who have been dissatisfied with the theory that Michelangelo was mainly inspired by Lorenzo Ghiberti's Adam in his "Creation of Adam".
David (Bernini)
Another potential candidate as inspiration for Bernini's "David" is the celebrated 5th century BC "Discobolus" by Myron. However, the problem with this theory is that the "Discobolus" was in the early 17th century only known from literary sources; the torsos of copies that had survived were not correctly identified until 1781. Both Quintilian and Lucian wrote of the statue, but the descriptions were of a figure stretching or flexing, rather than being in the act of throwing.
Michael Hirst (art historian)
David Michael Geoffrey Hirst was born on 5 September 1933 and studied at New College, Oxford, and the Courtauld Institute of Art. Lecturer, Reader and Professor of Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, and a Fellow of the Academy since 1983, Hirst has been one of the foremost specialists on the drawings of Michelangelo. Indeed, such was his international standing in the world of Michelangelo studies that he was made a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Restoration of the Sistine Chapel's ceiling in 1987, and the following year curated an exhibition on Michelangelo as Draftsman for the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
David (Donatello)
There are no indications of contemporary responses to the "David." However, the fact that the statue was not placed in the town hall of Florence in the 1490s indicates that it was viewed as controversial. In the early 16th century, the Herald of the Signoria mentioned the sculpture in a way that suggested there was something unsettling about it: "The David in the courtyard is not a perfect figure because its right leg is tasteless." By mid-century Vasari was describing the statue as so naturalistic that it must have been made from life. However, among 20th- and 21st-century art historians there has been considerable controversy about how to interpret it.
Portrait of Giuliano de' Medici (1479–1516)
The "Portrait of Giuliano de' Medici" (1479–1516) is a 1.68m tall marble sculpture by Michelangelo, dating to 1526–34. It forms part of the decorative scheme of the Medici Chapel in San Lorenzo in Florence. It is an idealised portrait of Giuliano de' Medici (1479–1516).
Michelangelo
In 1546 Michelangelo produced the highly complex ovoid design for the pavement of the Campidoglio and began designing an upper storey for the Farnese Palace. In 1547 he took on the job of completing St Peter's Basilica, begun to a design by Bramante, and with several intermediate designs by several architects. Michelangelo returned to Bramante's design, retaining the basic form and concepts by simplifying and strengthening the design to create a more dynamic and unified whole. Although the late 16th-century engraving depicts the dome as having a hemispherical profile, the dome of Michelangelo's model is somewhat ovoid and the final product, as completed by Giacomo della Porta is more so.
David (Donatello)
David continued to be a subject of great interest for Italian patrons and artists. Later representations of the Biblical hero include Antonio del Pollaiuolo's "David" (Berlin, Staatliche Museen, c. 1470, panel painting), Verrocchio's "David" (Florence, Bargello, 1470s, bronze), Domenico Ghirlandaio's "David" (Florence, S. Maria Novella, c. 1485, fresco), Bartolomeo Bellano's "David" (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1470s, bronze), Michelangelo's "David" (Florence, Accademia, 1501-1504, marble), and Bernini's "David", (Rome, Galleria Borghese, 1623–24, marble).
The Deposition (Michelangelo)
The Deposition (also called the Bandini Pietà or The Lamentation over the Dead Christ) is a marble sculpture by the Italian High Renaissance master Michelangelo. The sculpture, on which Michelangelo worked between 1547 and 1555, depicts four figures: the dead body of Jesus Christ, newly taken down from the Cross, Nicodemus (or possibly Joseph of Arimathea), Mary Magdalene and the Virgin Mary. The sculpture is housed in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Florence and is therefore also known as the Florentine Pietà.
Crucifix (Michelangelo)
Some art historians attributed the work to Michelangelo based only on stylistic criteria, as the sculpture is not documented by contemporary biographers of Michelangelo Ascanio Condivi and Giorgio Vasari. The figure measures and was allegedly made around 1495. In December 2009, an inquiry has been opened into the acquisition of the crucifix by the Italian state. ANSA reports that: "several experts have cast doubts on the attribution, with the doyenne of Michelangelo cross studies, German art historian Margrit Lisner, saying it was probably a Sansovino."
St. Peter's Basilica
A drawing by Michelangelo indicates that his early intentions were towards an ovoid dome, rather than a hemispherical one. In an engraving in Galasso Alghisi' treatise (1563), the dome may be represented as ovoid, but the perspective is ambiguous. Stefan du Pérac's engraving (1569) shows a hemispherical dome, but this was perhaps an inaccuracy of the engraver. The profile of the wooden model is more ovoid than that of the engravings, but less so than the finished product. It has been suggested that Michelangelo on his death bed reverted to the more pointed shape. However Lees-Milne cites Giacomo della Porta as taking full responsibility for the change and as indicating to Pope Sixtus that Michelangelo was lacking in the scientific understanding of which he himself was capable.
David (Michelangelo)
Just the colossal size of the statue impressed Michelangelo's contemporaries. Vasari described it as "certainly a miracle that of Michelangelo, to restore to life one who was dead," and then listed all of the largest and most grand of the ancient statues that he had ever seen, concluding that Michelangelo's work surpassed "all ancient and modern statues, whether Greek or Latin, that have ever existed."
Tityus Drawing by Michelangelo
The drawing Tityus by Michelangelo shows the mythical figure of Tityus tied down on a large rock; on the top of the rock seems to be some kind of plant or tree trunk with roots. The trunk appears to have a human face in profile with his mouth fully open as if in a scream. The rock is the only indication of a location due to the foreground and background remaining blank except for a horizon line. The body of Tityus is twisted with his head back while his right arm is tied above his head and his left arm is assumed to be tied by his hip because the actual hand is not visible; Tityus’ right leg lies flat while his left leg is up in a right-degree angle. Above Tityus is a vulture that is the about the size of a human. The vulture leans over the twisted body of Tityus with its wing almost fully expanded on both sides and his head inching closer to the midsection of Tityus.
Michelangelo
Michelangelo arrived in Rome 25 June 1496 at the age of 21. On 4 July of the same year, he began work on a commission for Cardinal Raffaele Riario, an over-life-size statue of the Roman wine god "Bacchus". Upon completion, the work was rejected by the cardinal, and subsequently entered the collection of the banker Jacopo Galli, for his garden.
Madonnina (statue)
The Madonnina spire or ("lantern spire"), one of the main features of the cathedral, was erected in 1762 at the height of , as designed by Francesco Croce. At the top of the spire is the polychrome Madonnina statue, designed and built by Carlo Pellicani in 1774, during the episcopacy of Giuseppe Pozzobonelli who supported the idea to place the Madonnina at the top of the Cathedral.
By tradition, no building in Milan is higher than the Madonnina. When Gio Ponti's Pirelli Building was being built in the late 1950s, at a height of , a smaller replica of the Madonnina was placed atop the Pirelli building, so the new Madonnina remains the tallest point in Milan. 
In 2010 another replica was placed as well on the top of the Palazzo Lombardia, at a height of , being then the tallest building in the city. In 2015 another statue was placed on the top of the Allianz Tower, the second tallest building of Milan. The Allianz Tower is the tallest building for number of floors. The Unicredit Tower is taller only because the antenna.
David (Michelangelo)
In the mid 1800s, small cracks were noticed on the left leg on "David" which can possibly be attributed to an uneven sinking of the ground under the massive statue.
The pose of Michelangelo's "David" is unlike that of earlier Renaissance depictions of David. The bronze statues by Donatello and Verrocchio represented the hero standing victorious over the head of Goliath, and the painter Andrea del Castagno had shown the boy in mid-swing, even as Goliath's head rested between his feet, but no earlier Florentine artist had omitted the giant altogether. According to Helen Gardner and other scholars, David is depicted before his battle with Goliath. Instead of being shown victorious over a foe much larger than he, David looks tense and ready for combat.
The Lictors Bring to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons
Like most of David's works, "Brutus" is on a large canvas. It measures in height and in width. The style of painting is in the Neoclassical manner. Brutus sits on a klismos on the left, alone and brooding; to the right, his wife holds their two horrified daughters, while a servant on the far right quakes in anguish.
Giacomo del Duca
Giacomo Del Duca (c. 1520 – 1604) was an Italian sculptor and architect during the late-Renaissance or Mannerist period. He is most remembered for assisting Michelangelo in a number of projects in Rome, including the sculpture and construction of the tomb of Pope Julius II, completed in a highly truncated state relative to the original design, in San Pietro in Vincoli. He also modified Michelangelo's plans for buildings in the Capitoline Hill, one of the most famous and highest of the seven hills of Rome.
Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri
At Santa Maria degli Angeli, Michelangelo achieved a sequence of shaped architectural spaces, developed from a Greek cross, with a dominant transept, with cubical chapels at each end, and the effect of a transverse nave. There is no true facade; the simple entrance is set within one of the coved apses of a main space of the "thermae". The vestibule with canted corners and identical side chapels—one chapel has the tomb of Salvator Rosa, the other of Carlo Maratta—leads to a second vestibule, repeated on the far side of the transept, dominated by the over lifesize "Saint Bruno of Cologne" by Jean Antoine Houdon (1766). Of the "Saint Bruno", Pope Clement XIV said that he would speak, were it not for the vow of silence of the order he founded.
The great vaulted transept emphasized the scale of the Roman constructions, 90.8 meters long, and with the floor that Michelangelo raised to bring it up to the 16th century street level, 28 meters high. Raising the floor truncated the red granite Roman columns that articulate the transept and its flanking spaces. Michelangelo made the transept 27 meters wide, thus providing vast cubical spaces at each end of the transept.
The Battle of Anghiari (Leonardo da Vinci)
In 1504 Leonardo da Vinci was given the commission by gonfaloniere Piero Soderini, a contract signed by Niccolò Machiavelli, to decorate the Hall of Five Hundred. At the same time his rival Michelangelo, who had just finished his "David", was designated the opposite wall. This was the only time that Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo worked together on the same project. The painting of Michelangelo depicted an episode from the Battle of Cascina, when a group of bathing soldiers was surprised by the enemy. However Michelangelo did not stay in Florence long enough to complete the project. He was able to finish his cartoon, but only began the painting. He was invited back to Rome in 1505 by the newly appointed Pope Julius II and was commissioned to build the Pope's tomb.
Replicas of Michelangelo's David
Replicas of Michelangelo's "David" have been made numerous times, in plaster, imitation marble, fibreglass, snow, and other materials. There are many full-sized replicas of the statue around the world, perhaps the most prominent being the one in the original's position in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, Italy, placed there in 1910. The original sculpture was moved indoors in 1873 to the Accademia Gallery in Florence, where it attracts many visitors. Others were made for study at art academies in the late nineteenth century and later, while the statue has also been replicated for various commercial reasons or as artistic statements in their own right. Smaller replicas are often considered kitsch.
Body grooming
The same ideal male image is found in the statue of David during the Renaissance, when Michelangelo explored classical imagery. The statue of David caused quite a stir because he signified power and beauty and had both genitals and pubic hair, which had not been seen before.
Virgin of the Rocks
The Virgin of the Rocks (sometimes the Madonna of the Rocks) is the name of two paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, of the same subject, and of a composition which is identical except for several significant details. The version generally considered the prime version, that is the earlier of the two, hangs in The Louvre in Paris and the other in the National Gallery, London. The paintings are both nearly 2 metres (over 6 feet) high and are painted in oils. Both were originally painted on wooden panel, but the Louvre version has been transferred to canvas.
Dave Morice
The World's Largest Wooden Nickel is his largest work of art. It was planned and assembled in collaboration with Jim Glasgow, an Iowa City contractor, and his construction crew. It is 14 feet 2 inches in diameter, and it weighs more than two tons. Displayed on Glasgow's property, it has become a tourist attraction.
In 2005, he began a series of multimedia artworks in which a famous person's image was reconfigured on canvas using a photocopy or printout of the original image along with multiples of a specific object. Tampon Mona Lisa, the first in the series, has 200 tampons glued to the canvas to represent her blouse. He listed the artwork on eBay several times, using the auction site as a gallery. In two consecutive auctions it attracted over 25,000 viewers. WENN (World Entertainment News Network) transmitted a feature about it to news organizations around the world, and articles about Tampon Mona Lisa appeared in Russia, England, Italy, Estonia, The Slovak Republic, Spain, and the United States. Here is a description of four "Off-the-Wall Works":
Michelangelo and the Medici
Lorenzo de' Medici's death on April 8, 1492, brought a reversal of Michelangelo's circumstances. Michelangelo left the security of the Medici court and returned to his father's house. In the following months he carved a wooden crucifix (1493), as a gift to the prior of the Florentine church of Santo Spirito, who had permitted him some studies of anatomy on the corpses of the church's hospital. Between 1493 and 1494 he bought a block of marble for a larger than life statue of Hercules, which was sent to France and subsequently disappeared sometime around the 18th century. On January 20, 1494, after heavy snowfalls, Lorenzo's heir, Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici commissioned a snow statue, and Michelangelo again entered the court of the Medici. The Medici sixty-year reign came to an end under the reign of Piero Medici. In the same year, the Medici were expelled from Florence as the result of the rise of Girolamo Savonarola. Michelangelo left the city before the end of the political upheaval, moving to Venice and then to Bologna, where he stayed for more than a year. In Bologna he was commissioned to finish the carving of the last small figures of the Shrine of St. Dominic, in the church dedicated to that saint. According to Condivi, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, for whom Michelangelo had sculpted St. John the Baptist, asked that Michelangelo "fix it so that it looked as if it had been buried" so he could "send it to Rome...pass [it off as] an ancient work and...sell it much better." Both Lorenzo and Michelangelo were unwittingly cheated out of the real value of the piece by a middleman. Cardinal Raffaele Riario, to whom Lorenzo had sold it, discovered that it was a fraud, but was so impressed by the quality of the sculpture that he invited the artist to Rome. This apparent success in selling his sculpture abroad as well as the conservative Florentine situation may have encouraged Michelangelo to accept the prelate's invitation.
Culture of Italy
Michelangelo's great brooding sculptures, such as the figures of "Night and Day" in the Medici Chapel in Florence, dominated High Renaissance Italian sculpture. His "David," is perhaps, the most famous sculpture in the world. It differs from previous representations of the subject in that David is depicted before his battle with Goliath and not after the giant's defeat. Instead of being shown victorious over a foe much larger than he, David looks tense and ready for combat.
Titan (dog)
Titan's official measurements were and high at the shoulder. His owner hopes to use Titan's fame to educate the public about the breed, specifically issues with white Great Danes. Great Danes that are predominantly white are usually deaf and can have a variety of eye problems due to a genetic defect called the "merle gene".
David (Donatello)
Donatello, then in his early twenties, was commissioned to carve a statue of David in 1408, to top one of the buttresses of Florence Cathedral, though it was never placed there. Nanni di Banco was commissioned to carve a marble statue of Isaiah, at the same scale, in the same year. One of the statues was lifted into place in 1409, but was found to be too small to be easily visible from the ground and was taken down; both statues then languished in the workshop of the "opera" for several years. In 1416, the Signoria of Florence commanded that the "David" be sent to their Palazzo della Signoria; evidently the young David was seen as an effective political symbol, as well as a religious hero. Donatello was asked to make some adjustments to the statue (perhaps to make him look less like a prophet), and a pedestal with an inscription was made for it: PRO PATRIA FORTITER DIMICANTIBUS ETIAM ADVERSUS TERRIBILISSIMOS HOSTES DII PRAESTANT AUXILIUM ("To those who fight bravely for the fatherland the gods lend aid even against the most terrible foes").
Michelangelo
Lorenzo de' Medici's death on 8 April 1492 brought a reversal of Michelangelo's circumstances. Michelangelo left the security of the Medici court and returned to his father's house. In the following months he carved a polychrome wooden "Crucifix" (1493), as a gift to the prior of the Florentine church of Santo Spirito, which had allowed him to do some anatomical studies of the corpses from the church's hospital. Between 1493 and 1494 he bought a block of marble, and carved a larger than life statue of Hercules, which was sent to France and subsequently disappeared sometime in the 18th century. On 20 January 1494, after heavy snowfalls, Lorenzo's heir, Piero de Medici, commissioned a snow statue, and Michelangelo again entered the court of the Medici.
List of works designed with the golden ratio
Vitruvian Man, created by Leonardo da Vinci around the year 1492, is based on the theories of the man after which the drawing takes its name, Vitruvius, who in "De Architectura: The Planning of Temples" (c. I BC) pointed that the planning of temples depends on symmetry, which must be based on the perfect proportions of the human body. Some authors feel there is no actual evidence that Da Vinci used the golden ratio in "Vitruvian Man"; however, Olmos (1991) observes otherwise through geometrical analysis. He also proposes Leonardo da Vinci's "self portrait", Michelangelo's "David" (1501–1504), Albrecht Dürer's "Melencolia I" and the classic violin design by the masters of Cremona (Guarneri, Stradivari and several members of the Amati family) as having similar regulator lines related to the golden ratio.
The Body (2001 film)
The bones in the tomb belong to a person who would stand at a height of approximately 5'5", whereas the body that is believed to be Christ's on the shroud is of a man of 5'11½" to 6'2"; while the Bible does reference Jesus as being tall, during the times of Christ such a height would indeed have been remarkable. Dr. Golban responds with some animosity towards his comment because the Shroud of Turin has been proven through scientific testing to be a hoax and not the image of Jesus Christ but instead a victim of Roman crucifixion. The Shroud of Turin is believed to be an artist's representation of Jesus by means of using an impression technique on the linen.
Mount David (Maine)
Mount David (also known as Mount Davis, Davis Mountain, and David's Mountain) is a rocky summit in Lewiston, Maine on the campus of Bates College in back of Rand Hall. It is one of the highest points in Lewiston at 381 feet and offers views of the White Mountains including Mount Washington on a clear day.
The peak was originally named David's Mountain after David Davis (1775-1851) son of one of Lewiston's first settlers, Amos Davis (1741-1815), a Quaker, who was an early supporter of education and churches in the area. David Davis purchased the mountain with 100 surrounding acres for $5 in 1803. Davis and his father are buried in the Davis family cemetery near Frye Street. At the opening ceremony of College in 1857, a pastor told the new students that if David Davis were still living he would have exhorted them to “go up that mountain, where you will obtain a view of our united villages. Make your principles as firm as the granite base on which the mountain rests.” Several of Davis' descendants attended Bates. In the 1860s, Davis' heirs, including Mrs. Archibald Wakefield and Mrs. John M. Frye donated a site on the summit of Mount David to Bates College to build an observatory. The City of Lewiston allocated $5,000 to build a road to the observatory once it was constructed.The observatory was never completed on the summit of Mount David as planned, but in 1929 Stephens Observatory was built nearby atop Carnegie Science building.
Radiography of cultural objects
The plaster cast of Michelangelo’s "David" at the Victoria & Albert Museum was x-rayed revealing that the supports in David’s legs were positioned similarly to that of bones in a human leg. The size of this particular piece required a portable machine to complete the x-rays.
The Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, the , and the New York Historical Society have used x-rays to learn more about the manufacture of art nouveau style glass. In particular, they are investigating differences between Tiffany glass of New York and Austria’s Loetz glass to learn more about differences in the manufacturing process.
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II
The Milan gallery and its roof have been acknowledged as an important reference on 19th-century iron-and-glass architecture by Pevsner and Hitchcock. As one can still observe today, the roof consists of four barrel vaults (approximately 14.5 m in width and 8.5 m in height) that are crowned with a huge dome (around 37.5 m as internal diameter and 17.10 m in height). Jorini pointed out the accomplishments of this dome with special regard to the large dimensions. Each of the roof parts is topped with a lantern.
Veit Stoss altarpiece in Kraków
The Veit Stoss Altarpiece is about 13 m high and 11 m wide when the panels of the triptych are completely opened. The realistically sculptured figures are 2.7 m (more than 12 ft.) high; each one was carved out of a tree trunk of lime (linden). Other parts of the altarpiece are made from oak wood, and the background is constructed of larch wood. When closed, the panels show 12 scenes of the life of Jesus and Mary.
David (Michelangelo)
The proportions of the "David" are atypical of Michelangelo's work; the figure has an unusually large head and hands (particularly apparent in the right hand). The small size of the genitals, though, is in line with his other works and with Renaissance conventions in general, perhaps referencing the ancient Greek ideal of pre-pubescent male nudity. These enlargements may be due to the fact that the statue was originally intended to be placed on the cathedral roofline, where the important parts of the sculpture may have been accentuated in order to be visible from below. The statue is unusually slender (front to back) in comparison to its height, which may be a result of the work done on the block before Michelangelo began carving it.
David (inspired by Michelangelo)
The statue was restored and two copies were cast at a workshop in the Turkish city of Eskişehir. One of them will be displayed at a park in Eskişehir. The other was acquired by the 21c Museum Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, and was transported, lying on its side on a truck trailer, into New York City in March 2011 for a presentation at the Storefront for Art and Architecture before continuing on to its permanent location in Louisville.
Michelangelo
The composition stretches over 500 square metres of ceiling and contains over 300 figures. At its centre are nine episodes from the Book of Genesis, divided into three groups: God's creation of the earth; God's creation of humankind and their fall from God's grace; and lastly, the state of humanity as represented by Noah and his family. On the pendentives supporting the ceiling are painted twelve men and women who prophesied the coming of Jesus, seven prophets of Israel, and five Sibyls, prophetic women of the Classical world. Among the most famous paintings on the ceiling are The Creation of Adam, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the Deluge, the Prophet Jeremiah, and the Cumaean Sibyl.
David (inspired by Michelangelo)
David (inspired by Michelangelo) is a sculpture by Turkish conceptual artist Serkan Özkaya. It is a reproduction of Michelangelo's "David" made of gold-painted foam, twice the size of the original, and based on a computer model by Stanford University professor Marc Levoy. It was originally created for the 9th International Istanbul Biennial in 2005, and took six people six months to build, but it collapsed during installation.
Special effects of The Lord of the Rings film series
Production was complicated by the use of scale doubles and forced perspective (on a level never seen before in the film industry). Elijah Wood is 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) tall in real life, but the character of Frodo Baggins is 3 ft 6 in (1.07 m) in height. Large and small scale doubles were used in certain scenes, while entire duplicates of certain sets (including Bag End in Hobbiton) were built at two different scales, so that the characters would appear to be the appropriate size. At one point in the film, Frodo runs along a corridor in Bag End, followed by Gandalf (played by Ian McKellen). Wood and McKellen were filmed in separate versions of the same corridor, built at two different scales; then these two separate shots are combined to create a shot of both actors appearing to be in the same corridor.
David (Bernini)
The Baroque saw significant changes in the art of sculpture; Bernini was at the forefront of this. The statues of the Renaissance masters had been strictly frontal, dictating the spectator to view it from one side, and one side only. Bernini's "David" is a three-dimensional work that needs space around it and challenges the viewer to walk around it, in order to contemplate its changing nature depending on the angle from which it is seen. The sculpture relates to an unseen entity – in the form of Goliath, the object of David's aggression – as well as to the spectator, caught in the middle of the conflict. The warrior even literally oversteps the boundaries between life and art, putting his toes over the edge of the plinth. The conventions of time, as well as space, were challenged. Instead of the serene constancy of, for example, Michelangelo's "David", Bernini has chosen to capture a fraction of time in the course of a continuous movement. Thus the latent energy that permeates Michelangelo's "David" is here in the process of being unleashed.
David (Michelangelo)
On 25 January 1504, when the sculpture was nearing completion, Florentine authorities had to acknowledge there would be little possibility of raising the more than six-ton statue to the roof of the cathedral. They convened a committee of 30 Florentine citizens that comprised many artists, including Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli, to decide on an appropriate site for "David". While nine different locations for the statue were discussed, the majority of members seem to have been closely split between two sites. One group, led by Giuliano da Sangallo and supported by Leonardo and Piero di Cosimo, among others, believed that, due to the imperfections in the marble, the sculpture should be placed under the roof of the Loggia dei Lanzi on Piazza della Signoria; the other group thought it should stand at the entrance to the Palazzo della Signoria, the city's town hall (now known as Palazzo Vecchio). Another opinion, supported by Botticelli, was that the sculpture should be situated on or near the cathedral. In June 1504, "David" was installed next to the entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio, replacing Donatello's bronze sculpture of "Judith and Holofernes", which embodied a comparable theme of heroic resistance. It took four days to move the statue the half mile from Michelangelo's workshop into the Piazza della Signoria. Later that summer the sling and tree-stump support were gilded, and the figure was given a gilded loin-garland.
Wiligelmo
Wiligelmo was the carver of the "Creation" and "Temptation of Adam and Eve" (ca. 1110) reliefs at the west facade of the Duomo di Modena (Cathedral of Modena) in Italy. The relief is marble and c. 1 meter high. His name is known due to an epigraph carved as a postscript to the inscription over the foundation date on the Modena cathedral's façade in Latin: "How greatly you are respected amongst sculptors, Wiligelmo, is now shown by your work."
David (Michelangelo)
In 2008, plans were proposed to insulate the statue from the vibration of tourists' footsteps at Florence's Galleria dell'Accademia, to prevent damage to the marble.
Saint Mark (Donatello)
Donatello's "Saint Mark" (1411–1413) is a marble statue that stands approximately seven feet and nine inches high and is displayed in the museum of the Orsanmichele church, Florence. It originally was displayed in an exterior niche of the church, where a copy now stands.
Separation of Light from Darkness
At the center of the composition, God is shown in "contrapposto" rising into the sky, with arms outstretched separating the light from the darkness. Michelangelo employed in this fresco the challenging ceiling fresco technique of "sotto in su" ("from below, upward"), which makes a figure appear as if it is rising above the viewer by using foreshortening. The contrapposto pose was also used by Michelangelo in the "David". It is reported that Michelangelo painted this fresco in a single "giornata", that is, a single working day of approximately eight hours. During Michelangelo's lifetime, this fresco was considered evidence of the painter's technical prowess at its peak. For instance, Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574), Michelangelo's student and biographer, wrote in 1550:
David with the Head of Goliath (Massimo Stanzione)
Massimo Stanzione's David with the Head of Goliath is exhibited at the San Diego Museum of Art.
Apollo (Michelangelo)
The Apollo, Apollo-David, David-Apollo, or Apollino is a 1.46 m unfinished marble sculpture by Michelangelo that dates from approximately 1530. It now stands in the Bargello museum in Florence.
Luis Ibáñez
According to the official webpage of Dinamo Zagreb, Ibáñez is 170 cm (5 ft 7 in) tall, and weighs 69 kg (152 lbs or 10.9 stone). Besides speaking his native Spanish, Ibáñez is also fluent in Croatian. While in Dinamo Zagreb, he was a translator for South American players who were unable to understand or speak Croatian. He is also known for having a tattooed autograph of a former Argentine football player Diego Maradona on his shoulder.
David (Michelangelo)
"David" was originally commissioned as one of a series of statues of prophets to be positioned along the roofline of the east end of Florence Cathedral, but was instead placed in a public square, outside the Palazzo Vecchio, the seat of civic government in Florence, in the Piazza della Signoria where it was unveiled on 8 September 1504. The statue was moved to the Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence, in 1873, and later replaced at the original location by a replica.
Because of the nature of the hero it represented, the statue soon came to symbolize the defence of civil liberties embodied in the Republic of Florence, 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.