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.
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.