# The David



## Robert Bennie

G'day forum

I am interested in the statue The David and what it communicates to you.

I will never be able to see the real thing and I would be enormously grateful to hear from anyone who has actually seen the piece.

If you have an opinion based on a photo or a copy or a minature or an essay you will know something that I don't and I would love to be let in on the secret.

When I look at the pictures my heart is moved and my mind soars but I will never see The David so the best I can do is try to understand why it moves you or why it does not move you.

Life imitating art is a wonderful life

Robert


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## te gato

Hey Robert;
I personaly have not seen it but my art teacher did and brought back photos and slides...and just from the photos and slides..it is the most awe inspiring form of beauty there is..you have to first understand..Michelangelo started David in 1501..out of a huge slab of marble..just picture it David is 17 feet tall.!!...and to be able to look at a slab of marble and get perfection out of it...I have no words...
Yes it has a Catholic base to it..it is David..as in David and Goliath..but even if it did not have that it would still be amazing...
I guess maybe it represents something we all would like to be...a hero...I don't know..I do remember.. like it was yesterday..all of us looking at the slides with tears running down our faces...

te gato


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## Robert Bennie

G'day te gato


> ...and to be able to look at a slab of marble and get perfection out of it...


You already know where I'm going.

Minds meld

Robert


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## lsp

te gato said:
			
		

> Yes it has a Catholic base to it..it is David..as in David and Goliath..


Te, I believe this story is from the Old Testament.


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## cuchuflete

te gato said:
			
		

> Hey Robert;
> I personaly have not seen it but my art teacher did and brought back photos and slides...and just from the photos and slides..it is the most awe inspiring form of beauty there is..you have to first understand..Michelangelo started David in 1501..out of a huge slab of marble..just picture it David is 17 feet tall.!!...and to be able to look at a slab of marble and get perfection out of it...I have no words...
> Yes it has a *Catholic base* to it..it is David..as in David and Goliath..but even if it did not have that it would still be amazing...
> I guess maybe it represents something we all would like to be...a hero...I don't know..I do remember.. like it was yesterday..all of us looking at the slides with tears running down our faces...
> 
> te gato



I thought David was shooting smooth stones long before the arrival of Jesus.  How can he have been Catholic?

Seeing the sculpture, I could feel the tension of one about to go into action.
Never having fought a giant, I could still feel a connection...something like what I felt just before heading to the starting line for a cross-country race.

ciao,
cuchu


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## Robert Bennie

G'day cuchu
You are onto my drift

Thank you

Robert


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## JJchang

There are many books about this statue. David is definitely Jewish, saying him having a Catholic base is a bit too narrowed. The funny part is: the status looks not circumcised, if you are interested in the reasons then there are some webpages out there about them. 
You can try to pose like him and see how it feels like. I read it from somewhere that it's a very tiring posture, so it can show that David was going to fall forwards and throw the stone.
Another interesting pit is that his hands are out of proportion if you look at it carefully. The explaination I've got was that Michaelangelo wants people to focus on the hands.
It is easily forget that is a giant piece of marble when visiting (I forgot it anyway), and  it needs to be admired from a distance, otherwise these details such as the veins of the hand, the broken toe etc. can cause distraction...


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## cuchuflete

Hi Robert,

Fascinating question.  Don't mean to hijack your thread, but I'd love to see a new one that expands the question....perhaps broadens into the effect of a work in one genre on artists working in another. 

Example: For decades, I've randomly collected illustrated editions of Don Quixote because I've been intrigued by the way a work of literary art could inspire illustrators.  I'm neither a writer nor a painter, but it's fun being at the end of the bullwhip.

Cuchu


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## Robert Bennie

G'day Cuchu

Yeah great idea but I'm trying to focus on The David and what moves for people when they regard him

Lovers and artists
create daubings and carvings and words
Politicians and bureaucrats
embrace brass plaques piles of stones and their names

Robert


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## Robert Bennie

G'day JJchang
What do you consider the optimum viewing distance and which is your favourite viewing angle?

Thanks

Robert


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## te gato

I am sorry that I said that there was catholic base..I did not mean that he was catholic..I meant for me...as in the teachings of David ...Aggggg...

te gato


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## gaer

lsp said:
			
		

> Te, I believe this story is from the Old Testament.


Ah, but I think the point is that in the 1500s, art was driven by the Catholic Church.

I think we all know that David and Goliath is not from the New Testament. 

G


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## gaer

cuchuflete said:
			
		

> I thought David was shooting smooth stones long before the arrival of Jesus. How can he have been Catholic?
> 
> Seeing the sculpture, I could feel the tension of one about to go into action.
> Never having fought a giant, I could still feel a connection...something like what I felt just before heading to the starting line for a cross-country race.
> 
> ciao,
> cuchu


Same thing, Cuchu.

Don't be so literal!!!

Think who the sculptor was working for!  

G


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## fetchezlavache

i've never seen the original, which is i think in venice.(not sure of that)... but when you arrive piazza signoria in florence (i wouldn't have guessed it's a copy) you are so overwhelmed with all the beauty around you that it takes some time to focus on one particular piece of art. i distinctly remember having found david very peaceful in his expression, and very soothing for my 'soul'.


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## Robert Bennie

G'day fetchezlavache

Good to meet you and thanks for the interest.

When you found the expression to be peaceful would it be possible that you could interpret it as relaxed?

See you later

Robert


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## gaer

Robert Bennie said:
			
		

> G'day fetchezlavache
> 
> Good to meet you and thanks for the interest.
> 
> When you found the expression to be peaceful would it be possible that you could interpret it as relaxed?
> 
> See you later
> 
> Robert


Robert, do you equate peaceful with relaxed? 

G


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## belén

fetchezlavache said:
			
		

> i've never seen the original, which is i think in venice.(not sure of that)... but when you arrive piazza signoria in florence (i wouldn't have guessed it's a copy) you are so overwhelmed with all the beauty around you that it takes some time to focus on one particular piece of art. i distinctly remember having found david very peaceful in his expression, and very soothing for my 'soul'.




FYI: The original is in Florence as well, in the Museo della Academia. 

Michelangelo is one of my favorite artists and it is difficult for me to express with words the way my feelings overcome me and how it moves each and every cell of my body when I have the privilege of being in front of one of his masterpieces.

When I was in front of David, I felt as it time had stopped and the rest of the people in the museum had vanished and only he was there, I wasn't even there, his power is so strong that it makes you feel, not small, but smaller than small.

Being in front of David allows me to confirm that perfection can be achieved.


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## cuchuflete

gaer said:
			
		

> Ah, but I think the point is that in the 1500s, art was driven by the Catholic Church.
> 
> I think we all know that David and Goliath is not from the New Testament.
> 
> G



In the 1500s lots of art was also driven by politics and ego.
C.


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## Silvia

Robert Bennie said:
			
		

> I am interested in the statue The David and what it communicates to you.


 Hi Robert, what David are you talking about? You are talking as if there was just one statue of David, but I have to inform you that it is not like that 

And the others who answered seem not to know about it.

The most famous scupltures of David in Italy are two: by Donatello and by Michelangelo.

Which one were you referring to?

P.S.: Happy Bday


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## Robert Bennie

G'day Silvia
I do not know which David I am inquiring about.  It would appear that questions are far more tricksy than I had anticipated.

Now I feel slightly foolish.  I guess that it is most probably that by Michelangelo.

Thank you for your interest.

Robert

Robert


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## yolanda_van huyck

Hello,

i think the're talking about Michelangelo's. I saw them both, very different really, but i think Michelangelo's is more "universal"; i saw it 7 years ago in Florence. It's located at the end of a large gallery and it's enormous, it was such a great experience, it almost made me cry. We have to think that they works of the sculptors at that time was not as easy as it can be now; it's amazing how he could work with that big piece of marble. For me it's a tribute to the beauty and to the golden art time Italy (most of all, Florence) was living. You can see a very well modelated body, we have to remember Micheangelo had a great knowledge about anatomy... an athletical figure, looking concentrated, ready to fight.
The artist wrote this: "When I returned to Florence, I found myself famous. The City Council asked me to carve a colossal David from a nineteen-foot block of marble -- and damaged to boot! I locked myself away in a workshop behind the cathedral, hammered and chiseled at the towering block for three long years. In spite of the opposition of a committee of fellow artists, I insisted that the figure should stand before the Palazzo Vecchio, as a symbol of our Republic. I had my way. Archways were torn down, narrow streets widened...it took forty men five days to move it. Once in place, all Florence was astounded. A civic hero, he was a warning...whoever governed Florence should govern justly and defend it bravely. Eyes watchful...the neck of a bull...hands of a killer...the body, a reservoir of energy. He stands poised to strike." (www.michelangelo.com; visit this web page, it's great!).
Anyway, think maybe someday you have the opportunity to see it and then you'll tell me if i'm right with mi ideas or not...
Kind regards

Yoli


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## Artrella

Robert Bennie said:
			
		

> G'day forum
> 
> I am interested in the statue The David and what it communicates to you.
> 
> I will never be able to see the real thing and I would be enormously grateful to hear from anyone who has actually seen the piece.
> 
> If you have an opinion based on a photo or a copy or a minature or an essay you will know something that I don't and I would love to be let in on the secret.
> 
> When I look at the pictures my heart is moved and my mind soars but I will never see The David so the best I can do is try to understand why it moves you or why it does not move you.
> 
> Life imitating art is a wonderful life
> 
> Robert




I have never thought about "The David" in particular.  But art for me is something I cannot describe, it's a sensation in my chest, in my soul.  I can stare at a picture for hours, and my mind is there, in that place, in that moment, in the feelings of the person depicted there.  You are no longer _you_ when you are in front of a work of art.  
The David moves me to that past, that glorious past, and I can feel I live there, I am one of them.  His beauty, his peace... it's simply pure... he is there waiting...for another man to love him... waiting to be loved...
This is what I think when I see him...


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## Robert Bennie

G'day Yolanda
Greetings and thank you so very much.  I was confused when I saw photos of The David and everyone gushed to me about the beauty and glory and peace and tranquility.  Stories were shared with me of the mystical man and the peaceful tranquil face.

When I looked at the face I was scared.  This bloke is a killer.  His face is that of death.  He is calm and poised and waiting.  He knows that he is facing his destiny and he has accepted.

I see the hands of a murderer able to throttle the life from a man with one hand and bludgeon the commander to death with the body of his sergeant.

I see the huge neck beyond the ability of any man to harm.

Muscles beyond compare and the frame of a titan.  The David is a killing machine.  Death on legs to his enemies.

There is a dead man on the field of battle and David does not care if it is him but he is going to give it to his foe royally.  He will use every sinue and muscle and bone he possesses and if that is not sufficient he will die.  More than that he will lay his life down with a will and be content with a job well done.

A warrior Saint and a warning to potential barbarians at the gate.  

Artfully yours

Robert


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## Artrella

Wow!! what a different view of the same thing, Robert!! For you is a killer... for me is peace, and love... all those muscles show youth to me ...


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## JJchang

G'day Robert,
I think the best distance is from the end of that exhibition hall. I know you cannot see David very clearly at that distance, but it's a good way to see how big that statue really is... His face does look a bit like of a killer. He looks very serious. I think the calm and peace bits are shown in his right half of the body (the resting half), the left half is showing he's ready to attack.

ciao Silvia,
I thought the David by Bernini in Galleria Bourghese is more famous than the one by Donatello, no? or maybe it's just me seeing that one more often...


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