Michelangelo’s Sculptures: The David

Michelangelo’s Sculptures: The David

Mar 03

While on the subject of the sculptures of Michelangelo and his misconceptions about Jews, it seems a good time to talk about what may be arguably his most famous sculpture, The David.

The sculpture of David was originally intended to be part of a dozen statues of Old Testament figures for the buttresses of the Cathedral of Santa Maria Del Fiore.  This started in 1410, about 65 years before Michelangelo Buonarroti was born.  The massive block of Carrara marble passed through several sculptors before being awarded to the 26 year old Michelangelo.  It took about 2 ½ years to sculpt and was obviously never used for the buttresses.  The statue originally stood next to the Palazzo Vecchio, the Town Hall of Florence, with his eyes pointing towards Rome.  Florence was an independent city-state surrounded by more powerful rivals.  It is believed that the statue is of David about to go forth and face his much greater foe, Goliath.  David is a hero who slays the giant.  This is clearly a political statement that Florence intended to defend their civil liberties and wanted to send the message that like David, Florence could slay their much larger and greater opponents.  In 1873, David was moved to its current location in the Accademia Gallery.

So what’s wrong with the statue?  Well, we don’t know what David looked like.  We know he was smaller than Goliath, but not much more.  We do know two things from the Bible.  First, David had red hair.  This suggests that his complexion must have been fair.  This first item is of course meaningless when sculpting out of white Carrera marble.  But Second, we know David was JEWISH!

So here’s the problem, Michelangelo’s David is uncircumcised.  It is not possible that David is Jewish and he is uncircumcised.  Ritual circumcision, or Brit Milah, is mandatory on the 8^th day after birth.  Brit Milah means “covenant of circumcision”; in other words, a man cannot enter the Jewish covenant with God without being circumcised.  This is such an important commandment that the Bris is to be performed even on the Sabbath when many other activities are forbidden because of the sanctity of the day.  God ordered Moses to go down to Egypt and say unto Pharoah, let My people go.  But before Moses got to Egypt, God stopped Moses and afflicted him so heavily that Moses was in danger of dying.  The crime that so angered God was that Moses’ son, it is unclear whether Gershom or Eliezer, being half Midian, was not circumcised.  Zipporah, fearing for the life of her husband, performed the circumcision herself.  Zipporah cut off the foreskin, cast it at his (not sure if “his” means Moses or the son’s) feet, and declared “Truly you are a bridegroom of blood to me!”  At this point Moses recovered and continued down to Egypt.  I repeat, you cannot be a Jewish male over the age of 8 days and be uncircumcised.

So once again we see that Michelangelo sculpted a major figure in Jewish history without proper background or understanding.  The ONLY detail that could have been historically accurate was mistaken.

Background On Michaelangelo’s David

Michaelangelo, the greatest artist to have lived during the Italian renaissance, is best known for one masterpiece of sculpting: the David. This great piece of art is attributed as having been created while Michelangelo was just beginning to createin Italy. In fact, it was said that the artist wanted to make a more substantial and striking representation of the mighty David figure. Because of its monumental size and weight, only an expert or well-known craftsman could have sourced such a huge piece of marble. The David sculpture itself was created by using only one sheet of marble, which is why this particular sculpture is amongst the finest examples of Renaissance sculpture ever created.

There are many theories regarding the creation of this statue. Most likely, it was based on an original copy of the fresco called the Sistine Madonna. However, the problem with this theory is that there is no way to tell how old the original copy actually is. The problem with the Sistine Madonna itself, is that it was painted centuries ago. And when it comes down to it, there are no paintings that can be concretely proven to be authentic.

Michaelangelo was not the only great artist to use marble in his sculptures. Statuettes of other Italian artists also used marble. For example, Leonardo da Vinci, who lived around the same time, is commonly known for the creation of the Nymphs. These beautiful pieces of art were crafted from marble and have their own unique style.

Michaelangelo’s Paintings

Michaelangelo’s Oil Paintings. Some of his oil paintings are among the best ever produced. Michaelangelo was so skilled that he was able to produce highly detailed and vivid images that would never have been possible with conventional paints. He used oils, watercolors, pastels, and charcoal to create his work. He is credited with being the first artist to use pen and charcoal to paint the same picture, and to do so with such detail and vividness that he created an oil painting that could only be described as a masterpiece.

Now, back to the most famous piece of Michaelangelo’s work. Of course, that would be the statue of David. The statue is of someone who is nearly six feet tall, with a very muscular physique. The details and physiology of the statue are immaculate, and they truly embody the artisitc genius of the creator.

The most important part of this statue is the head. If you look at the statue closely enough, you will notice that the head is also shaped slightly like a basketball. This is because of the molding that was done to the marble. In fact, if you look at a recent picture of the actual statue, you will see that it has been repainted recently.

Michaelangelo truly did create some great sculptures. Some are still viewable, and others are gone forever. One thing that is certain is that his contributions to the world of sculpture were far greater than many that came before and who have been born afterwards.