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First
Return to Florence
The
high point of Michelangelo's
early style is the gigantic (4.34
m/14.24 ft) marble David
(Accademia, Florence), which he
produced between 1501 and 1504,
after returning to Florence. The
Old Testament hero is depicted by
Michelangelo as a lithe nude
youth, muscular and alert,
looking off into the distance as
if sizing up the enemy Goliath,
whom he has not yet encountered.
The fiery intensity of David's
facial expression is termed
terribilità, a feature
characteristic of many of
Michelangelo's figures and of his
own personality. David,
Michelangelo's most famous
sculpture, became the symbol of
Florence and originally was
placed in the Piazza della
Signoria in front of the Palazzo
Vecchio, the Florentine town
hall. With this statue
Michelangelo proved to his
contemporaries that he not only
surpassed all modern artists, but
also the Greeks and Romans, by
infusing formal beauty with
powerful expressiveness and
meaning.
While
still occupied with the David,
Michelangelo was given an
opportunity to demonstrate his
ability as a painter with the
commission of a mural, the Battle
of Cascina, destined for the Sala
dei Cinquecento of the Palazzo
Vecchio, opposite Leonardo's
Battle of Anghiari. Neither
artist carried his assignment
beyond the stage of a cartoon, a
full-scale preparatory drawing.
Michelangelo created a series of
nude and clothed figures in a
wide variety of poses and
positions that are a prelude to
his next major project, the
ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in
the Vatican.
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Christ
Carrying
the Cross,
detail, marble
sculpture,
Santa Maria sopra
Minerva,
Rome
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on image to
enlarge
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