Michelangelo
and the Statue of David

In the 1500s, the world of art and science was changing forever. Leonardo da Vinci was studying the human body, Galileo was building a telescope and discovering the mountains on the moon, and Raphael was using his art to dive deep into ancient Greek and Roman culture. These men had no idea that they were a part of one of the most important periods in European history: The Renaissance!

In 1501, Italy was the center of the Renaissance, and Michelangelo was one of Italy’s most famous artists—more famous than even Raphael. He was rich, talented, and very young. At only 26 years old, many of Italy’s wealthiest families wanted to hire Michelangelo. In this particular year, however, Michelangelo was busy. He had been asked to carve a statue of the biblical hero David for the Cathedral of Florence.

The cathedral officials had given Michelangelo an enormous piece of marble. It was massive—at least 18 feet tall (5.48 meters)—and four decades old. Two other artists had tried to sculpt this marble before it had been given Michelangelo and had made dents in the stone. Both sculptors had eventually given up, saying that the marble had too many little holes and was very weak. They thought that if they tried to make a sculpture out of it, it would break apart. 

Michelangelo, however, disagreed. He believed that he could give the cathedral its David and asked the officials for two years to work on it. The officials agreed, and the piece of marble went off to Michelangelo’s workshop.

Imagine this: you are standing in front of a huge block of white stone that is shaped like a slanted rectangle. It is more than three times as big as you, and it has chunks missing all over it. You know that the artists who made these marks thought the marble was of bad quality. More importantly, you know that these artists were right! You’ve worked with the best stone in the world, and this block does not compare.

This is the scene Michelangelo saw right in front of him as he began to work on the sculpture of David. Where the other artists saw the impossible, however, Michelangelo saw potential. He looked at the rock and envisioned all the beautiful ways that he could sculpt David. Eventually, he settled on an image of David as a young man with curly hair and a slingshot. Michelangelo knew that if he was patient and gentle, the marble that everyone else had given up on could become something incredible.

Since he was given two years to work, Michelangelo took his time planning exactly how he wanted David to look. He made a small sculpture out of wax to make sure that his plan would be the right size for the stone. When that was done, and he was happy with it, he got out his tools to begin work.

Today, people make huge stone sculptures with electric drills and saws. All Michelangelo had, though, was a hammer and a set of chisels. As a skilled sculptor, these tools were all that he needed, and he set right to work. His first task was to use his biggest chisel to carve out the basic shapes of David’s figure into the marble. This process is called “roughing out” the material. As each big piece of stone fell to the floor of Michelangelo’s workshop, the artist began to see a little bit more of David.

To begin shaping the marble into the details of David’s form, Michelangelo abandoned his big chisels for smaller ones. Then, eventually, he exchanged his small chisels for even smaller ones. Accounts of the famed artist describe how Michelangelo worked long and hard on the sculpture, sometimes forgetting to sleep and, occasionally, even going to bed in his shoes. Soon enough, two long years of work passed.

The statue of David was almost done. Finally, in 1504—three years after he started planning the sculpture—Michelangelo told the officials from the Cathedral of Florence that he was finished. Amid a workshop littered with rock chips, an empty bucket, and a layer of sanded marble dust, the statue of David towered high.