Donatello's David Research Paper

Tim Condon

Art 100

Research Paper Gianlorenzo Bernini was born on December 7th, 1598 and died on November 28th, 1680. Bernini’s David is a historical piece of marble art that dates back to 1623-1624. This 170cm sculpture shows great emotion and engages the viewers in action. Bernini’s David could possibly be mistaken as a major league pitcher throwing a 95 mile an hour fastball. He gathers all his strength for each one of his pitches and puts all his effort into it. Some may not know exactly, but the emotion in Davids face tells a whole different story. The one issue viewers have with this sculpture of this man is that they don’t know the full meaning as to why he’s pulling a rope with a stone from behind him. The sculpture of Bernini’s

Florence had been a major center for trading and finance, although it was noticeably small compared to city states like Milan or Rome. So the city then adopted David, the man who killed the giant Goliath and became a major symbol of the city. The creation of David all started with Donatello’s bronze David. Donatello’s David reflects a revival of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Donatello’s marble David portrays an older David with a full set of clothes and he looks warrior like. He looks like this to show that Florence was willing to fight for its freedom. Donatello’s bronze David was the first nude David in The Renaissance. He is nude and wearing a shepherds hat and sandals. Another sculpture made for the Medici was Verrocchio’s,,realist David. In this specific David, Verrocchio decided to portray David by wearing a leather doublet instead of being nude. According to the Bible, Saul (the King of the Israelites) actually gave David a bronze coat and helmet to protect him when he volunteered to fight against the Philistine giant. As David put the armor on, he discovered that it was too heavy for him and he could barely move, so he simply removed the armor. Many sculptures portray David as nude, where this one actually tells a story and explains that he took him armor off which left him nude. This is possibly validating Goliath’s proclamation

David has his feet spread apart with a rock in his sling and has a look of pure determination. He is basically nude besides the piece of cloth and he wear the pouch for pebbles in his sling and the armor he cast off because of the weight. The only thing David is missing from the story in the Bible is the shepherds staff. As I looked at the sculpture, Bernini’s David has a harp at his feet. The harp symbolizes the time when he played he harp to soothe the Kings soul. The symbols of the armor, the harp, and the sling indicate the turning points of David’s life. It represents the harpist to the slayer of Goliath. Then it represents the leader of the armies and king. Bernini actually added himself to his work more than any of the other sculptures of Davids. The life sized David statue actually displays Bernini’s face. In 1624, Bernini completed his detailed carving of the biblical David after just seven