David. Michelangelo Buonarroti (sub eng)

The Florence Academy Gallery was originally established as a gallery adjacent to the Academy of Fine Arts The first collections were paintings altarpieces and large Florentine works and as a museum as a building with other collections He was born precisely for Michelangelo's David Michelangelo's David is the symbol of the Renaissance The first colossal sculpture after antiquity standing 5 meters and 17 centimeters tall It weighs 5 660 kg And it seems almost a miracle to observe that every detail of this body From the veins to the arteries to the eye to the lip despite its size the dimensions it is perfectly worked David was commissioned to be placed on a ledge of the dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore here in Florence Some artists and sculptors tried their luck on this large block of poor quality marble and gave up As long as finally the 26-year-old Michelangelo Buonarroti accepted the challenge Working on this statue Identically in just three years from 1501 to 1504 At first it was discussed in a committee of the most important artists of the time He decided to display it in front of Palazzo Vecchio in Piazza della Signoria It stood for hundreds of years until the mid-1800s when Lorenzo Bartolini whose plaster models we can also see here around us was involved He proposed moving the David to protect it from the risks posed by atmospheric agents They looked for a place and since they couldn't find the right one they decided to build a museum for him And this is how the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence became a museum The David's tribune became the place for the divine example of Renaissance sculpture The architect of the relevants conceived and created a new space for David After the completion of the Galleria dei Quadri Antichi at the Accademia di Belle Arti that is now the Galleria dei Prigioni He is still here where David is being kept and subjected to a continuous maintenance program This extremely fragile marble block is subjected to dusting every two months Every time David climbs onto the scaffold his health condition is checked Afterwards the actual dusting operations begin The touch-up begins at the head and right among the curls of David's hair Often small spiders hide there having found shelter exactly there Subsequently proceed by descending and continuously taking photographs and documenting the condition The maintenance work on David just like on all other artworks preserved in our museum It is essential for the preservation and transmission to future generations of its beauty and wonder