Donatello's David With the Head of Goliath

myminifactory

David With the Head of Goliath is the title of two iconic sculptures of the biblical hero David by the renowned Italian Renaissance sculptor Donatello, both on display at the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence. This majestic bronze David stands out for being the first unsupported standing work of bronze cast during the Renaissance and the first freestanding nude male sculpture created since antiquity. The masterpiece depicts David with an enigmatic smile, posed triumphantly with his foot on Goliath's severed head immediately after defeating the giant. The youth is fully naked except for a laurel-topped hat and boots, proudly holding the sword of Goliath in his hand. Prior to this work, David was typically depicted as a king due to his status in the Old Testament. However, here we see a youthful David, almost feminine in features, suggesting that he overcame the giant not by physical prowess but through divine intervention - a theory still subject to speculation. The boy's nudity further emphasizes the presence of God, contrasting with the heavily-armored giant. Most scholars believe that the sculpture was commissioned by Cosimo de' Medici, who highly esteemed Donatello, although the exact date of its creation remains unknown. In any case, by 1469, during the wedding celebration of Lorenzo the Magnificent, the bronze stood prominently in the center of the courtyard of the Medici palace in Florence. Following the seizure of the Medici palace in 1495 and their subsequent expulsion from the city in 1496, the David was relocated to the courtyard of the Palazzo della Signoria, where it was installed on a marble column. It was seen there during the mid-16th century by the Mannerist biographer Giorgio Vasari (1511-74), who wrote: "This figure is so natural in its vivacity and softness that artists find it hardly possible to believe it was not molded from the living form." Master of the Marradi, The Treasure of the Temple at Jerusalem Brought by Nebuchadnezzar to the House of God, c. 1490. During the 17th century, it was moved to the Pitti Palace, likely due to controversy sparked by Francesco Filarete's criticism: "The David of the court is an imperfect figure, because from behind his leg is silly." This controversy stems from the overall nudity of the statue, which fuels interpretative transformation into sensuality and sexuality. Unlike common public representations of men (such as other Davids and Hercules), this bronze presents an ambivalent conception of gender. Furthermore, in response to Filarete's statement, the feather crawling up the inner thigh of the boy suggests many things, including the idea that Donatello referred to homosocial values in Florentine society. The feather also led scholars to believe that the sculpture was intended to depict Hermes. Recommended reading - Engaging Symbols: Gender, Politics, and Public Art in Fifteenth-century Florence by Adrian W. B. Randolph. If you produce new work with this model and wish to share it with us, please drop a line at web@smk.dk or stw@myminifactory.com. This scan was produced in collaboration between The Statens Museum for Kunst and Scan the World for the SMK-Open project. Every model produced from this initiative is available under an open source license. Scanner - Artec Eva