Michelangelo's David Said Normally BuiltBy Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News
Feb. 24, 2005 — Measurements of Michelangelo's David have shown that all is normal in the naked marble man, though he could have been a little better endowed.
The towering sculpture acclaimed for its depiction of male physical perfection, has always been the subject of jokes among Florentines and tourists for the modest dimensions of his "pisello."
But according to a study to be published at the end of this month by the Dutch Institute for Art History, in Florence, David's genitals are anatomically correct for a male body in a "pre-fight tension."
“ Tension is written all over his face. We can see the muscle contraction on the forehead and over the nose. the summer. ”
Carried by professors Massimo Gulisano and colleague Pietro Bernabei of Florence University during last year's cleaning, the study is the first full anatomical investigation on Michelangelo's masterpiece and debunks long-held assumptions that the 4.34-meter (14-foot)-high statue was out of proportion.
"David is not really highly gifted, but he is totally normal. His penis measures 15 cm which, considering the height of the statue, corresponds to 6-7 cm in an adult," Gulisano told Discovery News.
"Here we have a naked man who is about to fight. He has an orthosympathic activation consistent with the combined effects of fear, tension and aggression. A contraction of the genitals is totally normal in such conditions," he said.
Representing the biblical hero who killed Goliath, the sculpture marked a watershed in Renaissance art and established Michelangelo as the foremost sculptor of his time at the age of 29.
Everything about the statue shows the tension of a young man "at the moment immediately preceding the slinging of a stone," Bernabei told Discovery News.
"Tension is written all over his face. We can see the muscle contraction on the forehead and over the nose. His nostrils are flared, his eyes are wide open, and the upper lip slightly raised. All this shows concentration and aggressiveness," Bernabei said.
The same tension can be found all over the body. The right leg is tensed, while the left one juts forward. According to the doctors, in the right hand David is not holding a stone, as it was widely assumed, but the handle of the sling.
"The muscles in his right arm point to someone about to make a rotary movement. It is certainly not someone about to throw a stone," Gulisano said.
Michelangelo's physiological accuracy can be found in every part of the sculpture, from the tendons to the veins and the contractions of the neck muscles.
"You can even see the contraction of the geniohyoid muscles. This tells us that Michelangelo carried intense anatomy studies and dissected many cadavers," Gulisano said.
The only error found by the anatomy professors was a hollow where there should have been a muscle on the right side of the back. However, Michelangelo was aware of the flaw: in one of his letters, he wrote that he lacked enough material to reproduce the muscle.
Indeed, David was carved from a single block of marble discarded for an imperfection by two other sculptors, Agostino di Duccio and Antonio Rossellino.
The statue was displayed on Sept. 8, 1504, beside the main doorway of the Piazza della Signoria in Florence and remained there, at the mercy of the elements, until 1873, when it was moved to its present location in the Galleria dell'Accademia.
The sculpture has raised passions and controversy ever since 1504, when political protesters threw stones at it. In 1527, the left arm was broken in three pieces during an uprising against the ruling Medici family.
In the mid 19th century, it was damaged by acid used in the cleaning solution, and in 1991 a mentally deranged artist named Piero Cannata attacked it with a hammer, demolishing one of its toes.
A controversial renovation, finished last May, was harshly criticized by some art historians who alleged the cleaning had gone too far, affecting the statue's appearance and value.
Today David attracts 1.2 million visitors a year.
According to James Hall, author of the book "Michelangelo and the Reinvention of the Human Body," the erotic aspects of the statue have been promptly caught by the makers of tourist knickknacks, but "have been underestimated by most scholars."
Author
