Be part of the story

How many Davids can we find around the globe? We are not talking about any David, but the Biblical hero that became one of the most famous statues of the world.

Did you see the David?

It doesn’t have to be the original David, here in Florence. It could be any copy, anywhere: a pair of rings, a t-shirt, a souvenir… Let’s see how many Davids we can find. If you see the David, take a picture and share it with us. Your picture will be available online for other users and it can be part of an exhibition at Le Murate in Florence!

The original David

David is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture created between 1501 and 1504, by the Italian artist Michelangelo. It is a 5.17 metre (17 foot) marble statue of a standing male nude. The statue represents the Biblical hero David, a favoured subject in the art of Florence. Originally commissioned as one of a series of statues of prophets to be positioned along the roofline of the east end of Florence Cathedral, the statue was instead placed in a public square, outside the Palazzo della Signoria, the seat of civic government in Florence, where it was unveiled on 8 September 1504. Because of the nature of the hero that it represented, it soon came to symbolise the defence of civil liberties embodied in the Florentine Republic, an independent city-state threatened on all sides by more powerful rival states and by the hegemony of the Medici family. The eyes of David, with a warning glare, were turned towards Rome. The statue was moved to the Accademia Gallery in Florence in 1873, and later replaced at the original location by a replica.