Michelangelo

Michelangelo's David sculpted from 1500 to 1505, is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture and one of Michelangelo's two greatest works of sculpture, along with the PietÐ" . However, it is the David alone that almost certainly holds the title of the most recognizable statue in the history of art. It has become regarded as a symbol both of strength and youthful human beauty. The 5.17 meter (17 ft) marble statue portrays the Biblical King David at the moment that he decides to do battle with Goliath. It came to symbolise the Florentine Republic, an independent city state threatened on all sides by more powerful rival states. This interpretation was also encouraged by the original setting of the sculpture outside the Palazzo della Signoria, the seat of civic government in Florence. The completed sculpture was unveiled on 8 September 1504.

One critical aspect in interpreting Michelangelo's drawings is deciding what is a genuine Michelangelo. The drawings on display provide an excellent opportunity to study this problem. In addressing this topic, however, the exhibition itself is weak. Visitors to the exhibition are shielded from this problem for the most part, because it receives scant attention in the exhibition audio guide and information pamphlet supplied to each visitor (as I experienced at the Michelangelo Drawings exhibition when it was recently at the Teylers Museum in Haarlem, The Netherlands). The label on many drawings, "Michelangelo Buonarroti", conveys a false sense of certainty to the average visitor. The issues of attribution and authenticity are indeed discussed in the book accompanying the exhibition, Michelangelo Drawings: Closer to the Master by Hugo Chapman, for the small minority of visitors who will both buy the book and read it carefully. But even here, the issue is dealt with more in a ceremonial way than a functional one. Hugo Chapman, a curator of drawings at the British Museum, does a good job discussing