A Comparison of Michelangelo's and Donatello's Sculptures of David

Michelangelo was born on March 6, 1475 in Caprese, Italy. Michelangelo was known to be one of the best artists during the renaissance. Michelangelo never was interested in school work. He was always amazed by the painters and artist that were around him. Thus, igniting the flame and desire of him becoming a painter, artist, poet and sculptor. At the age of sixteen Michelangelo sculpted two reliefs, Battle of the Centaurs and Madonna Seated on a Step. Two of Michelangelo’s famous works was the Pieta and David. David is meant to symbolize a young, courageous warrior with a bow and arrow ready to take down his enemy. Michelangelo mad David out of discarded stone, a fact which most people are not aware of. Some other works that Michelangelo did

“David Slaying Goliath” by Peter Paul Rubens is an example of Renaissance art. This painting depicts a well-known Bible story of a young Israelite boy named David who kills the giant, Goliath, with a slingshot, and chops off his head with a sword. Rubens has chosen to illustrate this Bible story at the moment when David is about to hack off Goliath’s head with the giant’s sword. In addition, we see armor-clad soldiers rushing into battle in the background. In “David Slaying Goliath,” Peter Paul Rubens uses color, value, and line to illustrate the dynamism and energy within the painting that makes it look realistic. In addition, these elements contribute to the sense of excitement and anticipation of the event depicted.

This piece created by michelangelo was sculpted in 1501 and is made out of marble. The location that was chosen was Accademia Gallery, in Florence, Italy. People think that this sculptor just represents David and Goliath, but there is more to it. The sculptor is not showing david while he is fighting, but mere seconds after victory. Before the Renaissance, if one did not have money, man was looked upon as only a worker. During the Renaissance, man was recreated as a beautiful, rational, and heroic figure. “David” signified a man at his best with the glory and confidence that a man needs to live life to the fullest. Life was hard for most men during this time and Michelangelo showed us that by expressing a deeper meaning in

The statue of David, completed by Michelangelo in 1504, is an easily recognizable symbol to people not only in Florence, but from all around the world. The David has a special meaning for Florentines, and is a symbol of what the city strives to be; strong, courageous, and youthful. The sculpture tells the tale of the battle between David and Goliath. David, a young boy at the time, was angered at the way Goliath was treating the Israelis and stood up to the giant feat of taking on Goliath. With a simple slingshot and stone, he defeated the angry giant, and became a symbol of liberty. The story shows that anything can be done with the help of God. David is not only the most well-known sculpture in the world, but is housed in one of the

The Mona Lisa, painted by Leonardo da Vinci around 1503-6, is oil on panel. It is a three quarter portrait of a young, Florentine woman. She is sitting in a chair with her torso twisting around to face the viewer. Her hands are resting on the arm of the chair. Behind the woman in the background is a landscape very characteristic of many Leonardo paintings. The Mona Lisa was painted toward the end of Leonardo’s career. In contrast, the David created by Michelangelo around 1501-4, is a marble sculpture of the biblical hero David. The seventeen foot tall statue depicts a young man standing in contrapposto. Most of his weight is supported with is right leg, while his left leg is relaxed. He holds

The city of Florence has gone through many invaders, illnesses and many other deaths not related to the battlefield. They had survived it all they believed that they had God on their side and have always come out on top, much like the biblical story of David in battle against Goliath. This influenced Florence to take on David as their symbol and used it to portray the success of Florence. Many artists have created sculptures portraying works of David. It has been depicting it in so many different manners, that there is at least one surviving example from each major art periods. Although there are many we will only be focusing on two works of David. First is Donatello’s classically inspired youthful boy depiction of David, and the second is Bernini’s heroic warrior.

David is holding Goliath’s head in his left hand, and the sword in his right. His face has a nonchalant expression on it while he is holding the head as if he is not impressed or phased by his decapitated head. There is more variety with David’s human-like face and Goliath’s green and bleeding face. There is unity in the similar color scheme, but the visual elements are varied in order to achieve intricate and complex relationships in it. The piece is asymmetrical with david taking a large portion of the left side, however there is

Unlike the David of Donatello, Michelangelo's David is not shown after conquering his enemy. Instead, he is portrayed as an extremely athletic and manly character; the sculpture even depicts a worried look cast upon David's face and the carved marble veins seem to pulse with anticipation as he contemplates the upcoming fight. Cast over David's shoulder is his sling, and the stone is clutched in his right hand. Michelangelo's David depicts the ideal youth who has just reached manhood and is capable of great physical and intellectual feats, which is part of the classical tradition. Michelangelo's David portrays one man in a very powerful and intelligent light, and even hinting that this one man may be some

In the painting it is evident that Goliath's head is ⅔ of David’s body alone. Leaving it up to the viewers imagination to show how big he was compared to this small boy David. The shaping of the bodies were made to be slightly different. The shape size of David's body was smaller to that of Goliath. As well as the form. While David has a body considered small and scrawny, Goliath's head alone the viewer was able to see his form had muscle and he was a bulky man. This element has shaped the artists message in allowing for the difference between David who is portrayed as small and weak, and Goliath who is depicted as a giant who was most likely powerful physically. Thus, allowing the reader to further the admiration of what David had done, which was best this giant although him being a scrawny young

The sculpture of “David”, standing 5’7” tall, sculpted by Bernini shows a scene from the Old Testament. The Israelites were at war with the Philistines using their weapon, Goliath. David had just taken up the challenge of fighting the giant, and was about to slay Goliath with a stone from his sling. The sculpture captures David as he launches the stone at the giant Goliath. The placement of the sculpture and attention to muscular composition allows for a lot of movement, with David bending at the waist and his arms twisted to one side, causing folding amongst his clothes. David’s clothing twisting around his body shows the power David is putting behind the stone. Below him is his armor. His face is full of emotion and he seems more human like.

Bernini's David represents the Baroque time shift in art. The shift towards the baroque art period seemed to have a change within the overall narrative of the sculptures. Prior to Bernini’s version of David there existed David’s sculpted by Donatello and Michelangelo. Donatello’s David was sculpted during the time of humanism, where a large influence came from the ancient Greco-Roman culture. The overall emotion of the sculpture is soft and youthful and creates the image of David after he had beaten Goliath. There really is no distinct emotion within David himself in this sculpture. In the high renaissance period Michelangelo sculpted his version of David. This sculpture began to form some energy which was seen in David’s tensed facial expression,

The character of David has been the inspiration for many works of art throughout history. The young David, armed with only a sling, defeated the gigantic warrior, Goliath, and became the hero of the human people. This story became very popular during the Italian Renaissance, the period of 14th-16th centuries. During the Italian Renaissance, Florence was under constant change and turmoil however David remained the people with faith for the people. Many other artists have expressed their own depictions of the young boy but two stand out among all. Donatello and Michelangelo both created masterpieces on the biblical subject although the approaches of each artist were completely different in some ways this caused unique reactions.

The pieces of art I will be comparing and contrasting are the three statues of David, by Donatello (Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi), Michelangelo (Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni), and Bernini (Gian Lorenzo Bernini). The statues are modeled after the biblical David, who was destined to become the second king of Israel. Also most famously known as the slayer of the Philistine giant Goliath with a stone and a sling. The sculptures are all based on the same biblical hero, but differ from one another. Each David is unique in its own certain way.

     Michelangelo was another artisan who portrayed David in a unique matter. He didn’t represent David standing over a defeated Goliath, but instead made him look like he was patiently awaiting his enemy. The body has a very classical form and is muscular and very tense. The form makes David look powerful. Michelangelo made David very strong with well defined features, iand even included enlarged hands to show the viewer of the strength that David had before attacking Goliath. Unlike other versions at the time, Michelangelo didn’t create a version of a prideful David, but instead a David who was amongst or aware of his enemy.

Because of the facial features portrayed on the face of the statue of David, it is suggested that Michelangelo sculpted David to portray him after his decision to fight Goliath was made but not before the actual battle took place. Michelangelo kept the Renaissance practice of keeping its subjects in a calm position, by depicting David’s action before the battle in his statue.