preview

The, By Andrea Di Michele Cioni

Good Essays

Throughout the ages art has played an important part in shaping societies and the ideals of them as a whole. But what you may not of realized or thought about is that powerful art pieces and the context of them can actually create an image of strength and act as a deterrent from outside countries and foes. Looking back on the high Renaissance in Florence, a time in which religious devotion was the central focus of the people and unrest and civil disorder were commonplace. Two differing sculptures of David were commissioned and sculpted, one by Andrea di Michele Cioni nicknamed Verrocchio meaning true eye in the late 1400s and the other by Michelangelo in the early 1500s. Both pieces were commissioned because of Florence’s favoring of the …show more content…

And looking at Florence today it definitely lives up to that expectation of being small but mighty, being one of the most populated areas in Tuscany. But back then in the late 14th and early 15th century, they were not very substantial in numbers. They Probably numbered no more than 15,000 during the 15th century and would have surely fallen if attacked in an all out war, so they had to rely on other tactics. This is in my opinion where the idea of not only finding hope in David and his similarities to that of Florence came into play, but also the idea of creating an image that Florence though small like David can defeat the greatest of enemies with the help of God. It kind of reminds of the idea of using brains over brawns, instead in this case just avoiding the fight altogether by creating the sort of image that Florence like David can overcome the greatest of hardships. David was to the people of Florence at the time a symbol of hope and perseverance and acted as a deterrent to those potential “Goliaths”. The small city-state had little means of fending off an army and as a major art Center it didn’t really have a reputation for being all that powerful or having any sort of exceptional military. The Davids of Florence may have changed this acting as a

Get Access