Davud and Golyat are the heroes of a mythological story set in the Old Testament. It is rumored that the story takes place in Palestine today. According to the legend, there is a war between the Israelites and the Palestinians. Golyat, the most powerful soldier of the Palestinians, begins to challenge the soldiers of the Israelites every day. He calls a brave person with his strong cries. One day, “Golyat stopped and asked the Israeli army,” Why did you get a war order? cried, “I am a Palestinian, and you are Saul’s slaves. Choose someone to come across. If he can beat and kill me in a fight, we will be your slave. But if I can prevail and destroy it, you will be our slave, you will serve us. ” Palestinian Golyat continued his speech as follows: “Today I challenge the Israeli army! Take someone out to fight me! ” When he heard these words of the Palestinian, both the Saul and the Israelites were terrified and terrified. ” Golyat cries out for 40 days.

At that time, he volunteered to meet Davud Golyat, who was just a child. He asks the soldiers, “What will be given to the man who will kill this Palestinian and save Israel from this embarrassing situation?” The soldiers tell him, “King Talut will make him rich and give his daughter to him.” The soldiers go to the king and say that David wants to fight Golyat. King Talut admires David’s courage, but still wants to discourage him. Then David, ‘I killed a bear and a lion when they wanted to grab some of my father’s sheep. This Palestinian will be like them. Jehovah will help me. ” Then Talut says to him, “Go and Jehovah be with you.”

While David is preparing to face Golyat, he is offered an armor and a gun, but David does not accept it and comes across Golyat with a slingshot and several stones. Golyat thinks he can easily defeat when he sees him, but not so.

Before Golyat goes on the offensive, David quickly hides before he shows up and throws a stone with his slingshot and injures Golyat from the forehead and drops it to the ground. Then he cuts the head of Golyat stunned and wins the duel. With the killing of their greatest warriors, Golyat, Palestinians disband and lose the war. Despite Davud’s young age and body, he defeated a giant giant and became a legend, and later became the kingdom of Israel.

This story in the Old Testament has been depicted many times in the history of art, but the most important of these is undoubtedly Michelangelo’s David statue.

Michelangelo Buonarroti and David

The work symbolizes the moment that David decided to attack Golyat. An order has been placed for the Cathedral of Florence, but after it was built, it was placed in the square in front of the Palazzo della Signoria. But after a while, he was taken to the Academy Gallery in Florence in 1873 to prevent any damage that might happen to him. By 1910, a copy of the work was placed in the square again.

Let’s take a closer look at David:

Michelangelo was very young when he made David. The perfect shape given to marble with the fire of his youth affects those who see it even today. The statue of David is 517 cm. When you look carefully at the figure, it is possible to see visually that it depicts the perfect person. Although it depicts the perfect person, its dimensions make David three times the size of a normal human body. The statue is based on the disegno artistic discipline based on the male form knowledge. According to this discipline, sculpture has been put forward as the best form of art because it mimics divine creation. Michelangelo has demonstrated his dedication to this discipline with the following behavior: It is as if David is already in the marble block where he works and wants to take it out. Just like the general belief that the human soul is deep in the body. This is also an example of the contrapposto style.

A slingshot in the hands of David attracts our attention. This slingshot is the only weapon he has to kill Golyat.

David’s right hand reveals how strong he is. The veins on the hand are as realistic as we see when we look at our own hands. Despite the fact that his right hand was strong, David was left-handed. We can understand this from the hand and posture of the sling. David’s right hand was made bigger than the whole proportions, because the researchers think that it was due to Michelangelo’s nickname “Manu Fortis” (strong hand) given to David.

The place to be placed after the statue of David was made was a section on the roof of the Duomu, but after the statue was finished, it affected the authorities so much that they decided to place it in the square in front of the administrative center of the Florence state. There are two reasons for its placement here; The first is that the statue has a political meaning and the other is very beautiful. The arrival of David against persecution was in line with the history of Florence, and thus became an important symbol of the republic in Florence. In other words, we are talking about a period when the Medici family got stronger and new republican ideas emerged in the city. As such, people with opposing views wanted to harm the statue. The statue was attacked during the political protests, once in the first year in public and once in 1527.

After these attacks and the sculpture was affected by adverse weather conditions, it was decided to move to Galleria dell’Accademia. But there was another unfortunate attack here. This attack occurred on September 14, 1991 by Italian origin Piero Cannata. Cannata broke one of her fingers, hitting David’s left foot with a small hammer. His defense says, “Beautiful Nani of Paolo Veronese asked me to do this. Nani in the phrase (the beautiful Nani in the painting called La Bella Nani).

About eight million tourists come to Galleria dell’Accademia annually to see David. This frequent visit of tourists creates a tiny earthquake effect on the statue.

Michelangelo, the important name of the Renaissance, is watching this statue, which has deep meanings by giving life to marble, even today with its first magnificence.

“I saw an angel stuck in marble and I carved the marble until I got him free“

Michelangelo

Source: Khan Academy, Wannart, Artkolik, Wikipedia

Images: Wikimedia