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David
The artist’s prominence,
established by his work, was reinforced at once by the commission
of the David (1501-1504) for the cathedral of Florence.
For this huge statue (standing at 4.34 m / 14 ft 3 tall),
Michelangelo reused a block left unfinished about 40 years
before. The subject of this work is the Old Testament story
of David and Goliath, in which the young David, flings a stone
from his slingshot to kill the giant Goliath. The statue became
a symbol for the new republic that had replaced Medici rule.
Unlike his predecessors, who depicted David with the grisly
head of the Giant under his foot, Michelangelo poses David
at the moment he faces the Giant, the deed before him. He
believed that this was David’s moment of greatest courage.
The entire sculpture shows tense waiting as David sizes up
his enemy and considers his course of action. The statue was
set up in front of the Palazzo della Signoria and it became
a symbol of the political strength of Florence against the
forces of tyranny. It has continued to serve as the prime
statement of the Renaissance ideal of perfect humanity.
With the twin
achievements of the Pieta and the David in Florence,
Michelangelo’s reputation was firmly established. Between
1500 and 1508, he sustained an astonishing level of productivity.
During this period, he carved nine marble sculptures, including
the colossal David, the Brubes Madonna,
the St. Matthew, two marble tondi, and four small figures
for the Piccolamini altar. He also completed three works in
bronze (all lost), including a bronze David sent to
France, and a monumental seated figure of Pope Julius for
Bologna. He completed at least one painting – the Dani
Tondo, and drew the cartoon for the Battle of Cascind
Fresco – the most prolific eight years of the artist.
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Middle Years
Shortly after completing the David, Michelangelo received the additional commission to paint a battle Fresco opposite his rival Leonardo da Vinci. For differing reasons, both artists failed to complete their commissions : Leonardo because of technical frustrations, and Michelangelo because he was summoned to Rome by Pope Julius II in 1505. The Pope employed Michelangelo to carve his tomb – so began the longest and most convoluted chapter in Michelangelo’s life, what his biographer Ascanio Condivi referred to as the "tragedy of the tomb" – but also one of his greatest endeavors.
The Tomb of Julius II
The Pope sought a tomb for which Michelangelo was to carve 40 large statues. In 1505, he began to work on a tomb for Pope Julius II that was to have stood in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. His earliest designs specify a freestanding structure with three levels : at the bottom, figures representing victory alternating with slaves, above them, four huge seated figures including Moses and St. Paul, and finally, angels supporting either a coffin or an image of the Pope. In the |
end only three figures by Michelangelo were placed on the tomb, which is now in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome. Of these, the most powerful figure is Moses (c. 1515), a dynamic example of his ability to infuse stone with a sense of movement and life. The muscular torso of Moses twists to the left, but his scowling face turns sharply to the right as if he has just seen the people worshipping their false God. It is regarded
as the realization in sculpture of the approach to great figures
used for the prophets on the Sistine Ceiling. (He was called
to work on the Sistine Chapel and after the ceiling was finished,
reverted to work on the tomb.) The control of cubic density
in stone evokes great reserves of strength. The surface textures
also have more variety than the earlier sculptures. Two of
the slave statues originally planned for the tomb, the Rebellious
Slave and the Dying Slave (both c. 1513-1516) were
also completed. They demonstrate his approach to carving,
in which cutting away excess stone appears to release an entrapped
human figure. Here, as in many of his sculptures, Michelangelo
left parts of the block of stone rough and unfinished, either
because he was satisfied with the statues as they were or
because he no longer planned to use them. Julius II’s
death in 1513 cut off most of the funds for his tomb.
 
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