Michelangelo's The David

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Tajerah Stackhouse 005688664 Dr. Lasser 20, September 2015 The David Michelangelo is one of the most influential artist of his time, so influential that T.S. Eliot included his work The David in his poem “The love song of J.Alfred Prufrock”. He uses The David to show a comparison between him in the protagonist Prufrock. His statue The David has a rich biblical origin.The statute also caused a lot of controversy because while many were proud of the naked heroic figure others were ashamed and acts as a model for masculinity in literature. Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was born March 6, 1475 in present-day Tuscany, Italy.Along with being one of the most influential contributors to the renaissance, he was an sculptor,…show more content…
King David, the inspiration for this renaissance masterpiece, was an important religious figure . King David was the second king of United Kingdom of Israel. David is illustrated in the bible as strong warrior from his many battles. The one commonly know is his battle with goliath where he killed the giant with a slingshot( 1 Samuel 17). The appearance and structure of The David adds to its popularity. The statue itself was carved to display David before going into battle with Goliath, emphasizing tense muscles for example to show masculinity. Also it depicts David’s face look tense and ready to engage in battle instead of a more relaxed stance from his win one can tell this because he is patiently waiting with a slingshot and a stone in his hands. On September 13th, 1501 he began carving the statue in which he devoted his time to for three years. The David was originally supposed to be placed in the Cathedral, which is why its Hands and Head is created larger so it can seen better from above but instead The David was placed next to the entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio, which is the town hall of Florence,Italy The David replaced Donatello's bronze sculpture of Judith and Holofernes, which had a similar heroic symbolism. Florentines accepted The statue against their conflict with the Medici. The Medici family was a very wealthy and influenced the city’s…show more content…
Alfred Prufrock” The use the statue of david to define an ideal male body in Prufrock mind. “In the room the women come and go talking of Michelangelo”(13-14). Prufrock a very insecure male compares himself to the David. He begins to compare his body to the David because he hears women speak about the statue’s artist. Prufrock is scared to talk to women which shows how he is more effeminate in contrast to the strong and ready to conquer any opponent, like a strong leader, prufrock is more of a follower and not as confident in his abilities as a man. Another way of looking at this is that prufrock is using michelangelo as a illusion. Almost as if he would like to sculpt or recreate himself for this social situation in order to be more confident and overcome his fear of
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