Michelangelo’s David lives in another museum in Florence, the Accademia, which I also visited. I was very familiar with these kinds of pictures of him and was prepared for these views.
However I was rather surprised to find out quite how big he is!
The Accademia is a lot smaller than the Uffizi and I think most people come to see David and go again. One of it’s back rooms is crammed with other sculptures, many of which have been marked for making copies, or are plaster copies and retain the marks which were used to create them.
The copying of works of art used to be common. In the days before mass travel it was a way in which art from different cultures could be admired by others. The V&A museum has a whole gallery devoted to copied art and the history of copying. Little did I know before my trip to Florence that there is a life size copy of David in the middle of London.
He was given to Queen Victoria in compensation for not allowing an original Italian work of art to be exported to the UK. Also in display is the fig leaf which was applied to this particular David in times when it wasn’t deemed seemly for art to show all parts of the male body.
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