Galleria dell'Accademia

The block

Another sculptor started the David and left it in a yard

In 1464 the cathedral overseers hired Agostino di Duccio to carve a David. He roughed out the torso and legs, but his work stopped in 1466. The block then lay exposed to the weather in the cathedral workshop yard for twenty-five years.

The giant

The overseers called the stone il gigante and went looking for a master

In 1500 an inventory listed it as a figure called David, badly blocked out and supine. The overseers called the stone il gigante, the giant. Leonardo da Vinci was consulted, but it was Michelangelo, at 26, who convinced them.

The roofline

It was made for the cathedral roof and ended up in the square

David was commissioned as one of twelve prophets for the roofline of the cathedral's east end. Instead it was placed in the Piazza della Signoria and unveiled on 8 September 1504. It was moved here in 1873.

5.17 mthe height of Michelangelo's David

The Prisoners

Four unfinished Prisoners stand in the same gallery

The gallery's small collection of Michelangelo includes four unfinished Prisoners, intended for the tomb of Pope Julius II, and a statue of Saint Matthew, also unfinished. A replica of the David was installed in the square in 1910.

The museum

In 2023 the gallery sued a magazine over an image of the David

The Galleria dell'Accademia was founded in 1784 by Pietro Leopoldo, Grand Duke of Tuscany. In 2023 it successfully sued a magazine publisher for using an image of the David without its permission, even though the statue is in the public domain.