David is 17ft tall (over 5 metres), weighs 12,478 lbs (5,660kg), and was carved from a huge single block of unwanted Carrara marble. He took over two years to carve and he depicts the Biblical David who took down Goliath with a well aimed slingshotted rock to the forehead. It looks magnificent enough from a distance, but if you really want to appreciate Michelangelo’s mastery then you need to take a closer look at his incredible attention to detail.
Michelangelo started to carve the statue of David from a single block of unwanted marble in 1501
It took him 2 years, and the result is 17ft tall (over 5 metres) and weighs a whopping 12,478 lbs (5,660kg)!
Over 8 million people per year visit the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence so they can marvel at the iconic marble statue
It looks magnificent from a distance, but you need to take a closer look to appreciate Michelangelo’s incredible attention to detail
Two other sculptors had tried to carve the block before abandoning their respective projects, and the marble laid unused for 10 years
“If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all,” Michelangelo once said
Michelangelo died in 1564, aged 88, but his statue of David will live on
Here’s an idea of what David might look like in real life