Original subtitles

There are works of art that seem to need no introduction.

Their outlines are familiar.

They're part of the proof that Western civilisation has an honourable history.

But these works, just like people, have a hidden past.

A tainted career of shifting allegiances, shames, compromises, adventures, and sometimes scrapes with death.

This is the biography of one such artwork, from its beginnings to its bizarre life today.

So David, what's up man? What's all the controversy about what you mean? Why is everybody tripping?

All over the globe, the image of David is available for use.

What is an artistic wonder of the world to some is to others a commercial trademark or an internet icon.

Sometimes an object of desire, sometimes a figure of fun.

If ever a work of art had the right to feel overexposed, it's Michelangelo's David,

naked in the heart of Florence for nearly five centuries.

In recent years, his manhood has been appropriated for postcards, fridge magnets, and even mouse mats.

David is represented in the moment before the struggle with Goliath.

You see how he's concentrated.

You see, he stares the giant in the eyes.

Michelangelo's got the David to symbolise freedom.

To us in Europe, this is the most famous statue in the world.

Three times the height of a man and perhaps 200 times a man's weight,

the sheer scale of the David, as he's called, stops us short.

Michelangelo took three years to end David, from a single block of white Carrara marble,

and became the tallest and the most important statue sculpted since the Roman classic time.

But who is he?

What inspired his posture?

Why is he naked?

How on earth was he made?

And how has he survived 500 years?

For someone we feel we know so well, he keeps a good many secrets.

The great figure is, of course, synonymous with the sculptor Michelangelo Buonarroti,

but the marble block that became the David was already being worked on a decade before Michelangelo was even born.

It was extracted from the hostile mountainside, high up in the Appuan Alps,

some 60 miles north of Florence.

Rivalry between the city-states of Renaissance Italy put the story in motion.

Provoked by the splendors of Milan,

the Florentine authorities commissioned colossal figures to ring the rooftop of their cathedral,

a hugely ambitious plan.

It was a man named Agostino di Duccio,

an assistant to the renowned master sculptor Donatello,

who was first commissioned to make this David.

His plan was to mine four separate blocks,

one piece for the head, one for each arm, and one for the body.

The fate of three of the blocks is unknown.

Only the stone intended for the torso survived.

But in itself, that was the first such gigantic marble slab to be quarried

since the sculptured giants of the Roman Empire were created over a thousand years earlier.

It's not just the size of the block, which is so astonishing, that came out of these quarries.

It's the quality of the marble.

This is a beautiful surface, but it's filled with impurities,

irregular fault lines and black, impure lines through the marble.

You'd have to be a fool to try and carve a statuary out of a block of this kind of marble.

This is not what is called statuario, which is absolutely pure white marble.

You could look for months and months and months to find marble and the quality needed in statuary.

And to find a block 18 feet tall that is the quality of statuary is extremely rare.

Once the David block had been chosen, the work of extracting it began,

a dangerous process requiring both violence and delicacy

if the precious marble were to be released from the mountain in one piece.

Wedges were driven into the marble and then soaked,

the wood expanding to crack the crystalline material along the carefully chosen fault lines.

Down below, a bed of rubble was prepared onto which the wall of marble would fall.

This is the most dangerous time.

Di Duccio may have found the block of perfect quality,

but he couldn't be sure that it would survive the drop onto the ledge below.

It became clear that Agostino di Duccio had indeed chosen a beautiful piece of marble.

But there were always worries that the quarrymen had cut away too much stone.

The block was revealed to be very shallow, perhaps less than two feet deep in places,

a restriction which would later torment all the sculptors who would work on the David block.

After months of struggle and hardship, the David marble eventually arrives at its destination,

a 90-mile journey by boat to Pisa,

then by ox-drawn barge up the river Arno to Florence.

It's still intended that the statue should adorn the astonishing cathedral there,

the Duomo,

to be a giant overlooking the city high up on a buttress of Brunelleschi's dome.

But for now,

the block stands upright in a courtyard at the Opera del Duomo,

the cathedral office of works,

waiting for Di Duccio to begin.

Di Duccio had never taken on a project of this size.

He was more at home with fairly undemanding reliefs.

But he pressed on,

choosing to create what appeared to be a clothed David.

He carved a knot of drapery on the chest,

worked on the feet,

and made a hole between the legs.

But it wasn't long before he was forced to give up.

The sheer scale of the marble,

or perhaps the shallowness of the block,

defeating him.

It was to be another 12 years before the authorities regained the confidence

to commission another sculptor

to try to make something of this troublesome figure.

Antonio Rossellino was a resourceful craftsman,

but he too failed,

becoming the second victim of the block's intimidating dimensions.

The marble block that was to become the David was lying abandoned,

having been hacked at a little bit by two different,

quite good sculptors,

who had for different reasons abandoned the work.

And nobody else was asked to or decided to continue the work.

So it was just lying in the rain.

For now,

the cathedral board had to accept

that their high hopes for this immensely valuable stone

might never be realized.

All the effort of quarrying the block

and bringing it to Florence had been wasted.

Their vision and their investment had come to nothing.

Their David remained imprisoned in the stone.

11 years having passed

since the David block first arrived in the cathedral workshop,

Michelangelo Buonarroti is born

in the Tuscan village of Capresi.

I record that today,

the sixth day of March, 1474,

a son was born to me.

I named him Michelangelo.

He was born on Monday morning,

four or five hours before daybreak.

He was born at Capresi.

And these named below were his godfathers.

Giovanni di Narni di Capresi,

Iacobo di Francesco da Cassurio,

Marco di Giorgio da Capresi,

Giovanni.

Michelangelo's birth is registered

in a horoscope made

perhaps soon after he was born.

This horoscope

predicted a very favorable

artistic life for the young man.

When Michelangelo

told his father he wanted to be a painter,

it was really a catastrophe for the family.

They thought this was the worst thing

he could possibly do.

And it is said that not only was he beaten

by his father,

but even by an uncle

for wanting to become a painter.

Then, in his early childhood

or his youth,

he changed his mind

and wanted to become a sculptor,

which was far worse

because the sculptor

actually had much more physical

activity involved in his work.

So his father was much more unhappy

about the decision.

Michelangelo's father,

as the respected mayor of the village,

objected strongly to his son's desire

to be an artist,

then essentially a blue-collar job.

But the young man was determined.

He set about learning his trade.

It's now 1501,

and 35 years have passed

since the David Bloch's

first arrival in Florence.

The cathedral authorities,

known as the Operae,

are concerned that marble stocks are low.

And although it's in poor shape,

this extremely valuable piece of material

must now be put to use.

Opinions are gathered.

The sculptor Andrea Sansovino

said it's impossible to release

a single piece from the block.

He wants to add more pieces.

Rumor now has it

that Leonardo da Vinci himself

is being considered for the commission.

But soon,

the young and arrogant

Michelangelo Buonarroti,

then working in Siena,

is enticed into the fray.

In July 1501,

he travels to Florence

to inspect the block.

From Bologna and Rome,

he brings a reputation

for success,

and what's more,

he's developed a working technique

based on the integrity

of the single block.

He takes his measurements

and, apparently undismayed by them,

conceives a possible image

of the David locked within.

But landing the commission

is still going to be difficult.

Michelangelo is a junior sculptor,

only 26 years old,

and his reputation in Florence

rests entirely on hearsay.

Michelangelo was a genius

at self-promotion,

but he had every reason

to need to be.

Getting big commissions like this,

even in early 16th century Florence,

was not as easy

as it seems in retrospect to us.

There were older,

more mature,

and proven sculptors,

into whose hands

the operae might well

have felt it

more responsible

to entrust

this huge piece of marble.

But Michelangelo does bring

special knowledge to the task,

thanks to an earlier dispensation

he'd been granted

to study corpses.

It was this intimate,

fearless knowledge

of the human body

that would crucially inform

his final design.

What separates Michelangelo

and other artists

of his generation

from those before

is what I would call

an analytical way of seeing.

And this is a way of seeing

which, so far as I know,

had been entirely lost

in Western art

since the fall

of classical antiquity.

The detailed analysis

of every muscle sinew

and fibre

were documented

in numerous life drawings,

searching for the figure,

the pose,

which would become the David.

These drawings by Michelangelo

indicate he must have considered

a variety of moods

and attitudes,

such as the orthodox posture

of David

with Goliath's severed head

at his feet.

Or David with arm aloft,

just as the stone to kill

his adversary

has been launched.

He would come to reject

both these ideas.

We tend to think

that life drawing

is something

that anybody could do

if they had

a disciplined hand

and a sharp pencil

and a good eye.

But in fact,

what life drawing

really means

is a record

of how the artist

sees the body.

Michelangelo was interested

in the three-part fugue,

you might say,

in the body

of the skeleton,

the musculature,

and the skin.

Those three things

working together

are what give

the surface of the body

its characteristic shape.

David is forming

in the mind

of his creator,

but these ideas

will need to be

embodied in a maquette,

a scale model,

if the pitch

is to succeed.

Michelangelo

probably did

come forward

with a wax model,

and as it were,

in competition

with anybody else

who wanted the job,

he talked them

into allowing him

to do the piece.

So he got,

I think,

the commission

by sheer competition

and by being brilliant.

The David contract

gave Michelangelo

two years

to complete the statue.

His fee was fixed

at six broad gold florins

a month,

a good artisan wage.

The workshop

is prepared.

David's early life

kept deliberately secret.

A tower is constructed

which will hide

the emerging masterpiece.

But why this?

very elaborate mystification.

There are two

very strong likelihoods.

First likelihood

is that the wax model

didn't look like

the finished product.

I don't think

that the operae

expected they were

going to get

this colossal nude statue.

The second thing,

of course,

and in early 16th century

terms,

the more important thing,

is that he carved

the whole statue

out of one piece

of marble,

which is a technical feat

of almost unimaginable

accomplishment.

Today,

that feat is made routine

by power tools

and heavy lifting gear.

Here,

at Franco-Cevietti's yard

near the Carrara quarries,

they can make a David

in less than a year,

selling each

at $100,000 a time

to corporate clients

throughout the world.

The theory seems to be

that if you're going

to have a fake,

go for the biggest

you can get.

September 1501.

In a symbolic gesture,

the block is claimed

by the sculptor.

With several powerful blows,

Michelangelo strikes off

Agostino di Duccio's knot

carved on the chest.

At last,

it appears likely

the cathedral

will get its statue.

We can make a copy

of the David

in a little under a year,

but only with the aid

of modern technology,

power tools,

and five assistants.

Michelangelo, of course,

worked alone

for more than

two and a half years,

forgetting to eat,

sleeping in his boots,

and using primarily

only three chisels.

The piece is too large

to work horizontally,

so it has to be

tackled upright.

This means dust and stone

raining down

onto the sculptor.

The shallowness of the marble

now poses

the greatest challenge.

Working on a block

as little as two feet deep

in places,

the margin for error

is non-existent.

The creation has to be

mathematically accurate,

or the block will be ruined,

or the proportions lost.

David might even be deprived

of his balance

and crash to the floor

in 20 tons of fragments.

The architectural solution

is a tree trunk

carved behind the leg

to support the figure

while David stands

in contrapposto,

a position where one leg

is kept straight.

If the sculptor then

drops a plumb line

from the throat

to the foot,

gravity will be satisfied

and the statue balanced.

Aside from inspiration,

this was hard physical work,

often tedious

and occupying 14 hours a day

and six days a week.

the powerful young sculptor

little over five feet tall

must have felt

that he was the David

facing a giant enemy.

After having done

five copies of the David

it's clear

that we

we feel

a little

in front of Michelangelo

because

working on top

we see

even more

how we can

appreciate

the work

instead of

seeing it

in the museum

the statue.

people who witnessed

Michelangelo at work

would comment

on the ferocity

of the maker's technique

with marble

three fingers thick

flying through the air

as he worked dangerously

close to the skin

of the figure.

Large pieces of stone

were removed

by striking the marble

with a subia

a pointed sharp chisel.

Then the gradino

would be used

to shape the surface

closer to the ideal form.

Next

the scalpella

would be applied

to prepare the stone

and smooth it

before rasps

finally burnished

the marble

in its ultimate finish.

When the work was new

chisel marks

made by one of the

previous makers

could still be seen

on David's head.

Michelangelo

left them there

to advertise

his daring

in using

every last inch

of the block's dimensions.

To visualize

a figure emerging

from the stone

sculptors at the time

were encouraged

to adopt

a simple

but ingenious technique.

Placing a clay model

in a bath of water

they'd slowly

let the water drain away.

The figure

breaking through

the surface

creates a horizontal plane

giving the artist

an exact idea

of the stage

he's reached

in relation

to the block

as a whole

and where he should go next.

This technique

mirrors the way

Michelangelo

gradually released

his figures

from the stone

as seen here

in the unfinished

figures of the slaves

made by Michelangelo

later.

But David

comes alive

only after

thousands and thousands

tens of thousands

of perfectly directed

hard and soft blows.

The marble

is unforgiving

one wrong stroke

could break a finger

or an arm

or ruin

the harmony

of the musculature.

The copy

we see here

is from a 40 ton block

which is at least

twice as large

as the block

that Michelangelo carved

which means

that Michelangelo

is being twice

as efficient

in his use of marble.

Many of the problems

are exactly the same

especially

carving the holes

through the legs

and the arms

the danger of breakage

is always

potentially there.

One of the real

differences however

is the plaster copy

here is a full size

which is absolutely

necessary in order

to make the copy

but Michelangelo

worked for models

in clay or terracotta

about this size

and so the idea

of establishing

the proper proportion

from the small model

to the full size figure

is really astonishing.

A year into the commission

the cathedral elders

pay a visit

to view the work

in progress.

They're amazed

at what they see.

Whether they expected

a nude is questionable

but they're known

to have been delighted.

They had commissioned

a masterpiece

after all.

In a rush of blood

they asked Michelangelo

to fashion another

12 giant apostles

for the cathedral.

Meanwhile

the governor of Florence

was developing

designs on David.

The cathedral board

would need to pray hard

to hold on

to their biblical hero.

Word spread quickly

that David

was coming of age.

Anticipation

was growing.

Something special

was about to be unveiled.

By the summer

of 1503

the David

was virtually finished.

The privileged few

who now visit

the workshop

marvel at David's

lifelike qualities

and begin to study

the contrary attractions

of the youth

full of energy

muscular

yet relaxed

and poised.

The David

is a statue

which is highly

articulated.

That means

that the basic

joints

of the body

receive a great deal

of stress

in the sculpture

emphasis.

There's a clear

sense of division

almost geometric

organization

of the head

the head on the neck

the neck on the chest

the chest riding

on the torso

or the abdomen

underneath it

because of course

Michelangelo

wanted to demonstrate

the dynamism

of the human body.

You'll notice

that Jacopo

has very prominent veins

and you'll see

there too

that Michelangelo

almost exaggerates

the diameter

of those veins

because among other things

of course

it's expressive

of energy

power

and youth

part and parcel

of Michelangelo's

almost compulsive

determination

to infuse

every single part

of the body

with as much life

as he possibly can.

It's now time

for David

to face

the wider world

but first

the decision

has to be made

as to the sighting

of the statue

originally intended

for the buttress

of Brunelleschi's

Duomo.

That was the position

most likely

in the mind

of the creator.

The oversized

right hand

and the huge head

with the deeply

furrowed brow

would have acquired

more natural proportions

seen from 100 feet below.

But in the event

those tactful adaptations

were not required.

After 35 years

of waiting

the cathedral authorities

were cruelly

disappointed.

The governor

of Florence

grabbed him

for the city.

David

was hijacked.

Once the statue

was finished

in 1501

there is no mention

in the documents

of putting it up here

at this high level.

Instead

a large committee

was formed

and everybody

gave their opinion

and among those opinions

there was the notion

that it would be placed

underneath

the Lodger

dei Lanci

alongside

the Piazza

della Signoria

in the central bay.

Sheltered

under the canopy

of the Lodger

the marble

certainly had

a better chance

of surviving

but was it

the best site?

As always

in Florence

political

and personal

agendas

were thrown

into the public

argument.

The statue

should be close

to the cathedral

a consolation prize.

It should be

in the heart

of the city

for the people.

Leonardo da Vinci

wanted it kept

safely away

from the public

thoroughfare

in some quiet niche

but that protective

motive may

have been suspect.

A rivalry

was brewing

between Leonardo

and Michelangelo

and perhaps

the elder man

preferred to have

the evidence

of his adversary's

genius hidden away.

Eventually

it was David's potency

as a political symbol

that decided

where he would be

sited.

Florence was

a republican city

fighting for its life

under threat of attack

from several powers.

At that moment

the tyrannical

Medici family

once the rulers

of Florence

and now in exile

were massing armies

to the south

near Rome

the symbolism

of David

facing southwards

toward that

Goliath

would be welcomed.

David is a symbol

of republican liberty.

He's a young boy

helpless young boy

who with the help

of God

overcomes a tyrant.

For the Florentines

this is a symbol

of the city itself

a weak

helpless city

confronting the tyrant

and overcoming them.

In May 1504

the statue

suspended in a halter

from a wooden frame

inched its way

on greased rollers

towards its new location.

Ropes made into slip knots

tightened with the movement

keeping the figure

upright within the frame.

In the narrow streets

arches were demolished

to allow the statue's passage.

Although David's destination

was less than

a kilometer away

the journey took

two days

and the efforts

of more than 40 men.

Nobody's done

something like this

since classical antiquity.

This is the largest

nude figure

in a thousand years.

It's more Roman

than it is Renaissance

and it just

must have been outstanding

in the medieval

city of Florence.

Imagine what

that 19 foot block

looked like

in the city

that's filled

with medieval

dark streets

made mostly

out of its local

material

of Pietroforte.

The 19 foot block

of marble

carved by Michelangelo

must have been

transformative

a kind of beacon

a recreation

of classical antiquity

in an essentially

medieval city.

A stunning sight

but to some

a cause for great anger.

During the first night

of David's journey

stones were thrown

to injure him.

On the night

of the 18th of May

154

when the David

had begun

to be moved

from the cathedral

workshops

to the Piazza

della Signoria

two Florentine

diarists

recorded that

it was stoned

in transit.

Recently

research has shown

that there were

four youths

whose names

were actually recorded

they were later

arrested

and it's been

supposed

that they did this

for some political

reason

or an ideological

or religious reason.

The political reason

would be that they

were supporters

of the exiled

family of Medici

and that they

resented the

statue which was

being appropriated

by the Republican

government of Florence

as a symbol

of the new regime.

The other reason

why they might have

stoned it

is that they were

followers of the

Dominican monk

Savonarola.

It was outside

the Palazzo

della Signoria

at the foot

of its great tower

that this naked warrior

was to be set

a scheme that would

have been unthinkable

only ten years earlier

when the puritanical zeal

of the Dominican

friar Savonarola

had gripped the city.

That era ended

with the bonfire

of the vanities

a great public

incineration

of decorative luxuries

and finery

in the very square

where the by no means

puritanical David

was to be placed.

But there he stands

his gaze directed

south towards Rome

and his enemies

a Florentine

defiant

a statue of liberty.

The governor

of Florence

Piero Soderini

is said to have

visited the David

in late summer.

He remarked

that the nose

was not quite right.

Michelangelo

took his chisel

and stone dust

began to rain down

on the opinionated governor

who was not to know

that this marble dust

came from

Michelangelo's pocket.

The governor

declared himself

extremely pleased

with the result.

Finally,

the tree stump

and sling strap

were gilded

and a garland

of golden leaves

placed around his head.

The statue being

now complete

its public unveiling

took place

on the 8th of September

1504.

We're so used

to the David today

it's easy to forget

how unusual

it must have seemed

in 1504.

A large male nude

in a public square?

It replaced

Donatello's

Judith at Holofernes

an undesirable image

of a woman

killing a man

and it made it

problematic

for Florentine women

to enter the square.

Where were they

supposed to look?

For the citizenry

a naked David

was just too shocking.

Soon after the unveiling

his manhood

was concealed

with a belt

of copper leaves

later to be replaced

by the famous fig leaf.

Florence in the early

16th century

was a male-dominated

society

and the sexual politics

greatly influenced

the way the young

David would be seen.

What we would call

homosexual activity

and homosexual behaviour

was extraordinarily common

in 15th and 16th century

Florence.

As many as a half

to two-thirds

of Florentine men

had some sort

of homosexual

relationship

or activity

by the time

they were 30

or 40 years old.

The categories

that we have come

to think of

as so familiar

homosexual

and heterosexual

simply didn't exist.

A man could be

having a relationship

with a younger boy

and also at the same

time

having relations

with women

or perhaps

he was married

and happily married.

They just didn't

make the same kinds

of categorical

distinctions

that we do today.

Although commonplace

in 16th century

Florence

male relationships

of this kind

were against the law

and in due course

forced underground.

Was David

a three-times

life-sized naked man

a dangerous

sexual symbol?

The Donatello David

made a generation earlier

chose the moment

when a boy's body

is under siege

from the female

hormone oestrogen

just before testosterone

kicks in.

A boy on the brink

of becoming a youth.

A sexually evocative

image at the time.

But Michelangelo's David

is more developed.

Muscled with a pronounced

pelvic iliac crest

strong hands

and broad shoulders.

A youth on the threshold

of becoming a man

a stronger image

of the male form

more suited to

political duties

than sexual fantasies.

We have become

careful and skilled

restorers

of the great art

of the past

but nobody can

restore to our minds

the meaning

that artworks

contained for those

who first beheld them.

everything changes

including the critical

valuation of whole

periods of art

let alone single pieces.

The David

underwent centuries

of critical neglect

paralleled by physical danger.

As early as 1527

during a riot

furniture was hurled

out of the windows

of the Palazzo Vecchio

and a flying bench

broke off an arm

of the David.

The pieces lay

among the debris

in the square

for days

until fortunately

they were recovered

by Michelangelo's

good friend

and biographer

Giorgio Vasari.

The smashed forearm

was rebuilt

and pinned back together

as seen here

in these recent X-rays.

Perhaps in the same incident

he lost the third finger

of his right hand

which was later replaced.

Other changes

were more gradual.

300 years of ice

wind and sun

and a leaking gutter

from the Palazzo

contributed to a slow

deterioration

of the masterpiece.

A needless disaster

struck in the 19th century

when during a restoration

program

some surfaces

were scraped clean

with wire wool

rubbing away detail

and weakening the surface.

By now

David leaned

more than half a meter forward

he was in a dangerous condition.

No international outrage

was inspired

by these misfortunes.

Visitors to Florence

were comparatively few

and those educated Europeans

who recorded their impressions

of the city

seldom mentioned the statue.

James Boswell

for example

took no notice.

People were more interested

in the antiquities

of Rome.

It was the German

and Swiss art historians

of the 19th century

who made a golden age

of the Renaissance

and promoted its artists

to the front rank

of human genius.

Alerted by this

the city of Florence

suddenly took note

of David's suffering

and resolved to move him

to a safer place.

Marble and bronze copies

were made

using plaster molds

which naturally caused

further damage

to the original.

The marble copy

resides in the square

taken by lazy tourists

to be the original.

The bronze

now looks down

on the city

from across the river.

When it came

to nude statuary

the Victorians

were wonderfully caught

between appreciation

and prudery

a dilemma exemplified

by Queen Victoria herself.

The Duke of Tuscany

presented her

with another David copy

for her collection

but whenever she visited it

her staff were quick

to hang the royal fig leaf

over the offending area.

A final round

of indignities

awaited the one

true and original David

it was boxed up

to prevent further damage

and hidden from view

for nearly two years

before being moved

on a specially built railway track

to the academia

and sanctuary.

Here David should

at last have been safe

but he was left

still in his box

outside in a courtyard.

A fungal growth

violet in colour

broke out

over the surface.

For ten years

David remained

in this state

sequestered

and mouldering

and mouldering.

Only now

was he released

from his box

and placed

in his solitary glory.

Today

more than one million

people a year

visit the gallery

of the academia

to see the original David

the most famous

sculpture in the world.

What are they hoping

to see and feel?

In this age of reproduction

David has become

an image of quality

made cheap

a badge

to be worn

or traded

just like Marilyn Monroe

Elvis

or James Dean

something once unique

now churned out

by the million

industry showing

its mastery

over art.

We are the victims

of images

the only way

in which we can

understand an idea

is if it's presented

to us

in the form

of an image

and there are

certain images

which acquire

this iconic power

images which get

institutionalised

because they

embody ideas

we can understand

the idea of beauty

or the idea

of nobility

or heroism

through the physical

image of

the David

Every time

you do something

to them

ironically

to revise them

or change them

around

you've revised

the idea

and acknowledge

that also

you've grown

to have different

feelings

about it

and our culture

is all about

a whole series

of governing

ideas

These icons

are what

sell those ideas

to us

Advertising

producers

often by quoting

from this grand

classical history

produces extraordinary

images

it tells you

beautiful

entrancing

beguiling

stories

and the David

is very much

part of that

story

I mean one of

the people

who appropriated

it in recent

decades

was Calvin Klein

for his

underwear advertising

campaign

with those enormous

billboards

above Times Square

with models

like Mark Wahlberg

with Michelangelesque

bodies

you know

David's wearing

pairs of jockey

shorts

The problem

with any ideal

view of humanity

in art

is that it can

be made to fit

other sets of ideals

some of them

very grubby

Mussolini

who was his own

idea of a Roman

emperor

was happy to make

political speeches

with the David copy

just beneath his

balcony

David was a

Jewish hero

but clearly

he was not

degenerate art

the fascist leaders

could live with that

there are lots of

reasons to be wary

of an icon

like the David

because the ideas

that it embodies

are ideas that I

think we would

probably be right

to be slightly

suspicious about

it's an image

of heroism

but specifically

of a kind of

muscular heroism

I mean

he's naked

sure

but he's got

a weapon

in his hand

and he's

getting ready

to kill someone

what Hitler

and his tame

sculptors

and painters

and filmmakers

like Lenny

Riefenstahl

the film about

the Olympics

in 1936

in Berlin

did

was to

appropriate

that kind

of Michelangelesque

muscular heroism

take it from

being classical

or Italian

make it Germanic

and if you

wanted to be

a tut

and an Aryan

and a good

Nazi

you had to

resemble

that idea

of beauty

I mean

the whole beauty

business

is about

making everyone

look the same

and making

everyone resemble

some ideal

prototype

Los Angeles

USA

home of

the demilitarized

body beautiful

and perhaps

an ideal place

for an 18 foot

naked man

Americans have

always been happy

to take freely

from all cultures

but that leaves

them sometimes

uncertain

even jittery

about matters

of taste

from KCAL TV

this is

Prime 9 News

a Hancock Park

homeowner

must really love

Michelangelo

but some say

he might have

got a little

overboard

so David

what's up man

what's all the

controversy about

with you man

the rock singer

the rock singer

and songwriter

Norwood Young

has placed 16

blinding white Davids

in a triumphal sweep

around the drive

of his LA villa

the neighbours

protested

and Norwood

responded in song

I don't care

that you block it

I don't care

that you block it

just know

it's not coming down

the Florentine

Puritans

were shocked

by one David

the vigilante

Angelino's

outrage by 16

aside from the

numerical inflation

of the problem

did Norwood Young

expect such

a strong reaction

when I did

what I did

it had nothing

to do with

Michelangelo

so that was

1501

so I had no idea

of knowing

what kind of

ruckus

it caused

then

however

I'm experiencing

it now

so what you're

putting me through

I'd never do it to you

they acted

and reacted

through hatred

through news media

through weaponry

shooting bullets

through my windows

and this that

and the other

and then my reaction

to that was

frankly my dear

I don't give a damn

what David means

to me

now in my life

is more so

than being a symbol

of art

or a great statue

what it is for me

is along with

my heritage

it's a symbol

of freedom

you know

everything else

goes without saying

but now more so

than anything else

when I see

the statue of David

somewhere

I'm like right on

in the long cycles

of history

almost everyone

gets to play

David or Goliath

in turn

these boys of today

with their slings

would say that

Goliath is a Jew

but in any case

Michelangelo's David

has become detached

from the biblical deed

that saved the Israelites

we don't think

of the death of Goliath

when we look at him

even if I'm going

to see him at all

we're acting rather like

medieval pilgrims

visiting a shrine

rather we see

with our modern eyes

a body that is powerful

and prepared

a face that betrays

the sufferings

the neurosis

of conflict

conflict of war

perhaps

but also another

conflict

a sense of an

intelligence

that's unhappy

with the house

of flesh

or marble

that it lives in

that's why

the David

even when he's shown

clothed in underpants

or sunglasses

jeans or a bow tie

never looks

completely wrong

he is

a modern man

I don't know

the only thing

that I can see

in his eyes

is like

is his

praying

praying

for something like

please

I don't want

to suffer anymore

the muscle tones

in his thighs

in his calves

the veins

his arms

the ribs

it's just

astounding

it really is

I think it's

sort of the raw

powerful

passionate

masculine

part of

ourselves

that we are

that it is

really depicted

in this

sculpture

it's been

somehow degraded

by the

continued use

in that popular

sort of sense

but even so

when you go

and you look

at this thing

for the first time

it's just

an amazing

piece of work

I think it

overrides

all of those

other experiences

that I've had

personally

I guess I'm

I guess I'm

wasting time