In 1501, 25-year-old Michelangelo Buonarroti began working on his colossal masterpiece statue, the 17-foot-tall marble David. From a huge block of marble that had been abandoned decades earlier by another sculptor, Michelangelo took on the challenge of living up to Donatello and other precursors who had sculpted the same heroic figure. David, portrayed in the Bible as a young shepherd who slew the giant Goliath and went on to become a valiant and just Hebrew king, was a fit symbol of courage and civic duty to guard the city of Florence.
The David is considered a masterpiece, an ideal male form combining heroic strength and human uncertainty. It was erected in 1504 in the public plaza of Florence, the Piazza della Signoria. In 1873, the original was moved to the Accademia delle Belle Arti, where it was better protected for posterity, and a copy of the work was erected in the plaza in 1882.
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