David (Galleria dell'Accademia, Inv. 1076)

A colossal marble statue by Michelangelo, carved between 1501 and 1504 from a single block of Carrara marble, standing 517 centimetres tall. It shows the biblical David nude, a sling draped over his left shoulder and a stone held in his right hand, poised in contrapposto before his battle with Goliath rather than after it, his gaze turned watchfully to one side. Commissioned by the Florentine Wool Guild, the statue was originally installed in the Piazza della Signoria in 1504 as a civic symbol of the Florentine Republic's defiance against more powerful rivals, moved indoors to the Galleria dell'Accademia in 1873 for protection and permanently installed there from 1882, with a full-scale replica placed at the original outdoor site in 1910. It remains one of the most recognized works of Renaissance sculpture and one of the most widely reproduced images of the biblical David. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/