Michelangelo was born in the year 1475 in Buonarroti family in Caprese, Florence, Italy. He was the only artist of his age who had the opportunity to be schooled until he turned 13 years old. Afterwards, in the year 1488, he became a student of the famous painters of the time in Florence known as the Ghirlandaio brothers. The year after that he took the training to carve sculptors in San Marco (Salcman, 2006).
His talents as an artist were first recognized in his teens when he painted the Madonna of the Stairs which was inspired by Donatello and the Battle of the Centaurs. In 1496, in Rome, he painted the Bacchus. During the same period, he also painted the Virgin and the Child with St John and Angels. By the year 1500, Michelangelo had become
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In 1501, in Florence, he was commissioned a 50 feet high David for the front of the Duomo. Some other artist had already begun carving this David. It was the first big assignment that Michelangelo had received in his home city. He wanted to make it grand so he made changes to its general Florence interpretation. Once the statue had been completed, it was so unique and grand that the Duomo committee decided to place it in an area that was more prominent, ultimately choosing the Palazzo Vecchio (Holroyd, 2006).
Michelangelo made his David quite unlike the David of Donatello. It was not only gigantic but its heroism was much grander in form. He was not very pompous however, the David had over large hands to connote the reputation of David as being ‘strong of hand’. Here, the symbolism of David’s characteristic has been naturalized in his anatomy. Many artists before Michelangelo have shown Goliath’s head underneath David’s and David is standing on it. Michelangelo decided to present the David before the battle happened. In this portrayal, David still has his sling on his left shoulder while he has the rock in his right hand. Taking this perspective on David, Michelangelo was able to show that the victory of David was not due to his lone efforts but happened because of help from God (Arshad & Fitzgerald,