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ARTH 316
David’s Scowl
David with “lion like” features and a “cloudy brow” to portray his invisible soul
with the qualities of the lion. Beyond the physical features are the
shoulders, back and chest, the relatively flat hips, the strong neck, large hands
common with a lion and a “courageous” man is a cloudy brow. This same
1
David Summers. Michelangelo – Selected Scholarship in English (New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc. 1995).
2
David Summers. Michelangelo – Selected Scholarship in English (New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc. 1995).
3
David Summers. Michelangelo – Selected Scholarship in English (New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc. 1995).
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In considering the soul of David, Summers quotes part of Petrach’s
sonnets; “is the vice of those who little consider the difficulty of some great act,
and presuming too much of their own powers, believe that they will easily
attain their end. Therefore it is shown by a youth who tries by his strength to
knock a firmly set column to the ground.”4 This quote is important as there is
own quotes referring back to Audacia, “Broken is high the column and the
green {laurel}” and “David with his sling and I with my bow”. Even with this
feelings regarding his accomplishment with the perfection in David rather than
a reference to Physiognomy.5
considering the entire picture, there are many other possibilities Summers did
not consider for the physical build and facial features of the David. To begin,
the piece of marble from which Michelangelo carved David was old, already
of the features of David merely recall the masters of antiquity and improved on
4
David Summers. Michelangelo – Selected Scholarship in English (New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc. 1995).
5
David Summers. Michelangelo – Selected Scholarship in English (New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc. 1995).
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their form. David portrayed, as a male nude hero would have been a common
mark on the art world, would have wanted to surpass the work of the antiquity
hair could in fact be the artist’s portrayal of Alexander the Great, a well-known
Michelangelo’s lion-like nature rather than from physical attributes set out by
Michelangelo victorious over not only a piece of marble, which was considered
6
Nancy H. Ramage and Andrew Ramage, Roman Art (New Jersey: Pearson Printice Hall, 2005): 81.
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Bibliography
Ramage, Nancy H., and Andrew Ramage. Roman Art (New Jersey: Pearson
Printice Hall, 2005).