The marble giant in the tribune built just for him
Michelangelo was 26 when, in 1501, he took on a block of marble that other sculptors had abandoned as flawed. Three years later he unveiled David, over five metres tall: not the victorious hero with Goliath's head, but the young man in the tense moment before the fight. It became the symbol of the Florentine Republic.
The statue stood in Piazza della Signoria until 1873, when it was moved to the Galleria dell'Accademia to protect it. The approach is part of the experience: along the corridor stand the unfinished Prisoners, figures that seem to struggle out of the stone, showing how Michelangelo "freed" the form from the block.
Tip: the gallery is small but very busy; book a time slot. The copy in Piazza della Signoria stands where the original was placed in 1504.
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