David (Bernini)

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This article is about the sculpture David by Bernini. For other sculptures, see David (disambiguation)

Bernini's David (1623-24) is a revolutionary statement in the history of art, and is considered among the first truly baroque statues.

Under the patronage of Cardinal Scipione Borghese, young Bernini rapidly rose to prominence as a sculptor; Scipione's villa, now Galleria Borghese, chronicles his secular sculptures, with a series of masterpieces including, and leading up to his David, completed by him and his studio, when Bernini was merely 25 years old. The muscular warrior coils in his original plinth [link]. Bernini's David is poised to release his rock, in contrast to vertical poses of the Florentine Davids of prior generations, such as the triumphant glare of the famous Michelangelo's David or the haughty effeteness of the post-battle Donatello's bronze, or Donatello's marble [], or Verrocchio's[link] Davids.

The twisted torso, furrowed forehead, and granite grimace of Bernini's "David" is symptomatic of the baroque's interest in dynamic movement and emotion over High Renaissance stasis and classic severity. Below him are armour and a disguised harp. Bernini's David appears to be the eldest of all the Italian sculptures mentioned above. Michelangelo expresses David's heroic nature; Bernini captures the heroic moment. In political terms, it can be said Michelangelo's David epitomizes a Florentine republic that would not allow defeat; Bernini's David is a Counter-Reformation Rome anxious for a fight. Or could it be the young ambitious Bernini aiming his projectile at the hagiographic Michelangelo oeuvre?

External links

[Checklist of Bernini's architecture and sculpture in Rome]

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