David

The block of marble from which Michelangelo carved David had been sitting in a Florence workshop for over 25 years, abandoned after two earlier sculptors had attempted and failed to work with it. Michelangelo was commissioned by the Opera del Duomo of Florence in 1501, aged 26, and completed the work in 1504. The block had been stored outside and was known as 'the Giant.'

When the work was complete, a committee of leading Florentine artists — including Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli — convened to decide where to place it. They chose the Piazza della Signoria, the civic heart of Florence, rather than the cathedral as originally intended, making David a symbol of the Florentine Republic's political independence. A full-scale replica now stands in its original outdoor position.