David (detail)

The sculptor Agostino di Duccio (1418–1481) had made a monumental sculpture of Hercules for the external wall of the Florence Cathedral, and in 1464 he received another block of marble to carve a similar figure representing David for the Cathedral. Duccio’s work ended in failure as well as that of Antonio Rossellino (1427/8–1479) to whom the block of marble was offered. Finally the marble block was given to Michelangelo in 1501 and he finished in 1504 the nude figure of the statue of David, standing in contrapposto and inspired strongly from Antiquity. After the statue was completed the council of Florence decided to place it outside the Palazzo Vecchio instead of the Cathedral. The most celebrated and emblematic sculpture by Michelangelo was moved in the building of the Accademia di Belle Arti (now Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence) in 1873. Many plaster cast collections and art academies purchased a copy of David, but frequently only the plaster cast of the head of David was acquired. The Museum of Fine Arts as well ordered only the copy of the head in 1906, which was exhibited above the entrance in the Michelangelo Room in 1909. This plaster cast is installed in Kecskemét at the House of Science and Technology since 1976, together with other fourteen plaster casts after Michelangelo’s statues.