Michelangelo's Masterpiece: David In 1501, 25-year-old Michelangelo Buonarroti began worki

Michelangelo's Masterpiece: David

In 1501, 25-year-old Michelangelo Buonarroti began working on his colossal masterpiece, the 17- foot-tall marble David. From a huge block of marble that had been abandoned decades earlier by another sculptor, Michelangelo took on the challenge of living up to Donatello and other precursors who had sculpted the same heroic figure. The David, portrayed in the Bible as a young shepherd who slew the giant Goliath and went on to become a valiant and just Hebrew king, was a fit symbol of courage and civic duty to guard the city of Florence.

Michelangelo is a painter, sculptor, and architect. In this era, all three forms of art were thought to be based on disegno, an artistic discipline built on knowledge of the male human form. Sculpture is considered the finest art form. because it mimics divine creation: The sculptural image is found within the block of stone much as the human soul is found within the physical body. The David is considered a masterpiece, an ideal male form. combining heroic strength and human uncertainty. It was erected in 1504 in the public plaza of Florence, the Piazza della Signoria. In 1873, the original was moved to the Accademia delle Belle Arti, where it is better protected for posterity, and a copy of the work was erected in the plaza in 1882.

In 1939, a copy of Michelangelo's masterpiece was installed at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, CA, with one addition: A fig leaf was added to cover the genitals and pubic hair of the statue. The leaf was removed in 1969, and the statue remained in its original state until toppled by an earthquake in 1987.

In November 1969, a poster image of the statue was confiscated by a vice squad in Sydney, Australia, and the manager of the store was charged with obscenity. Daniel Thomas, curator of the New South Wales Art Museum, called the action "incredible, utterly ridiculous." The charges were ultimately dropped.

Debates about the appropriateness of displaying reproductions or photographs of the David in such places as schools, dormitory rooms, and churches continue. Today, the image has become iconic in popular reproductions on T-shirts, refrigerator magnets, and in advertising.

25-year-old Michelangelo Buonarroti

A．did better than Donatello and other precursors had done.

B．did as well as Donatello and other precursors had done.

C．did not live as long as Donatello and other precursors.

D．didn't fail to produce another sculpture of the same figure.