- Replicas of Michelangelo's David
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Palazzo della Signoria inFlorence ,Italy .]Replicas of
Michelangelo 's "David" have been endlessly reproduced, inplaster , imitationmarble ,fibreglass and other materials, and lends an atmosphere of culture even in some unlikely settings. By the twentieth century, the statue had become iconic shorthand for 'culture'. There are many full-sized replicas of the statue around the world, perhaps the most prominent being the one in the original's position in thePiazza della Signoria inFlorence ,Italy , placed there when the original was moved indoors in 1910. Others were made for study at art academies in the late nineteenth century and later, while the iconic image has also been replicated for various commercial reasons or as artistic statements in their own right. Smaller replicas are often consideredkitsch . [John Launer, "The many faces of David", QJM: An International Journal of Medicine, 2005, Volume 98, Number 10 Pp. 777-778, Oxford University Press [http://qjmed.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/extract/98/10/777] ]tudy replicas
A plaster cast copy at the Cast Courts at the
Victoria and Albert Museum inLondon was intended for the education of art students, and had a detachablefig leaf , used for addedmodesty during visits byQueen Victoria and other important ladies, when it was hung on the figure using two strategically placed hooks.cite web |url= http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/sculpture/stories/david/index.html |title= David's Fig Leaf |publisher=Victoria and Albert Museum |accessdate= 2007-05-29] Also intended for students were the cast in thePhiladelphia Museum of Art and in the open air Middelheim Sculpture Museum in Antwerp, Belgium. A replica installed at the Administrative Building of theUniversity of Pune on Aundh Road is part of the legacy of theBritish Raj .Gifts
In 1995, a
replica of "David" was offered as a gift by the municipality of Florence to the municipality ofJerusalem to mark the 3,000th anniversary of David's conquest of the city. The proposed gift evoked a storm in Jerusalem, where religious factions urged the gift be declined, because the naked figure was consideredpornographic . Finally, a compromise was reached and another, fully-clad replica of a different statue was donated instead.A copy of "David" was presented to the city of Buffalo,
United States and the Buffalo Historical Society by Andrew Langdon, a businessman and scholar. Langdon had seen the statue on exhibit at theParis Exposition of 1900 ; negotiating with the Neapolitan firm of bronze founders who had cast it (Angelus and Sons), he bought it and exacted an agreement that they would not send another to the United States. The statue now stands inDelaware Park . [ [http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=12117U216154K.72&profile=ariall&uri=link=3100006~!208572~!3100001~!3100002&aspect=Browse&menu=search&ri=4&source=~!siartinventories&term=Angelus+%26+Sons%2C+founder.&index= Smithsonian] ]Other examples
A replica of "David" can also be found at the
Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale , [Now without fig leaf, an earlier fig-leafed version having been toppled by an earthquake in 1971 - see Jessica Mitford, "The American Way of Death Revisited", p.102, 1998, Vintage Books, ISBN:0679771867] , at the "Appian Way Shops" atCaesars Palace inLas Vegas, Nevada . [ [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=89doV_QHCcoC&pg=PA141&dq=Replica+of+Michelangelo%27s+David&lr=&sig=V50uDwpXoy29hrnLZqeHLzbCXZ0 Frommer's Portable Las Vegas] ] Abronze replica also stands in the courtyard of theJohn and Mable Ringling Museum of Art inSarasota, Florida and in Fawick Park inSioux Falls ,South Dakota .In 1965, David Sollazzini and Sons of Florence, Italy created a Carrara mable replica for the Palace of Living Art at the
Movieland Wax Museum inBuena Park, California . TheCarrara marble used for this replica was taken from Michelangelo's own quarry near Pietrasanta, Italy. This replica was later sold to Ripley Entertainment for theRipley's Believe It or Not! Museum inSt. Augustine, Florida .Appropriations
There is a full scale replica of "David" on the campus of
California State University, Fullerton that lays broken in pieces on the ground. It was brought to campus by a professor in 1988 after it was damaged in the1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake . Visitors often touch the sculptural remains, whether for tactile study or, in a new student tradition, David's dislocated but upturned buttocks for general good luck. [ [http://media.www.dailytitan.com/media/storage/paper861/news/2007/02/15/News/Campus.Art.Is.Cold.Sweet.Naked-2722249.shtml Daily Titan] ]Also in
southern California , a resident of the Hancock Park neighbourhood inLos Angeles has decorated his house and grounds with twenty-three reduced scale replicas of the statue. [Daniel Yi, "House of 'David': When 17 replicas of Michelangelo's famed statue adorn the outside of a home, is it art or excess?," "Los Angeles Times", Metro (Nov 17, 1997): 1.]In 2007,
Märklin produced aZ scale (1:220) bronze replica of the Statue of David, which stood approximately 1.6 inches (41 mm) tall. The statue accompanied the "museumswagen" for that year, a collector car offered in the Märklin museum inGöppingen to celebrate the Germanfoundry Strassacker.tanford miniature replica
In 2004, as part of
Stanford University 's "Digital Michelangelo Project", a highly accurate 15 inch replica was made byGentle Giant Studios mechanically reproducing their digital scans of the original. Ignoring the advice of an Italian sculptor to soften the features of a reduced-scale copy "otherwise, it appears precious and cartoony", the results were felt to be satisfactory, if "angular when viewed in person, especially around his face." [ [http://graphics.stanford.edu/projects/mich/replica/replica.html Stanford, including comparisons with two small commercial replicas] ]References
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