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Michelangelo in Florence: 'David' in 1503 and 'Hercules' in 1506 Author(S): Michael Hirst Source: the Burlington Magazine, Vol

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Michelangelo in Florence: 'David' in 1503 and 'Hercules' in 1506 Author(S): Michael Hirst Source: the Burlington Magazine, Vol Michelangelo in Florence: 'David' in 1503 and 'Hercules' in 1506 Author(s): Michael Hirst Source: The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 142, No. 1169 (Aug., 2000), pp. 487-492 Published by: The Burlington Magazine Publications, Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/888855 Accessed: 26/05/2009 17:00 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=bmpl. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The Burlington Magazine Publications, Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Burlington Magazine. http://www.jstor.org MICHAEL HIRST Michelangeloin Florence: 'David' in 1503 and 'Hercules' in 1506* AT first sight, the chronology of the works that Michelangelo 12. David,by undertook after his return from Rome to Florence in 1501 Michelangelo. Marble,ht. 513.5 might seem fairly free of problems. For the great public cm. includingbase undertakings of these first Florentine years - the marble David (Galleria for the del Duomo the second of twelve mar- dell'Academia, Opera (Fig.12), Florence). ble Apostles likewise for the Opera, and the bronze David for the republican government - contracts survive. As we should expect, each contained clear stipulations concerning the time allowed for completion. To summarise very familiar facts: in the contract of 16th August 1501, Michelangelo was allowed two years to complete the marble David;in that for the bronze Davidof 12th August 1502 he was allowed six months; and in that for the Apostles, dated 24th April 1503, he was bound to deliver one statue every year over the following twelve years.' Added to these projects was the obligation he had brought with him from Rome in the spring of 1501, to deliver fifteen statues destined for the Piccolomini altar in Siena Cathedral within the following three years. In the agreement signed by Michelangelo in Florence on 19thJune 1501, he undertook to accept no other work prior to the completion of Cardinal Francesco Piccolomini's assignment.2 Just over eight weeks later, he signed the contract for the marble David.3 Unsurprisingly, contractual obligations and the reality of their observance begin to diverge in these early years of the new century. But this seems not to have happened all at once. For my purpose here is to introduce a small piece of evidence which goes far to vindicate the artist's record in the case of the marble David. As already noted, he had been obliged by the terms of the contract to complete the statue by August 1503. In the majority of accounts of the commission, it seems to have become traditional to state that the Davidwas effectively finished in the early months of 1504.4 In fact, the gigantemust have been substantially completed by mid-summer 1503. Proof of this can be found in a very brief Deliberazione of the Operai of the Cathedral dated 16thJune 1503. This makes provision for a public viewing of the statue one week David was to be opened. The text reads 'Dicta die [i.e. 16th later, on 23rdJune, the eve of one of Florence's most impor- June] Item deliberaveruntper tresfabas nigras deliberaveruntetc. tant feast days, that of the Birth of St John the Baptist, the qualiterdie 23 videlicetvigilia S. Joannis Baptisteaperiatur hostium city's most important patron saint. On the day mentioned, gigantis et tota dicta die apertumsit adeo quodpossit viderigigas the door of the structure which had been built around the marmoreusab omnibusvolentibus videre etc. mandantes'.5 *This articleis dedicatedto Paola Barocchi,and is an amplifiedand illustratedver- the much discussed 'nodum'four days earlier;K. FREY:'Studien zu Michelagniolo sion of one planned for a celebratoryvolume which has remained unpublished. Buonarrotiund zur Kunst seiner Zeit',Jahrbuch der Koniglich Preussischen Kunstsamm- A few offprints,dated 1997, were printed by Riccardo Ricciardi and circulated.I lungen,XXX [1909], Beiheft,p.107, no.10. am grateful to Giovanni Agosti,Jill Burke, Brenda Preyer and Diane Zervas for 4Thisconclusion is based on the descriptionof the statue as 'quasifinita'in the pre- discussingpoints in the above text with me. A particulardebt to LucillaBardeschi amble to the praticaofJanuary 1504 (forwhich see MILANESI,op. cit. at note 1 above, Ciulichis recordedin note 35, and I am gratefulto GabriellaBattista for improving p.620). the transcriptionof the documentprinted in the Appendix. SFlorence,Archivio dell'Opera del Duomo (hereaftercited as AOD), Seconda Seria IG. MILANESI:Le letteredi MichelangeloBuonarroti pubblicate coi ricordi ed i contrattiartistici, II, 9, Deliberazione1496-1507, fol.59v.The text of this Deliberazioneis to be found Florence [1875], pp.620-23, 624, and 625-26 respectively,for the three contracts. neitherin G. POGGI: IIDuomo di Firenze,ed. M.HAINES, Florence [1988] (originaledi- For a complete transcription of that for the bronze David, see F. CAGLIOTI: 11 David tion Berlin [1909]) nor in the documentsrelating to the Davidpublished in FREY, loc. bronzeo di Michelangelo(e Benedetto da Rovezzano):il problemadei pagamenti', cit.at note 3 above in 1909. My own attentionwas drawnto it by a note in the Carte in AdAlessandroConti (1946-1994), Quadernidel Seminario di Storiadella critica d'arte, VI, Pogginow on deposit at the IstitutoNazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento.I have no Pisa [1996], pp.110-11. doubt that GiovanniPoggi returnedto study this volume of Deliberazioniat some 2A copy of the contract survivesin the Archivio Buonarroti,Codice 2-3, no.2. date followingthe appearanceof his own book and Frey'spublication of the same A dependable transcriptionhas not been published. For a very imperfect one, year.The completion of the 'turata'around the block in 1501 is documented(ibid., see H.R. MANCUSI-UNGARO,JR.: Michelangelo,the Bruges Madonna and thePiccolomini Altar, p. 107, nos.12 and 13 and other minorreferences which survivein the Opera Stanzi- New Haven and London [1971], pp.64-73. amenti).For a catalogueof the Poggi papers,see IstitutoNazionale di Studisul Rinasci- 3Michelangelo began work on the block on 13th Septemberafter having removed mento.Biblioteca dell'Istituto. Carte Poggi, ed. R. TEMPIERI,Florence [1997]. 487 MICHELANGELO IN FLORENCE This public 'exhibition'of the gigante,eight months before However,for our present concerns, the most interestingpart the extended term agreed in 1502 for its completion, seven of the text (see the Appendix) is a reference to the possible months before the celebrated meeting of January 1504 to use by Michelangelohimself of some of the marble.We read decide on its location, and nearly a year before its laborious '... et tuttoel marmoche detto Matteo conduciessi ofaciessi condurre transportationto the Piazza della Signoria, reminds us that qui abbia a essereet sia di dettaopera tutto a dichiaratione,parere et already,in February1502, the statuehad been referredto as vogliadi dettioperai . .. exceptoche se dettoMatteo ne rechasseper 'iamsemifactum'. The 1503 showing also effectivelydisposes MichelagnoloBonarroti, che quella quantitd per lui rechatasia di detto of the notion that, because of alleged political implications, Michelagnololiberamente et per suo chontoet lavorareper se proprio Michelangelo'swork on the Davidwas shrouded in secrecy, et nonper altri.. .'. Payments to Matteo for the condottaof the the statue carriedout in an atmosphereof concealment that three hundred migliaiaare recorded in the Opera Stanzia- persisted until the meeting ofJanuary 1504.6 menti; the firstnotice seems to be of May 1503.'2 Such a display of a work of art at the time of the Feast of We cannot establishfor what purposeMichelangelo might StJohn the Baptistwas not unprecedented.But the circum- have required such marble in late 1502 without further stances in this case seem particularlystriking, and bring to evidence. The multiplicityof commissionsreferred to earlier mind the public showing of Leonardo'scartoon of the Holy makes the problem particularly difficult. In a brief note Familyand St Anne at SS. Annunziatain the springof 1501.7 on the issue, Giovanni Poggi speculated as to whether the One or two implications of the public exhibition of the materialcould have been destinedfor the group of the Virgin DavidinJune 1503 will be returnedto below.But at this point andChild undertaken for the Mouscheronor for the two mar- we may turn to another Opera document of some months ble tondi.These cannot be excluded.But a furtherpossibility, earlier,a lengthy text of a Deliberazione of 28th November which he did not mention, is that Michelangelowas expect- 1502
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