ROCKY'S ITALY: The Accademia Gallery in Florence

When people visit the Academia for the first time to see the David, I usually stop them right here and I prepare them psychologically and emotionally for the impact of seeing such a great sculpture for the first time. Take a deep breath and follow me. Now I'm kidding but I'm not kidding about preparing you psychologically for entering into this museum because in my opinion this is the most successful presentation of any work of art anywhere on planet Earth and most people come into this museum have very high expectations and I think when you finally see the David live it's even better it exceeds your expectations. In fact the exact opposite of this meaning a very famous work of art which when you finally see it in person ultimately disappoints you would be something like the Mona Lisa and it's not her fault that she's only this big. Obviously the David has a major advantage. Now I think most of you know where David was supposed to go that is on top of Florence Cathedral. I think most of you now know where he ended up and that is in front of City Hall or Palazzo Vecchio where the copy stands today and in fact that is where this statue stood for exactly 369 years until it was moved into this museum in 1873. Now the decision to move it indoors was made in the 1860s because the sculpture was beginning to show serious signs of erosion. Standing outside for so long really began to take its toll on the sculpture. People forget that David was once polished but all that polish has worn away. When you get close to the sculpture you see there's quite a bit of erosion on David's right shoulder. His left foot. And this sort of 1980s mullet hairstyle that David has going is also not original. Rain washed down what was originally more of a 1970s style perm. So what they were worried about was enough erosion leading to structural damage. In other words an arm or a leg or something falling off. So the decision was made to move it indoors. But the question was where do you move such a large statue. There was not a museum in Florence big enough to accommodate it. So the decision was made to build an entire museum for the statue of David. And that museum is the one that we're in today. And the architect here was very clever because he designed a neoclassical style space whose proportions are a little too small for the statue. Those columns leading down to David. That arch above David and most importantly that cornice behind him that sort of intersects his neck. All make David look larger than he actually is. In fact one of my favorite games is to have people estimate how large that statue appears to be from this distance. And the answer is 17 feet 1 inch. Although to me every time I walk into this museum he appears to be well over 20 feet tall. That is the effect of the architectural surrounding. The point of this is that the context of a work of art does a tremendous amount to influence your experience of it.