Milestone Monday: Michelangelo’s David!
On September 8th, 1504, Michelangelo’s David was unveiled in Florence. The seventeen-foot marble masterpiece stood in front of the Palazzo della Signoria until 1873, when it was moved to the Galleria dell'Accademia, where it remains today. In celebration of David, we present a number of facsimile images of Michelangelo’s sketches.
The first two sketches come directly from the years of preparation for David, 1501-1504, and are collected in Drawings of Michelangelo, published by George Braziller in New York in 1965. The later images are from the portfolio Die Handzeichnungen Michelagniolos Buonarroti, published in Berlin by Julius Bard in 1925 .
And we conclude with one of Michelangelo’s poems, in which he considers his art and its legacy. The Collected Sonnets of Michelangelo Buonarroti, were published in a limited edition of 150 copies by the Kelly-Winterton Press in 2005 out of Pomona, NY. The type was designed by Robert Slimbach on Fabriano paper. John Addington Symonds (1840-1893) translated the poems. This book comes to us from the collection of Jerry Buff (1931-2025).
Check out more Milestone Monday posts!
See more wonderful books donated by Jerry Buff.
-- Amanda, Special Collections Graduate Intern
