ITALY: FLORENCE PLANS CELEBRATIONS AS MICHELANGELO'S DAVID STATUE SET TO TURN 500 YEARS OLD

Record ID: 190064

  • Title: ITALY: FLORENCE PLANS CELEBRATIONS AS MICHELANGELO'S DAVID STATUE SET TO TURN 500 YEARS OLD
  • Date: 6th September 2004
  • Summary: (EU)FLORENCE, ITALY (SEPTEMBER 6, 2004) (REUTERS) VARIOUS PRESENTATION ANNOUNCING BIRTHDAY PREPARATIONS (2 SHOTS) DAVID'S ANKLE MCU (Italian) SUPERINTENDENT OF CITY MUSEUMS, ANTONIO PAOLUCCI SAYING: "He's a good looking guy with fragile ankles because when Michelangelo worked his marble he lightened the lower part a bit too much - having said this there is no risk the statue will collapse it will remain like this not for the next 500 but 5,000 years. VARIOUS STATUE OF DAVID (4 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 21st September 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: FLORENCE, ITALY
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: Arts
  • Reuters ID: LVACXXEC3AUCH6WLO3IX61B1LJOT
  • Story Text: Florence plans celebrations as Michelangelo's world-famous David statue set to turn 500 years old.
    On Wednesday (September 8), 500 years to the day that the icon of Renaissance male beauty was unveiled for the people of Florence, his modern-day co-citizens will kick off nine months of events to celebrate his very special birthday.
    Florentine officials are preparing to fete the man who most women would agree has a very nice rear end. Tall and handsome, he also has the kind of Baywatch muscles that would make many of both sexes drool.
    He is Michelangelo's statue of David.
    But most of all, arts officials want the half-millennium of one of the world's most famous nude statues to get people looking forward and not only backwards.
    "It's now the time that we really begin to understand, to show, to go deeper into how much David, Michelangelo, ancient art can mean to our present and future." said Franca Falletti, director of the Academia Gallery where David is displayed.
    "Rather than sending him to his pension we are putting him back to work," Falletti said.
    The celebrations for David's birthday will include concerts, fireworks, symposiums and exhibitions and of course an official David 500 T-shirt plus the obvious unofficial David souvenirs already available on the streets.
    One thing is certain - David has certainly not lost any of his appeal over the years.
    "Absolutely I'd go for him - he's kept his age well - he's gorgeous - 500 years that's fantastic," said Hila, a tourist from New Zealand.
    "I don't think he looks a day over 22, he's the same age when Michelangelo made him. That's great - 500 years is a long time and he will be around for another 5,000 years I hope," said Pat Fisico, a tourist from Canada.
    A 26-year-old Michelangelo sculpted David, who is more than 4-metres high, between 1502 and 1504 from a single piece of poor quality marble other sculptors had rejected.
    Earlier this year, restorers gave the symbol of the Florentine Republic a controversial eight-month mild cleaning, an intervention some called a $600,000 sponge bath.
    David, who wears only his slingshot, has seen the best and the worst of times in Italy's premiere Renaissance city.
    In 1527, he lost the lower half of his left arm in a riot. In 1810, the statue was covered with a protective wax, and in 1843 an attempt to remove the wax with hydrochloric acid also stripped away some of the original patina.
    In 1991, a crazed Italian artist smashed one of his toes with a hammer.
    And many now fear for Davids weak ankles after 500 years of standing up.
    "He's a good looking guy with fragile ankles because when Michelangelo worked his marble he lightened the lower part a bit too much - having said this there is no risk the statue will collapse. It will remain like this not for the next 500 but 5,000 years," the Superintendent of City Museums, Antonio Paolucci said reassuringly.
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