Michelangelo's David
...th. Michelangelo, however, depicted David before the battle, at the moment that he decides to engage in battle with Goliath. Davis is tense, and with a furrowed brow, he is looking over his left shoulder into the distance for Goliath. The slingshot he carries over his shoulder is almost invisible, emphasizing that David's victory will be one of skill, not strength. There is controversy, however, over the statue's supposed Biblical reference. The statue portrays an uncircumcised male, but the original King David was definitely circumcised. Because of this fact, some art historians believe that David was actually the name of the model that posed for the statue, rather than King David himself, and that Michelangelo claimed the Biblical reference to make it acceptable to the Christian world. However, this theory is just speculation. David was carved from one solid block of marble fourteen feet high, and it took three years to complete. The block of marble originally had a chunk carved out of the right side of it, so Michelangelo had to carve David w...