August 2008. We approached the 6 ton statue of David as it stood on display at the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence. The history of the statue begins long before Michelangelo's work on it. In 1463, a large block of marble was provided from a quarry in Carrara, a town in the Apuan Alps in northern Tuscany. Though Leonardo da Vinci and others were consulted, it was Michelangelo, at 26 years of age, who convinced the Operai that he deserved the commission.

On 16 August 1501, Michelangelo was given the official contract and he began carving the statue early in the morning on 13 September. He would work on the massive statue for more than two years from 1501 to 1504. In June 1504, David was installed next to the entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio. It took four days to move the statue the half mile from Michelangelo's workshop. In 1873, the statue of David was removed from the piazza, to protect it from damage, and displayed in the Accademia Gallery of Florence, where it resides today attracting many visitors.