We went to the Accademia Gallery where the original Michelangelo’s David statue is. There are a lot of copies around Florence but the original is in the gallery here.

David sizes up the giant…he seems to say, "I can take him." The statue was a symbol, inspiring Florentines to tackle their Goliaths….

When you look at David, you're looking at Renaissance man.

Artists like Michelangelo even exaggerated realism to make their point: notice David's large and overdeveloped right hand. This is symbolic of the hand of God. It was God that powered David to slay the giant...and Florentines liked to think God's favor enabled them to rise above rival neighboring city-states. The nave-like hall leading to David is lined with Michelangelo's unfinished prisoners — struggling to break out of the marble. Michelangelo believed these figures were divinely created within the rock. As he attacked the stone with his chisel, he was simply chipping away the excess. Because of the nature of the hero that it represented, it soon came to symbolise the defence of civil liberties embodied in the Florentine Republic, an independent city-state threatened on all sides by more powerful rival states and by the hegemony of the Medici family. The eyes of David, with a warning glare, were turned towards Rome. David’s right hand is larger to emphases the symbolic hand of God, an empowered David to slave Goliath. Florence liked to believe they were favored by God also.