Michelangelo Buonarroti’s David: Historical Review and Proposal for New Identification

This paper offers a synthesis of the evidence presented in the book Adamo: Il segreto che riscrive la storia dell’arte, aiming to demonstrate how an interpretive anachronism led to the misidentification of Michelangelo’s marble Giant as David. Through a detailed analysis of historical sources, the paper proposes a new reading of the sculpture, identifying it as Adam at the moment of Eve’s creation. Why do we call Michelangelo’s Giant “David”? The erroneous identification of the figure represented as David is primarily due to a phrase by Giorgio Vasari, who writes: “Michelagnolo, fatto un modello di cera, finse in quello, per la insegna del Palazzo, un Davit giovane con una frombola in mano.”(which can be translated as: “Michelangelo, having made a wax model, depicted in it, for the insignia of the palace, a young David with a sling in his hand”).However, this passage, when read without considering other historical documents, has been mistakenly interpreted as referring to the marble sculpture. When contextualized, it becomes clear that Vasari was instead referring to the David de Rohan in bronze.

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