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Chiltern Railways 168 113 runs through Bordesley station with 1H43 14.54 Birmingham Moor Street to London Marylebone. The station only sees one train a week, in one direction, so the help point probably doesn't see much use.
Should you or your friend be heading off to Japan, please kindly buy a bottle of 500ml distilled water and batteries(2As and 3As). Simply hand them over to H.I.S counter in the airport when you arrived.
For details please visit:
Too often we are told that we cannot. We cannot do this, we cannot do that. We are forced into a small area in which we are allowed to roam, as if in a caste system. Sometimes we find ourselves vying to escape this frame that we’re trapped in, and it can seem impossible to be set free. But eventually, you can’t help but wonder what kind of things could be waiting on the other side?
Obra de arte que va a ser donada para ayuda de los niños desplazados por la violencia en Colombia.....
acrílico sobre lienzo
by kami
Just a friendly ghost trying to escape...
(Actually, a clever concept done by an art student)
The University of Alabama
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Okay I have no clue how many of you even will look at this photo since I haven't been on or uploaded to Flickr in months and months and like over a year :P But I would really appreciate your help! I finally started a wedding and portrait photography business and made a page on facebook. Apparently facebook doesn't allow you to suggest to friends anymore? Or maybe it's glitching, either way I don't want to look like an idiot with only like...10 people liking my page so if you could head over to facebook and "Like" "Sarah Jean Photography" I would REALLY appreciate it! Remember:
facebook.com/sarahjeanphotography
Thank you!
Oh yeah and you can follow me on twitter at twitter.com/sarahjeanphoto hehe :D
Eid is almost here and we're about to bid Ramadan farewell, how are you making the most of the last days of the holy month?
A: I'm all ready to help out Japan. These are set to go.
S!: Wow, what a stash! You've got everything there but the kitchen sink.
A: Oh, thanks for reminding me. Laudree went to pick the white Re-ment sink.
S!: You seriously got THE white Re-ment sink?! That's excellent. It'll really help out our cause.
A: Yes, now can you help me up? I've been here for hours.
**********
Abbey is preparing to send out all these Re-ments.
A Saturday run out from the Griffin in Newton le Willows to Southport (the cara!) in aid of Help for Heroes.
More Info at : www.numbumrun.co.uk/
Help the police to reach the man who is playing money. Find out who is on that side /.Ajude o policial chegar até ao homem que está jogando dinheiro. Descubra quem está de que lado.
The driver of the Ford Sierra must have smiled to himself as he saw HELP on the side of East Midland Routemaster YTS 820A RM 1599 cutting the corner in Clipstone on 06-09-90.
As you may recall, I'm the editor of Everywhere, a user-generated travel magazine. The next issue of Everywhere will include a 14-page feature about travel to San Francisco, and I need your help to make it fabulous.
The package will be a collection of articles, photos, and tips about how to enjoy San Francisco like the locals do. What neighborhoods, stores, restaurants, bars, or events do you put on your must-see list? The quirky, the offbeat, and the unexpected are most welcome. SF's best places to hide on a foggy day? A visitor's guide to understanding Frank Chu? The battle of the best burritos? The city's most under-explored neighborhoods?
Submissions can be as simple as a single photo (with caption, please), or you can add a place to our local guide map, or you can get your prose on and write an article. If you've ever wanted to get published as a travel writer or photographer, here's your chance. Just create a free account at www.everywheremag.com/, and contribute away. Any questions? Just ask.
The deadline for submissions is August 28, 2008.
Photo by Michael Brunk / nwlens.com
Stills from the first read-thru and blocking rehearsal for Breeders Theater's production of "Help Desk" by T.M. Sell. Opens July 15, 2011 at the E.B. Foote Winery in Burien, WA.
De Helper is a water pumping windmill. It was built in 1863, dismantled in 1969 and rebuilt in 1971. In the distance, hundreds of ice skaters can be seen taking part in an ice skating tour, over a 10km circuit.
This picture was taken with a camera suspended from a kite line. More in my photostream.
Ice is melting at an alarming rate due to rise in the water temperature. Polar Bears and having a harder and harder time finding places to live.
Florenz - David
Replica of the statue in front of the Palazzo Vecchio
Kopie der Statue vor dem Palazzo Vecchio
David is a masterpiece of Italian Renaissance sculpture, created from 1501 to 1504 by Michelangelo. With a height of 5.17 metres (17 ft 0 in), the David was the first colossal marble statue made in the early modern period following classical antiquity, a precedent for the 16th century and beyond. David was originally commissioned as one of a series of statues of twelve prophets to be positioned along the roofline of the east end of Florence Cathedral (Duomo di Firenze), but was instead placed in the public square in front of the Palazzo della Signoria, the seat of civic government in Florence, where it was unveiled on 8 September 1504. In 1873, the statue was moved to the Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence, and in 1910 replaced at the original location by a replica.
The biblical figure David was a favoured subject in the art of Florence. Because of the nature of the figure it represented, the statue soon came to symbolize the defence of civil liberties embodied in the 1494 constitution of the Republic of Florence, an independent city-state threatened on all sides by more powerful rival states and by the political aspirations of the Medici family.
History
Commission
The history of the statue of David begins before Michelangelo's work on it from 1501 to 1504. The commission was made during a decisive period in the history of the Florentine republic established after the expulsion of the Medici. The advantages of democratic government never materialized, and internal circumstances grew worse as dangers from without increased. Lorenzo de' Medici's successors and their supporters were a constant threat to the republic, and it was in defiance of the menace they represented that the project of a marble David was renewed.
The Overseers of the Office of Works, known as the Operai del Duomo, were officers of the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, the organisation charged with the construction and maintenance of the new Cathedral of Florence. The Operai consisted of a 12-member committee that organized competitions, chose the best entries, commissioned the prevailing artists, and paid for the finished work.[8] Most of them were members of the influential woolen cloth guild,[9] the Arte della Lana. They had plans long before Michelangelo's involvement to commission a series of twelve large sculptures of Old Testament prophets for the twelve spurs, or protrusions, generated by the four diagonal buttresses that helped support the enormous weight of the cathedral dome.
In 1410, Donatello had made the first of the series of statues, a colossal figure of Joshua in terracotta, gessoed and painted white to give it the appearance of marble at a distance. Although Charles Seymour Jr says Donatello's protégé Agostino di Duccio was commissioned in 1463 to create a terracotta figure of Hercules for the series, almost certainly under the supervision of Donatello, Paoletti writes that "The term 'hercules' may not be a specific indication of the subject of the figure but simply a synonym... used at the time for a 'giant' or very large figure."
Ready to continue their project, in 1464 the Operai contracted Agostino to create a marble sculpture of the young David, a symbol of Florence, to be mounted high on the eastern end of the Duomo. This was to be formed in the Roman manner from several blocks of marble, but in 1465 Agostino himself went to Carrara, a town in the Apuan Alps, and acquired a very large block of bianco ordinario from the Fantiscritti quarry. He began work on the statue but got only as far as beginning to shape the torso, legs, and feet, roughing out drapery, and possibly hollowing a hole between the legs. For unknown reasons his work on the block of marble halted with the death of his master Donatello in 1466. Antonio Rossellino, also a Florentine, was commissioned in 1476 to resume the work, but the contract was apparently rescinded, and the block lay neglected and exposed to the weather in the yard of the cathedral workshop for another twenty-five years. This was of great concern to the Operai authorities, as such a large piece of marble was not only costly, but represented considerable labour and difficulty in its transportation to Florence.
In 1500, an inventory of the cathedral workshops described the piece as "a certain figure of marble called David, badly blocked out and supine." A year later, documents showed that the Operai were determined to find an artist who could take this large piece of marble and turn it into a finished work of art. They ordered that the block of stone, which they called il gigante (the giant), be "raised on its feet" so that a master experienced in this kind of work might examine it and express an opinion. Though Leonardo da Vinci among others was consulted, and Andrea Sansovino was also keen to get the commission, 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 to undertake this task. It said (English translation of the Latin text):
... the Consuls of the Arte della Lana and the Lords Overseers being met, have chosen as sculptor to the said Cathedral the worthy master, Michelangelo, the son of Lodovico Buonarrotti, a citizen of Florence, to the end that he may make, finish and bring to perfection the male figure known as the Giant, nine braccia in height, already blocked out in marble by Maestro Agostino grande, of Florence, and badly blocked; and now stored in the workshops of the Cathedral. The work shall be completed within the period and term of two years next ensuing, beginning from the first day of September ...
He began carving the statue early in the morning on 13 September, a month after he was awarded the contract. The contract provided him a workspace in the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore behind the Duomo, paid him a salary of six fiorini per month, and allowed him two years to complete the sculpture.
When the finished statue was moved from the Opera del Duomo to the Piazza della Signoria over the course of four days, as reported by two contemporary diarists, Luca Landucci and Pietro di Marco Parenti, a guard was placed to protect it from violence by other artists in Florence who had hoped for the commission. They were hostile to Michelangelo because of his bold request to the wardens of the Cathedral and the governor of the city, Piero Soderini. Despite the precaution, the sculpture was damaged by stones, leaving still visible marks on the upper part of its back. Four youths from prominent Florentine families were subsequently arrested by the Otto di Guardia and all but one were imprisoned for what may have been simple vandalism without a political motive.
Process
Michelangelo regarded a single block of stone as containing all the possible conceptions for a work of art, and believed that the artist's task is sculpting the marble block to reveal the ideal form within, an expression of his Neo-Platonic belief that body and mind are separate, and must work in concert and strive to attain union with one another and with the divine. In later years, speaking of his early commissions sculpting marble, he contended that he was merely liberating figures that were already existent in the stone, and that he could see them in his mind's eye.
Giorgio Vasari wrote of Michelangelo sculpting the Prisoners that his method was to chisel the parts in highest relief first, then gradually revealing the lower parts. According to Franca Falletti, the passage describes Michelangelo's process of working marble in general. Lengthy preparatory work was done before the actual sculpting began – this included sketches, drawings and the making of small-scale terracotta or wax models. After these preliminary studies he went directly to sculpting the marble, using the method described by Vasari. He chiseled layer after layer from the main face of the stone, and then gradually more and more of the other sides. The unfinished state of the Prisoners demonstrates this process, and David must have been sculpted in the same manner.
The massive block of white marble that was to become the David, measuring nine braccia in length, was of bianco ordinario grade stone, rather than the superior statuario. It came from the old Roman Fantiscritti quarry at the centre of the Carrara marble basins,[15] and had been transported by oxen-pulled carts to the sea, whence it was carried on barges dragged by oxen up the river Arno to Florence.
The Operai del Duomo had raised the block to an upright position prior to the first inspection of their purchase, but a scaffolding had to be built so that Michelangelo could reach every part. The artist, who made his steel chisels himself, began cutting the stone with the subbia, a heavy, pointed iron tool used to rough out the main mass, before he employed the two-toothed shorter blade called the calcagnuolo. By the time he began to use the three-toothed gradina, a serrated claw chisel whose marks are seen in his unfinished sculptures, the basic form of the statue was emerging from the matrix. When he sculpted David's hair and the pupils of his eyes, he used the trapano, a drill worked with a bow, like the ancient sculptors.
Michelangelo did without flat chisels in his sculpturing, and brought his pieces to the state of non finito almost entirely with toothed chisels. During the 2003 restoration of David, Italian researchers observed marks of the subbia, the sharpened subbia da taglio, the slightly flattened unghietto (fingernail), and the gradina, as well as marks from a smaller-toothed chisel, the dente di cane (dog's tooth). They found no evidence of Michelangelo using flat chisels in the work.
A node of marble on the gigante that Michelangelo chiseled away before he began work on David in earnest has been interpreted by historians as a knot of drapery, based on the surmise that Agostino di Duccio's figure was intended to be clothed. Irving Lavin proposes that the node may have been a point, that is, a knob of marble left purposely by Agostino as a fixed reference for a mechanical transfer measuring off his statue from the model. Lavin suggests that Agostino's aborted attempt was the result of an error in his pointing system, and that if his conjecture is correct, it may illuminate a note added in the margin next to the passage in the commission giving il gigante to Michelangelo:
The said Michelangelo began to work on the said giant on the morning of 13 September 1501, although a few days earlier, on 9 September, he had with one or two blows of the chisel (uno vel duo ictibus) removed a certain nodus (quoddam nodum) that it had on its chest.
Placement
On 25 January 1504, when the sculpture was nearing completion, Florentine authorities had to acknowledge there would be little possibility of raising the 5.17 metre high statue weighing approximately 8.5 tons to the roof of the cathedral. They convened a committee of 30 Florentine citizens that included many artists, including Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli, to decide on an appropriate site for David. While nine different locations for the statue were discussed, the majority of members seem to have been closely split between two sites.
One group, led by Giuliano da Sangallo and supported by Leonardo and Piero di Cosimo, among others, believed that, due to the imperfections in the marble, the sculpture should be placed under the roof of the Loggia dei Lanzi on Piazza della Signoria; the other group thought it should stand at the entrance to the Palazzo della Signoria, the city's town hall (now known as Palazzo Vecchio). Another opinion, shared by Botticelli and Cosimo Rosselli, was that the sculpture should be situated in front of the cathedral.
In June 1504, David was installed next to the entrance to the Palazzo della Signoria, replacing Donatello's bronze sculpture of Judith and Holofernes, which also embodied a theme of heroic resistance. It took four days to move it the half mile from the cathedral's workshop into the Piazza della Signoria. The statue was suspended in a wooden frame and rolled on fourteen greased logs by more than 40 men. Later that summer, the sling and tree-stump support were gilded, and the figure was given a gilt loin-garland.
Later history
In 1525 the block of marble intended to be the pendant for the David fell off a barge into the river Arno as it was being transported to Florence. Vasari wrote that it had jumped into the river in despair when it heard that Baccio Bandinelli would be carving it rather than Michelangelo, to whom the commission for a colossal statue of Hercules and Cacus at the entrance to the Palazzo della Signoria had originally been given.
In the mid-1800s, small cracks were noticed on the left leg on the David, which can possibly be attributed to an uneven sinking of the ground under the massive statue. In 1873, it was removed from the piazza to protect it from damage, and was moved to the Accademia Gallery where it would attract many visitors. The sculpture was secured in a wheeled wooden crate, and moved slowly across the city from 30 July to 10 August that year. Its 16th-century base, said to be decrepit in contemporary reports, was lost when the crate was disassembled. A model of the crate is in the Museo di Casa Buonarroti, the house-museum in Florence's Via Ghibellina where Michelangelo lived. The statue was not placed in its permanent setting in the Accademia until 1882. The architect Emilio De Fabris, professor at the Accademia, designed a tribune to house the David in a vaulted interior exedra, towards the apse, where it was bathed in light that streamed in through windows in the dome above. A replica was placed in the Piazza della Signoria in 1910.
In 1991, Piero Cannata, an artist whom the police described as deranged, attacked the statue with a hammer he had concealed beneath his jacket and damaged the second toe of the left foot. He later said that a 16th-century Venetian painter's model ordered him to do so. Cannata was restrained by museum patrons until the police arrived.[60] Fragments fell to the floor, and three tourists were caught by guards as they were trying to leave the gallery with pieces in their pockets.
The state of preservation of the David has been monitored and evaluated since 2000 using high-resolution 3D scanning, photogrammetry, finite element method (FEM) analyses, and in situ fracture monitoring through fibre optic Bragg gratings. These observations have shown that in its present vertical orientation, with the basal plinth horizontal, the centre of gravity of the base does not align with the David's centre of gravity. Nevertheless, FEM analysis suggests that the statue is stable in its current position and indicates that its forward inclination of 1 degree to 3 degrees has played a major part in the development of cracks in the ankles.
In 2006, Borri and Grazini, using historical analysis and a finite element model of the David, identified the probable cause of the cracks in its legs as a slight forward inclination of the statue that developed after the flood of 1844 in Florence. The statue being located outdoors in front of the Palazzo della Signoria (Palazzo Vecchio) from 1504 to 1873, this inclination likely occurred because of the "uneven subsidence and rotation of the statue's foundations". Further damage occurred with the additional weight placed on the statue when, in 1847, Clemente Papi made a plaster mould composed of more than 1,500 separate segments, some weighing as much as 680 kg. The sculpture was also inclined on other occasions, such as when it was moved in 1873 to its placement in the Galleria dell'Accademia, after which the tilt was corrected. Ultrasonic crack assessment tests carried out by Pascale and Lolli in 2014 determined that cracks in the broncone, the tree trunk against which the David's right leg rests, are the most worrisome of those in the statue. The left ankle and the area where the left heel and the base are attached also show cracks of critical concern.
Some scholars have suggested that the relative weakness caused by the cracks in its legs could make the statue vulnerable to the vibrations of foot traffic from visitors to the gallery. Nearly a million and a half tourists (about four thousand people each day it is open) visit the Accademia Gallery annually to see the David. In 2015, Pieraccini et al. measured its dynamic movements with interferometric radar. Measurements were made of such displacements on two days: Monday, 27 July and Tuesday, 28 July 2015; on Monday the Accademia is closed, while Tuesday is statistically the peak attendance day. Their results did not show a significant increase in the vibration amplitude on days the Accademia was open, compared to days it was closed.
In 2010, a dispute over the ownership of David arose when, based on a legal review of historical documents, the municipality of Florence claimed ownership of the statue in opposition to the Italian Culture Ministry, which disputes the municipal claim.
Interpretation
The pose of Michelangelo's David is unlike that of earlier Renaissance depictions of David. The bronze statues by Donatello and Verrocchio represented the hero standing victorious over the head of Goliath, and the painter Andrea del Castagno had shown the boy in mid-swing, even as Goliath's head rested between his legs, but no earlier Florentine artist had omitted the giant altogether. According to such scholars as Howard Hibbard, David is depicted before his battle with Goliath. Rather than being shown victorious over a foe much larger than he, David looks wary as he sizes up the giant Goliath before the battle has actually taken place. His brow is drawn, his neck tense, and the veins bulge out of his lowered right hand. His left hand holds a sling that is draped over his shoulder and down to his right hand, which holds the handle of the sling.
The twist of his body in contrapposto, standing with most of its weight on his right foot and the other leg forward, effectively conveys to the viewer a sense of potential energy, the feeling that he is about to move. The statue is a Renaissance interpretation of a common ancient Greek theme of the standing heroic male nude. In the Renaissance, contrapposto poses were thought of as a distinctive feature of antique sculpture, initially manifested in the Doryphoros of Polykleitos (c. 440 BC). This is typified in David; this classic pose causes both hips and shoulders to rest at opposing angles, giving a slight s-curve to the entire torso. The contrapposto stance is emphasized by the left leg stepping forward, and by the contrasting positions of the arms: the left arm raised with its hand to the shoulder and the other hand touching the thigh.
Michelangelo's David has become one of the most recognized works of Renaissance sculpture; a symbol of strength and youthful beauty. The colossal size of the statue alone impressed Michelangelo's contemporaries. Vasari described it as "certainly a miracle that Michelangelo was able to raise up one who had died", and then listed all of the largest and most grand of the ancient statues that he had ever seen, concluding that Michelangelo's work surpassed "all ancient and modern statues, whether Greek or Latin, that have ever existed."
The proportions of the David are atypical of Michelangelo's work as well as of antique models; the figure has an unusually large head and hands (particularly apparent in the right hand). These enlargements may be due to the fact that the statue was originally intended to be placed on the cathedral roofline, where the important parts of the sculpture may have been accentuated in order to be visible from below. The small size of the genitals, though, is in line with his other works and with Renaissance conventions in general. The statue is unusually slender (front to back) in comparison to its height, which may be a result of the work done on the block before Michelangelo began carving it.
A naturalistic rendition of the nude human body, if rendered successfully, has an erotic aspect. Vasari alludes to the statue's sexual locus when he acclaims the figure's "very divine flanks". The flanks (fianchi) frame this part of the body, the nexus of its carnality. Antonio Forcellino calls the David's sexual organs "the most disquieting genitals of Renaissance sculpture", referring to the manner in which the small bulge, typical of adolescence, frames a tuft of pubic hair that "supports a penis full of energy and displays the testicles, also full of vigour".
Commentators have noted the presence of foreskin on David's penis, which may appear at odds with the Judaic practice of circumcision. An artistic deviation from what very likely would have been accurately portrayed as a circumcised penis, it is in keeping with the conventions of Renaissance art, in which the Christ Child, for example, is represented as being uncircumcised, although clearly older than the eight days compelled by Jewish scripture.
Political implications
David the giant-killer had long been seen as a political symbol in Florence, and images of the biblical hero already carried political implications there. Donatello's bronze David, made for Cosimo de' Medici, perhaps c. 1440, had been appropriated by the Signoria in 1494, when the Medici were exiled from Florence, and the statue was installed in the courtyard of the Palazzo della Signoria, where it symbolized the Republican government of the city. According to Levine, by placing Michelangelo's statue in the same general location, it is likely that the David was conceived as politically controversial before Michelangelo began work on it, as well as an artistic response to that earlier work. While the originally intended location for the David was high up on the cathedral, its location was still in question. The commission, consisting of the most prominent artists of the day, debated in great detail the best placement for the colossal figure to be seen and appreciated, with consideration for its aria, moda, and qualità (its aura, style, and excellence). The political overtones led to the statue being attacked twice in its early days. Protesters pelted it with stones the year it debuted, and, in 1527, an anti-Medici riot resulted in its left arm being broken into three pieces. Giorgio Vasari later claimed that he and his friend Francesco Silviati, although just boys, braved the violence and saved the pieces, storing them in Silviati's father's house.
Machiavelli wrote of the long Florentine tradition that represented David as defender of the patria, a convention most completely developed in the arts – especially in the series of statues, from Donatello's to Michelangelo's, depicting him as the protector of his people. Having returned the armour given him by King Saul, and choosing to fight Goliath with his own weapons – a sling and a knife – David personified the citizen soldier of Florence, and the city's ability to defend itself with its own arms.
Rather than placing Goliath's severed head between or underneath the David's feet, Michelangelo carved the stump of a tree on the back of the right leg, a device conventionally employed by sculptors in ancient times to help support the weight of a statue. In a contemporary document the stump was called broncone, the same Italian word used for Lorenzo de' Medici's personal emblem, or impresa – a dead branch of laurel sprouting new green growth. Soon after David's installation in front of the Palazzo della Signoria, certain adornments were added that have since disappeared: the stump and the strap of the sling were gilded, a vine of copper leaves was strung around the groin covering the genitals, and a laurel wreath of gilt bronze was added.
The gilt garland of leaves did not entirely negate the figure's erotic aura. Machiavelli penned a brief text in satirical vein describing the laws of an imaginary society devoted to seeking pleasure. Its people were required to violate all the normal rules of society and decorum, and were punished with even more pleasurable tasks if they failed to satisfy these demands. For example, women offenders would be forced to gaze at the David closely, "with eyeglasses" (a notable product of the city).
According to Paoletti, a naked colossus situated in the primary public space of the city was necessarily politically charged, the David's nakedness being more than merely a reference to the sculpture of antiquity that inspired the arts in the Italian Renaissance. Standing at the entrance to Florence's town hall, it had power as a political symbol, using an image of the sexualized human body to represent the corporality of the Florentine body politic. As a civic metaphor, it resonated with the everyday life experiences of 16th-century Florentine people among all the social classes.
Conservation
Officials responsible for the artistic heritage of Florence had become concerned about the David's physical state by the middle of the 19th century. A cleaning of the statue had apparently occurred about 1746, and in 1813 the sculptor Stefano Ricci gave the statue a gentle cleaning and applied a thin coat of encaustic, consisting of beeswax, possibly mixed with linseed oil, to its surface as a protective coating. The sculptor Lorenzo Bartolini recommended in 1842 that a thorough conservation of the statue should be performed, and, like most of the advisory committee formed in 1504, that the David be moved to the Loggia della Signoria for its protection. In 1843 the sculptor Aristodemo Costoli cleaned the statue with a 50 per cent hydrochloric acid solution that removed the encaustic coating and left the marble surface pitted and porous, damaging the statue far more than the weathering it had suffered in the previous 400 years.
During World War II, David, along with Michelangelo's other sculptures in the Accademia, was packed in sand and entombed in brick to protect it from being damaged.
In 1991, the left foot of the statue was damaged by an unemployed Italian man named Piero Cannata, who was carrying a hammer he had hidden under his jacket and broke off the tip of the second toe. The samples obtained from that incident allowed scientists, utilising spectroscopic, isotopic and petrographic analysis simultaneously, to determine that the marble used was obtained from the Fantiscritti quarries in Miseglia, the central of three small valleys in Carrara. The chemists and spectroscopists who conducted these tests say the marble of the David consists entirely of the mineral calcite.
Because of the marble's surface degradation, on the eve of the 500th anniversary of the sculpture's unveiling in 2004 the statue was given its first major cleaning since 1843. A scientific committee was formed to advise in the restoration. The committee was composed of university professors and scientists from the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (National Research Council) and the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, a government art-restoration department. They carried out tests and analyses and determined that the statue should be cleaned by poultices soaked in distilled water and applied to the sculpture's surface. Agnese Parronchi, the restorer originally selected by Florentine museums superintendent Antonio Paolucci, assessed the David's condition herself by examining hundreds of photographs and performing a series of tests. Consequently, she opposed the committee's pre-specified method, fearing further deterioration, and insisted that it should be cleaned dry, with soft brushes and motorized erasers. Paolucci demanded that she use the wet pack method instead, but Parronchi refused. After Parronchi resigned, restorer Cinzia Parnigoni undertook the job of restoring the statue under the direction of Franca Falletti, director of the Accademia Gallery.
Researchers at the University of Siena (Università di Siena) performed an investigation of the small cavities, about a millimetre in diameter and of irregular distribution, with which the marble surface of the David is covered. Their macroscopic examination determined that the cavities have not resulted from deterioration of the stone, but rather that they can be attributed to the mineralogical structure of the marble taken from quarries in the Apuan Alps. The local quarrymen in their dialect call those less than a millimetre in size taròli and those several millimetres or larger they call tarme. Observation with optical fibres and magnifying lenses shows that the marble immediately surrounding the cavity may present milky white or greyish "halos" averaging a few millimetres wide. Many of them are completely or partly filled with various substances; this deposition is caused by the statue's exposure over centuries to atmospheric agents or to past restoration processes.
As of 2024 temporary scaffolding is erected around the statue every two months and in an operation that takes a half a day, dust and spider's webs are removed using soft-bristled brushes of various sizes and a bristle tipped vacuum cleaner.
Replicas
Michelangelo's David has stood on display at Florence's Galleria dell'Accademia since 1873. On 29 August 1846, Grand Duke Leopold II of Tuscany commissioned Clemente Papi, a student of Stefano Ricci, to make a plaster cast of the David. Papi, a master bronze caster, was experienced in making moulds and reproductions, and set about the project in the summer of 1847. He probably used wax to release the mould rather than oil or fat. This was less damaging than the encaustic wax used by Ricci in 1813, but residue from the gypsum of the plaster mould appears to be present in places where removing coatings is difficult, such as between the David's toes.
This cast was to be moved to various locations in the city to determine their suitability for the statue. Papi first made two plaster replicas of the marble David from his moulds, one of which was given in 1857 by Leopold II to Queen Victoria of England. A decree by the Tuscan state on 2 October 1858 ordered the casting of the entire figure of the David, which Papi completed in August 1866, sending the finished statue to the 1867 Paris Exposition the next year. His intention had always been to cast a bronze replica, and this cast was eventually raised on the Piazzale Michelangelo in 1875 to commemorate the fourth centenary of Michelangelo's birth.
The statue sent to Queen Victoria was intended as a diplomatic gesture by Duke Leopoldo II to assuage any ill feelings caused by his refusal to allow the sending of a notable Domenico Ghirlandaio painting from Florence to London. Apparently Queen Victoria was surprised to receive such a gift, and gave the statue to the newly opened South Kensington Museum, now the Victoria and Albert Museum. Papi's copy, which was sent to the Accademia di delle Belle Arti of Florence where it resides in the Gipsoteca (Gallery of Plaster Casts) of the Istituto Statale d'Arte, has been used to make all subsequent casts of the David.
The plaster cast of David at the Victoria and Albert Museum has a detachable plaster fig leaf which is displayed nearby. The fig leaf was created in response to Queen Victoria's apparent shock upon first viewing the statue's nudity, and was hung on the figure by means of two strategically placed hooks prior to royal visits.
On 12 November 2010, a fibreglass replica of David was installed atop a buttress on a corner of the north tribune below the roofline of Florence Cathedral for a week. Photographs of the installation reveal the statue the way the Operai who commissioned the work originally expected it to be seen.
Michelangelo's statue is the best known and the most often reproduced of all the artistic works created in Florence. Later reproductions have been made in plaster and in simulated marble fibreglass, signifying an attempt to lend an atmosphere of culture even in some unlikely settings such as beach resorts, gambling casinos and model railroads. Some parody reproductions feature uncharacteristic embellishments, such as a 1966 reproduction that captured attention in San Francisco for portraying David in leather attire.
(Wikipedia)
Der David von Michelangelo (1475–1564), zwischen 1501 und 1504 in Florenz entstanden, ist die erste Monumentalstatue der Hochrenaissance und gilt als die bekannteste Skulptur der Kunstgeschichte. Das aus einem einzigen Marmorblock gehauene Original befindet sich seit 1873 in der Galleria dell’Accademia in Florenz. Die 5,17 Meter hohe Figur wiegt schätzungsweise fast sechs Tonnen.
Die Skulptur, die David in Vorbereitung auf den Kampf gegen Goliath zeigt, wurde 1504 auf der Piazza della Signoria aufgestellt, als Symbol der Republik Florenz, gegen deren Feinde David wacht.
Beschreibung
Die Skulptur stellt den biblischen David in dem Augenblick dar, in dem er, die Steinschleuder bereits geladen, den Riemen noch auf der Schulter abgelegt, den Kampf gegen den Riesen Goliath aufnimmt (1 Sam 17 EU). Davids Körper erscheint in einer eigentlich entspannten Kontrapost-Stellung. Die kampfbereite Spannung wird in den hervorstehenden Adern der rechten Hand erkennbar, die das Wurfgeschoss umschließt, vor allem aber in der Nacken- und Gesichtspartie: in den straffen Halssehnen, den angespannten Lippen und Nasenflügeln, der gerunzelten Stirn. Davids Blick ist auf einen Punkt in der Ferne gerichtet.
Michelangelos Darstellung unterscheidet sich von früheren Versionen der Florentiner Renaissance, da sie David vor dem Kampf gegen den Riesen zeigt. Die Bildhauer Donatello und Verrocchio und der Maler Andrea del Castagno stellen den jugendlichen Helden mit dem abgeschlagenen Kopf Goliaths dar. Michelangelo hingegen lenkt die Aufmerksamkeit des Betrachters nicht mehr auf den bereits entschiedenen Sieg, sondern auf den unmittelbar bevorstehenden, aber siegesbewussten Kampf.
Entstehung
1501 erhielt der 26-jährige Michelangelo von der Arte della Lana, der Wollweberzunft, als verantwortliche Verwalter des Doms, den Auftrag für eine kolossale Davidstatue. Als Lohn wurden 400 Gulden vereinbart. Ihm stand ein riesiger Carrara-Marmorblock, genauer ein Statuarioblock, zur Verfügung, der nach aufwändiger, zweijähriger Reise seit 1468 im Domgarten lagerte. Dieser Block war über fünf Meter lang, aber dazu relativ schmal, wog etwa zwölf Tonnen und wies auch kleine Löcher und Adern auf. Bereits 1464 war Agostino di Duccio beauftragt worden, aus dem Block eine David-Figur zu schaffen, sowie 1476 desgleichen Antonio Rossellino; beide Bildhauer hatten die Arbeit aufgegeben und den wuchtigen Block in grob behauenem Zustand hinterlassen. Michelangelo sollte nunmehr den fast vierzig Jahre zuvor von der Domopera gefassten Plan vollenden, das Figurenprogramm der äußeren Strebepfeiler von Santa Maria del Fiore durch einen David zu ergänzen.
Die auf den ersten Blick mangelhaft erscheinenden Proportionen der Figur waren der starken Untersicht des vorgesehenen Standorts in großer Höhe außen am Domchor angepasst.
Im Frühjahr des Jahres 1504 entschied sich eine von der Signoria der Stadt eigens eingesetzte Kommission, der neben anderen auch die Künstler Piero di Cosimo, Sandro Botticelli und Leonardo da Vinci angehörten, jedoch für einen anderen Standort für den fast fertiggestellten David. Die Kommission wählte mehrheitlich den Platz vor dem Palazzo Vecchio, dem Sitz der Signoria.
Beim vier Tage dauernden Transport der Statue, während einer Nachtpause, griff eine Gruppe von jungen Leuten, die der pro-Medici-Fraktion treu waren und von der Macht verdrängt wurden, die Statue an, indem sie das Symbol der republikanischen Regierung mit Steinen bewarf; der symbolische Wert des Werkes war offensichtlich – David wurde als Kämpfer gegen die 1494 vertriebenen Medici gesehen.
Am 8. September 1504 wurde die Skulptur vor dem Palazzo Vecchio feierlich enthüllt.
Geschichte der Skulptur
1527 sei, so wurde berichtet, eine Sitzbank aus dem Sitzungssaal der Signoria im Palazzo Vecchio auf die Straße geflogen, die den linken Arm getroffen habe, der in drei Stücke zerbrach. Der junge Giorgio Vasari sammelte die Bruchstücke ein und gab sie in Verwahrung. Nachdem die Herrschaft der Medici endgültig gesichert war, wurden sie 1543 Cosimo I. übergeben, der die Figur restaurieren ließ.
Um die Marmorskulptur vor der Witterung zu schützen, wurde 1873 beschlossen, sie von der Piazza della Signoria zu entfernen und in der Florentiner Accademia unterzubringen. Für diesen Zweck hatte der italienischen Architekt Emilio de Fabris einen eigenen Kuppelraum, die sogenannte Tribuna, entworfen. Durch bürokratische und bauliche Verzögerungen wurde der Umzug der Figur zunächst verhindert und sie wurde in einer Holzverschalung in der Nähe der Accademia untergebracht. 1882 konnte die Tribuna fertiggestellt und mit ihrem David der Öffentlichkeit zugänglich gemacht werden.
1991 wurde die Statue von einer Person beschädigt, die einige Stücke Marmor aus den Zehen des linken Fußes mit einem Hammer herausschlagen konnte, bevor sie von Sicherheitskräften überwältigt wurde.
2010 erhob der italienische Kulturminister Sandro Bondi Eigentumsansprüche des italienischen Staates an der Figur] Der Staat hat es bislang unterlassen, die fünf Meter hohe Skulptur vor Erdbeben zu schützen und auf einen erdbebensicheren Sockel zu stellen, um ihr Sturz- und Zerstörungsrisiko zu mindern.
Kopien der Statue
In Florenz wurde 1910 am ursprünglichen Platz der David-Statue vor dem Palazzo Vecchio eine Marmorkopie aufgestellt. Ein Bronzeabguss bildet den Mittelpunkt eines Ensembles auf dem um 1900 angelegten Piazzale Michelangelo, das von – ebenfalls in Bronze abgegossenen – weiteren Florentiner Skulpturen Michelangelos flankiert ist.
Inzwischen gibt es weltweit zahlreiche Kopien des David, darunter unter anderem:
Eine maßstabsgetreue Nachbildung wurde für das Puschkin-Museum für bildende Künste in Moskau zu Lehrzwecken für Studierende geschaffen, wo sie zusammen mit Kopien der Werke anderer Künstler zum selben Sujet steht.
1896 schenkte der deutsche Verleger Arnold Hirt dem Leipziger Museum der bildenden Künste eine maßstäbliche Kopie aus Gips.
Der italienische Künstler Clemente Papi fertigte im 19. Jahrhundert eine Gipskopie für Königin Victoria von England an, sie zeigte sich jedoch über die Nacktheit der Figur so schockiert, dass zusätzlich ein maßstäbliches Feigenblatt angefertigt wurde, das bei zukünftigen königlichen Besuchen die Genitalien verhüllte. Die Figur befindet sich heute (samt einer Kopie des Feigenblattes) im Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
1995 wollte die Stadt Florenz der Stadt Jerusalem eine Kopie aus Anlass des 3000-jährigen Jubiläums der Eroberung der Stadt durch David schenken. Nach heftigem Widerstand seitens orthodoxer Juden lehnten die Behörden von Jerusalem das Geschenk ab, weil die Statue einerseits nackt und andererseits unbeschnitten war und somit zwar einen Italiener, aber keinen Juden darstellen konnte.
In Kalifornien dekorierte jemand sein Haus und sein Grundstück mit 23 verkleinerten Kopien des David, allerdings alle mit unterschiedlichem Gesichtsausdruck.
Eine grell rosafarbene Kopie des David aus Metall und Epoxidharz von Hans-Peter Feldmann hat von 2010 bis 2016 im Kant-Park vor dem Lehmbruck-Museum in Duisburg gestanden, musste danach jedoch wegen Witterungsschäden demontiert und eingelagert werden.
Mit einer Größe von 1 mm und einer Breite von 0,1 mm ist eine Kopie aus Kupfer, welche durch ein spezielles 3D-Druckverfahren gefertigt wurde, die wahrscheinlich kleinste David-Statue der Welt.
Rezeption
Im März 2023 wurde die Leiterin der privaten Tallahassee Classical School in Florida infolge einer Beschwerde eines Elternteils bei der Schulbehörde über die Zurschaustellung angeblicher „Pornografie“ zum Rücktritt gezwungen, nachdem sie jugendlichen Schülern im Kunst-Unterricht ein Foto der David-Statue gezeigt hatte. Einem Kollegen, der gegen die Entlassung protestierte, wurde die Entlassung angedroht. Laut im Jahr zuvor verabschiedeter Richtlinien der Schule hätte die Lehrerin die Eltern vorab über ihre Absicht der Präsentation des David „informieren müssen“. Der Vorgang stieß international überwiegend auf Unverständnis. Im April besuchte sie die Stadt und die besagte Statue, der Bürgermeister rief die Gesellschaft zu Respekt vor der Arbeit der ehemaligen Rektorin auf.
(Wikipedia)
Kyros figures out how to foil a UFO abduction...
Kyros is a friend of mine and we were together today for a trip to Soquel to pick up some wine when the mission came in. I quickly enlisted his assistance with holding the props for the challenge.
Part of the response for the flickr group MISSION24, where the challenge was to respond to "HELP."
I need help. I am having total knee replacement surgery on Tuesday, and will be laid up for about a month. I thought I would perhaps try to mosaic a portrait while healing. This is one of my favourite pics of Nicole, and then my attempt at a sketch. It sure does not look like the photo. Someone please tell me HONESTLY where I have gone wrong. This just does not look like her. Her eyes and her mouth are the essence of her . . and I have missed them both.
Photo by Michael Brunk / nwlens.com
Stills from the first read-thru and blocking rehearsal for Breeders Theater's production of "Help Desk" by T.M. Sell. Opens July 15, 2011 at the E.B. Foote Winery in Burien, WA.
Hey, I really need somone who is experienced to help me make my own decals, how do I make them? How do I put them on? Please help. -Incline
Photo by Michael Brunk / nwlens.com
Stills from the first read-thru and blocking rehearsal for Breeders Theater's production of "Help Desk" by T.M. Sell. Opens July 15, 2011 at the E.B. Foote Winery in Burien, WA.
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Clay County Times
Clay County Sheriff 's Department and Hazzard Range County Sheriff's department has sign a contracted for the Hazzard Range County Sheriff's department to provide Law Enforcement for Creekdale what is 6 miles from Hazzard Range County Line . After 18 Clay County Sheriff's Department deputies quit after a pay dispute , Hazzard Range County Sheriff's department , Apache county Sheriff's Department & Sweetwater county Sheriff's Department all well be contracted until the CCSD gets back to full employment .Clay county has a population of 30,080 people and Philipsburg NM what is the county seat of clay county has Population of 24,834 people in 2012. The CCSD has 30 Officers and Philipsburg PD has 17 officers .None of the Clay county Sheriff''s Substation officers Quit but some well be temporary patrolling a different part of the county . HRCSD SERGEANT Ron Bayerd & Lieutenant ALEX HART well be patrolling Creekdale .along with 4 officers from the Apache county Sheriff's Department well help with the southern Part of the County and 5 officers from Sweetwater county Sheriff's Department will Help with the Northern part of the county pictured here HRCSD SERGEANT Ron Bayerd and CCSD Deputy Rick Fray. Creekdale is halfway between Philipsburg NM and Sparta NM a distance of 90 miles. The Last time a HRCSD patrolled Clay county was in 1965
she belong to my aunt and I have to restore, I'd like to know who she is, can you help me?
she is marked MATTEL 1970/MATTEL SPA/MADE IN ITALY
questa bambola è di mia zia...le fu regalata quando faceva le elementari dal "babbo natale" della scuola e mi piacerebbe capire che bambola è. dietro la testa è marchiata MATTEL 1970 e sul corpo MATTEL SPA/MADE IN ITALY
potete aiutarmi?
grazie :)