Stone Giant PDF
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Jane Sutcliffe Illustrated by John Shelley S T O N E G I A N T MICHELANGELO’S DAVI D AND HOW HE CAM E TO BE Jane Sutcliffe Illustrated by John Shelley T here was a giant in the city of Florence. It had been there for nearly forty years. And no one knew what to do about it. The giant was an enormous block of stone— marble, to be exact. It stood three times as tall as any man in the city. It was the color of cream. And it was a troublemaker. It hadn’t started out that way. In the beginning the giant—as everyone called it—had been part of a glorious plan for the city. City fathers had hoped to have the stone made into a statue. It was to be a statue of David, the shepherd boy from the Bible who killed the giant warrior, Goliath. David and Florence were a lot alike. At the time the city was part of a small, proud republic. It often had to fight against bigger, more powerful kingdoms. The statue would remind people that God would protect them, just as he had protected young David. That was the idea, anyway. But things didn’t turn out as planned. First one artist then another started cutting into the giant. One chopped out a space between David’s legs. Another—or maybe the same one—left a bump of stone that looked like a knot for a cloak. But they didn’t get very far before they quit, or died. So for years the giant lay in the work yard of the city’s cathedral, discarded, with a hole in it, getting rained on. City officials refused to give up on their idea. They offered the giant to other artists. But even the great Leonardo da Vinci took a look at what was left and said, “No, grazie.” No, thank you. One artist already knew about the giant. Twenty-six-year-old Michelangelo Buonarroti had grown up in Florence. The giant had been around since before he was born. But for some years the artist had been busy working in Rome. And such work! The sculptures he had created there had stunned people with their detail and beauty.
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