A masterpiece of Renaissance art describing the idealized human form.
Some interesting notes on the subject...
He was 26 when he started work on the 18 foot high block of marble and built a shed around it to work in and barely left the shed until it was complete. He did not make a maquette (model) first. Imagine being able to visualize a full figure in a block of marble with no practice piece. He carved it out of the marble, taking away small pieces to reveal the shape.
It is interesting to note that the slab he chose had lain out in the courtyard near the cathedral from nearly a hundred years, abandoned after previous unsuccessful attemps to carve it into a figure by an earlier generation of artists. He had no assistants, but attacked the marble with energy, working continuously for several days and nights, not leaving it, but sleeping near it on the floor.
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