Michelangelo's "David" Has An Anatomy Flaw

[matcom]

<snip>

AN anatomy professor yesterday gave Michelangelo an A-plus for his masterpiece David, despite one small flaw: a missing muscle in the statue's back.

University of Florence anatomy professor Massimo Gulisano, working with haematology professor Pietro Bernabei, said their measurements of the statue also debunked long-held notions that the 4.1m-high hunk of marble was out of proportion.

"Some say the feet, the hands are out of proportion. It's not true," Professor Gulisano said during a two-day conference in Florence of art historians, restorers and scientists to mark the 500th anniversary of the statue's unveiling.

"Michelangelo knew anatomy very well. There was only one error. There was a hollow where there should have been a muscle on the right side of the back."

But Michelangelo, who learned anatomy by dissecting cadavers, was aware of the flaw, Professor Gulisano added, writing in a letter that a defect in the marble block forced him to leave out that muscle.

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,11032410%255E401,00.html

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

1. It also has proportionally huge hands - take a look at it

were he to be a normal human height hed have enourous hands

[rogerashton]

2. That's part of the message.

They are, I think, much larger than average relative to thebody, but within the range for real human beings. That's what I take the experts to mean, and I'm no expert.

But Michelangelo represented David as a man with very large hands, partly, I suspect, as a symbol of strength, and partly because it fit the mannerist style he Michelangelo typified.