What is David Holding in his Right Hand?
Michelangelo’s statue of David is maybe one of the most famous statues in the world. He’s printed on t-shirts, aprons, tea towels, even underwear. Most people know him but what has remained debated is what he’s holding in his right hand (the one not holding the sling).
Statue of David
Of course, I can’t get into anything else without my customary background. Before David was even commissioned or given to Michaelangelo, the Overseers of the Office of Works for the Florence Cathedral made a plan to commission 12 huge statues of Old Testament figures for the buttresses of the cathedral. These were going to be so massive because they were planning to put them on the roof. In 1410 they hired Donatello to create Joshua in terracotta and he also ended up overseeing the creation of Hercules in terracotta. Sadly the statue of Joshua disappeared in the 18th century and has been lost ever since.
With this great momentum, the Overseers contacted artist Agostino di Duccio to create a sculpture of David. They bought an absolutely enormous slab of Carrera marble for him to complete the job. Unfortunately, Duccio only got as far as to roughly shape out the feet and bottom of the legs before Donatello’s death in 1466 when his involvement with the project stopped. Ten years later another sculptor, Antonio Rossellino was commissioned to finish the statue but his contract was terminated soon after. Then the block of marble sat neglected for 26 years. TWENTY SIX! Just outside unprotected and unfinished. In 1500 the Overseers were getting anxious about their investment into this slab of marble and really wanted to find a new artist to finish their sculpture. They asked lots of big artists, including Leonardo da Vinci, but it was 26 year old Michaelangelo who finally won them over and was awarded the contract to finish the sculpture of David. Really makes you feel accomplished when you think about what Michelangelo was doing at 26 is a masterpiece and now one of the most famous statues in the world.
Michelangelo worked on David from 1501-1504. When the sculpture was almost finished the Overseers had to finally admit that raising up this more than six-ton statue to the roof of the cathedral was going to be impossible so 30 Florentine citizens agreed to place it outside the Palazzo della Signoria, the city’s town hall (now called Palazzo Vecchio). In 1873 the original statue was moved to the Galleria Dell’Accademia and a replica was placed in the outdoor spot.
Fun fact, the statue soon came to represent the civil liberties of the Republic of Florence because of the character of David that it represented. Since Florence was threatened on all sides by more powerful rival states and the Medici family in general, the eyes of David are pointed in the direction of Rome where the Medicis lived.
Hidden Weapon?
So obviously the story of David and Goliath is well known. Goliath is a huge dude, David is little BUT has a slingshot and five rocks or something. Anyways he manages to take down Goliath with the rocks and the slingshot. You know how it goes. So in the statue, David is holding a slingshot in his left hand which drapes around his back. But his right hand is completely out of proportion, it is huge in comparison to his body and is clearly clenching something. What is it though?
Some people say that he is holding the handle of the sling in his absolutely massive right hand. That the sling is coming across his back from his left shoulder and then he’s holding the handle in his right hand. Maybe. Some people think he’s holding one of the rocks he brought. Also maybe. But there have been some new theories coming to light.
In 2010 at Florens 2010: The International Week of Cultural and Environmental Heritage a study was presented with an alternative. This study concluded that David is actually holding a fragment of another weapon. “Bulging with veins, the right hand is holding what remains of a terrible weapon used in antiquity until the 17th century” (Lorenzi, 2010). The weapon they think it is is called a fustibal, or staff-sling. The staff would have a leather pouch on the end and function like a portable trebuchet or catapult. In the story, it’s said that David took his staff, sling, and five rocks to fight Goliath but as the statue stands today he only has the sling. The authors of this study think that the sling is actually attached to “a handle to which a staff had to be mounted, much like a golf pole...Combining the right hand and the left hand, the staff and the sling, Michelangelo would have actually fitted David with a fustibal” (Lorenzi, 2010). When the statue was placed on top of the cathedral, as intended, the weapon would be been a secret and all anyone would have seen was David as a shepherd boy with his staff and sling.
According to other researchers, fusibles were known to Michelangelo as it was featured in the artist Lorenzo Ghiberti’s work and there is some speculation that Michaelangelo was influenced by him.
To answer your question, though, because David was transformed into a symbol for freedom for Florence the staff was never mounted onto the sculpture which is why David simply grasps the handle in his right hand and is missing the rest of the fustibal.
To be fair, some scholars don’t agree with this saying that David is simply clutching the handle of the slingshot or that Michaelangelo just kept some marble intact in the hand to protect the fingers from cracking or breaking off. But you try looking at that hand and telling me he’s not holding something. Why carve all those veins and make the hand so big for nothing?
Works Cited
Lorenzi, Rossella. “Michaelangelo’s David Holding Secret Weapon?” NBC News. 2010. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna40274798