David

Since the first semester of my first year as a student of Fine Arts, I have been captivated by Michelangelo’s sculpture of David, the Bible hero. Since then, I made it my goal to paint David. What strikes me about this work is its controversial history in the Sistine Chapel and its aesthetic value. It was even considered “technically perfect”. It is also the symbol of power in Florence. It was in the 1500’s that Queen Victoria visited David. The most famous sculpture in the world underwent the controversy of whether its genitals should be exposed. Detachable fig leaves were then made to cover its genitals. When I began studying how to draw the human figure, learning to draw the naked body came before the clothed figure. At first, I wasn’t sure what to think of it. Was I becoming guilty or malicious to study nudes? It was in Theology class that my attitude towards was settled. I learned that God’s design of the human body was purely beautiful. It was only the effect of the fall that the naked body had been attached to shame, and “it is only with pure eyes that one can look upon the beauty of God’s creation for all its worth”.