lity known as his
_Terribilita_; from the fierce frown of the brow to the sharp, strained
forms of the feet and toes there is an expression of strenuous force
struggling against an almost overwhelming power. The force of the David
may succeed against Goliath; but in Michael Angelo's later works the
struggle always appears to be a hopeless one, nobly as his Titans fight
against fate and omnipotence. The face of the David is a development of
the Saint George of Or San Michele, by Donatello, and the figure is of the
same type, only this triumphant boy of Michael Angelo's shows a more exact
study of the antique than the naturalistic work of his master. In
Donatello the planes are given as flat, and their junctions are sharp and
hard; in Michael Angelo they are carefully rounded and finished with the
grace of the antique and of life. The details of the head, although so
high up, are so absolutely perfect that the separate features have been,
and are still, the models set before all students of art when they first
begin to study the human figure, and they are known as _the_ nose, _the_
eye, _the_ ear, and _the_ mouth. We have noticed that the young student is
more interested in his work when he is told that they are the features of
_the_ David. Michael Angelo carved his giant without modelling a full-size
clay figure first, but with the guidance of drawings and small wax models
about eighteen inches high only, carving the figure out of the block in
the way that is so well seen in the unfinished Saint Matthew in the court
of the Accademia delle Belle Arti, in Florence. There are two small wax
models of the David in the Casa Buonarroti at Florence, said to be Michael
Angelo's designs for this figure, but they are of very doubtful authority.
Later in his life he is said to have worked from full-sized models, as
Benvenuto Cellini tells us in his _Trattati dell' Oreficeria_, &c.(82)
Vasari tells the story of how Michael Angelo contented the Gonfaloniere
and silenced his criticism of the David: "While still surrounded by the
scaffolding Pier Soderini inspected the statue, which pleased him
immensely, and when Michael Angelo was re-touching it in parts, Soderini
said to him that the nose appeared to him too big. Michael Angelo, knowing
that the Gonfaloniere was close under the statue and that from this point
of view the truth was not to be discerned, mounted the scaffolding, which
was as high as the shoulder of the giant, and quickly t