David’s Origin: A Throwaway

FLORENCE – It’s taken 500 years to verify the story, but now it can be told: The world’s most-famous work of stone is also the world’s most-famous remnant.
The Guardian of London reported in late August that the marble block used by Michelangelo to carve his masterpiece – the statue of David – can now be traced to its original quarry. And, yes, the block was technically a reject.
A detailed study of samples from the statue show the stone comes from the Fantiscritti quarries in Miseglia, the central of three small valleys in Carrara. The analysis also confirms that the marble itself is of middling quality, with microscopic holes making it likely to degrade faster than other marble varieties.
The great artist spent four years working on the sculpture, finishing it 501 years ago. Since then, it’s withstood earthquakes, a severe jostling by a rioting mob, several cleanings of varying benefit and hordes of tourists, all in Florence.
The study didn’t come from any kind of removal from the statue where the sun of public adulation doesn’t shine. Analysts used fragments from one of David’s toe that a crazed vandal broken in a 1991 attack on the sculpture.
The study also put to rest another theory that the stone actually came from Seravezza, in the Apuan Alps.
The analysis came at the behest of the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, the current home of the statue.. The full results were published last month in Elsevier’s Journal of Archaeological Science, a British journal.
The Guardian also gave Donato Attanasio, head of the research team at the Istituto di Struttura della Materia in Rome, the last word on the subject, and one that should encourage any shop foreman looking through the scraps for a usable piece of stone.
“We were also able to confirm that the marble is actually rather poor quality,” Attansio said.. “It probably means that Michelangelo took it because it was lying around unused, and it was free.”