Why go
This short history gives David a sharper meaning before you see it in the Accademia or its replica in Piazza della Signoria. In 1504, Florence chose the statue for the square outside Palazzo Vecchio after a committee that included Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci considered its placement. The work was a public emblem of Florentine freedom, not simply a display of technical virtuosity.
The full story
Michelangelo returned to Florence in 1499, after the execution of Girolamo Savonarola and during the republic led by Piero Soderini. The consuls of the wool guild then asked him to complete a colossal David from a block of Carrara marble that Agostino di Duccio had begun to work some 40 years earlier. The statue had initially been intended for Florence Cathedral. Completed in 1504, David changed the discussion. A committee of artists, including Sandro Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci, selected Piazza della Signoria, outside Palazzo Vecchio, for its setting. There it served as a symbol of the republic's independence. The original is now in the Accademia, while a replica marks the historic location in the square. Read the figure's scale and alert pose in relation to that civic setting.