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 took a chisel in his
left hand with a little of the marble dust from the platform and began to
let fall a little of it at each touch of the tool, but he did not alter
the nose from what it was before; then he looked down to the Gonfaloniere,
who stood watching below: 'Look at it now,' said Michael Angelo. 'I like
it better. You have given it life,' said the Gonfaloniere," rubbing the
dust out of his eyes.
On August 12, 1502, Michael Angelo undertook another commission for the
Republic--another giant David. This time it was to be in bronze, two cubits
and a quarter in height; in the casting he was to be assisted by Benedetto
da Rovezzano. It has been suggested that the pen and ink drawing in the
Louvre is a design for this second David, but the drawing of an arm on the
same sheet is so like the right arm of the first David that it is more
probably an early idea for the first David, in which we see that Michael
Angelo's design needed more room than the cramped block of marble allowed;
it makes us wonder the more at the marvellous freedom of action that he
managed to get out of the cramped stone.
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