'IL GIGANTE' | A review The birth of the statue 'David'

By CHARLES MATTHEWS
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
"Il Gigante: Michelangelo, Florence, and the David 1492-1504," by Anton Gill (Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's, $24.95)
Some great works of art are so familiar that we hardly see them anymore. Who can look at the "Venus de Milo" or the "Mona Lisa" without recalling the jokes, parodies and inane appreciations they inspired?
Michelangelo's "David" is one of those works -- almost. For if you're familiar with it only from photographs or cheesy little plaster reproductions, your first encounter with the real thing in the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence can take your breath away. The statue is flat-out huge -- 17 feet tall, atop a 6-foot pedestal.
Anton Gill emphasizes the hugeness with the title of his richly informative new book, "Il Gigante: Michelangelo, Florence, and the David 1492-1504." But is the giant of the title the statue or the sculptor? Gill's portrait of the artist is fascinating: "Unsure of himself, hating the way he looked, homosexual yet seldom able to express his sexuality ... he was one of the most driven artists ever to have lived."
It took drive to hew the figure out of solid marble, and to give it graceful, living detail, even though the statue may have originally been intended to stand high atop the cathedral in Florence. As Gill points out, the subtlety of the facial expression of "David" facial expression was lost to viewers for centuries -- "only recently, through the means of photography, can we see 'David' as Michelangelo saw him, face to face."
Henry Adams' "Mont St. Michel and Chartres" was in my pocket when I toured the French cathedrals, and I think if I were going to Florence, "Il Gigante" would go with me.