The said Giant was the work of Michelangelo Buonarroti." Where the masters of Florence placed it, under the direction of its maker, Michelangelo's great white David stood for more than three centuries uncovered, open to all injuries of frost and rain, and to the violence of citizens, until, for the better preservation of this masterpiece of modern art, it was removed in 1873 to a hall of the Accademia delle Belle Arti.

On the whole, it has suffered very little.
Weather has slightly worn away the extremities of the left foot; and in 1527, during a popular tumult, the left arm was broken by a huge stone cast by the assailants of the palace.

Giorgio Vasari tells us how, together with his friend Cecchino Salviati, he collected the scattered pieces, and brought them to the house of Michelangelo Salviati, the father of Cecchino.

They were subsequently put together by the care of the Grand Duke Cosimo, and restored to the statue in the year 1543.
III In the David Michelangelo first displayed that quality of _terribilita_, of spirit-quailing, awe-inspiring force, for which he afterwards became so famous.

The statue imposes, not merely by its size and majesty and might, but by something vehement in the conception.