We feel that he wants at least two years to become a fully developed man, passing from adolescence to the maturity of strength and beauty.

This close observance of the imperfections of the model at a certain stage of physical growth is very remarkable, and not altogether pleasing in a statue more than nine feet high.

Both Donatello and Verocchio had treated their Davids in the same realistic manner, but they were working on a small scale and in bronze.

I insist upon this point, because students of Michelangelo have been apt to overlook his extreme sincerity and naturalism in the first stages of his career.
Having acknowledged that the head of David is too massive and the extremities too largely formed for ideal beauty, hypercriticism can hardly find fault with the modelling and execution of each part.

The attitude selected is one of great dignity and vigour.