As he used to say himself, it is impossible, or at least extraordinarily difficult in statuary to set right the faults of the blocking out.

He received for this work 400 ducats, and carried it out in eighteen months." The sculptor who had spoiled this block of marble is called "Maestro Simone" by Vasari; but the abundant documents in our possession, by aid of which we are enabled to trace the whole history of Michelangelo's David with minuteness, show that Vasari was misinformed.

The real culprit was Agostino di Antonio di Duccio, or Guccio, who had succeeded with another colossal statue for the Duomo.
He is honourably known in the history of Tuscan sculpture by his reliefs upon the facade of the Duomo at Modena, describing episodes in the life of S.Gemignano, by the romantically charming reliefs in marble, with terracotta settings, on the Oratory of S.Bernardino at Perugia, and by a large amount of excellent surface-work in stone upon the chapels of S.Francesco at Rimini.

We gather from one of the contracts with Agostino that the marble was originally blocked out for some prophet.

But Michelangelo resolved to make a David; and two wax models, now preserved in the Museo Buonarroti, neither of which corresponds exactly with the statue as it exists, show that he felt able to extract a colossal figure in various attitudes from the damaged block.