Rome's Favorite Artist (And Mine Too!)

I finally made it back to the Galleria Borghese after about a year of talking about going again and I'm beyond pleased I did. Since I had recently seen the most famous David in the world I wanted to see Bernini's David again to see if it was really as great as I thought it was. They are very different takes on the same story which makes it hard to say which is better. Michelangelo's David is looking off into the distance after he defeated Goliath while Bernini's is crouched and is preparing for the battle of his life. Michelangelo's is a massive sculpture that represents the power of David while Bernini's seems almost life-size and very agile. I should admit that I'm biased as a quasi-Roman but hands down, Bernini's David is superior. Okay, so it wasn't that hard that hard to say which is better.

I liked Bernini's David the first time I saw it but this time I just stood and stared in absolute reverence with goose bumps covering my arms and the hair standing on the back of my neck. It is incredibly powerful. How Bernini took a single piece of stone and made it into something that conveys, action, strength, and even more impressive, emotion is just unreal. David's jaw is set. His feet are planted firmly in the ground. His sling is cocked back. Every muscle on his body is tensed as he readies himself to strike Goliath with a deadly blow. You can see in David's fixed gaze that he will not be denied victory by anyone or anything. Regardless of whether or not you know the story of David and Goliath, by simply looking at David's face, you realize that truly, anything is possible with that level of determination.