David gets a bath after 500 years

Michelangelo’s David needs a bath.

It’s been almost 500 years since Renaissance master Michelangelo carved the giant statue from a single piece of marble, and over the centuries David has become a little grubby.

Experts in Florence began a major cleanup of the masterpiece today, giving David his first wash since 1873.

David is an imposing 16 ft 5ins, and so the work will take about six months. Visitors to the Galleria dell’Accademia where the statue is housed won’t be disappointed, however, because the cleaning - including poking cleaning sticks in his ears - will take place after hours.

“The work will be done gradually, and it will be difficult to see a dramatic difference with the naked eye,” gallery director Franca Falletti said.

“On the surface it will not look like much has been done, but what the restorers will do is also check the condition of the marble. This will give us important information on how the figure was sculpted and the best way to safeguard it for the future,” she said.

Instead of using scaffolding, workers will approach David using a mobile lift built especially for the restoration. This will be wheeled away discreetly during opening hours.

The restoration will consist of gently scraping dirt and grime deposits that have clung to the statue over the years, mainly during the years it stood out in the open. Michelangelo finished it in 1504, and it was displayed in the Piazza della Signoria from then until 1873, when it was moved to its present location in the Galleria dell’Accademia.

Before the move, David got a bit of a cleaning, although the standards of that period were not anything near today’s. Falletti described the 1873 scrubbing as “very violent.”

The current restoration has been prepped for 11 years, and will include numerous analyses on the marble.

Among the more peculiar actions planned involves cotton buds. David’s ears are apparently no cleaner than the rest of him, and so experts will use regular-sized cotton buds on the end of a long stick to give his ears a good going-over.

Given the size of his ears, that task will be rather laborious, Falletti said.

A private Dutch non-profit organisation, the Ars Longa Stichting, will donate most of the cost.