In his fifties, Michelangelo began work on a new and smaller version of his 18-ft. marble masterpiece in Florence, the David. He never quite finished it. This week the little David was aboard the U.S.S. Grand Canyon, bound for the National Gallery of Art in Washington. It will have its first U.S. showing during Harry Truman's inauguration.
The first David had represented the young champion of a racenaked, frowning, indomitable, his murderous, swollen-looking right hand hanging loose at his side. The second version, done about 25 years later, had a softer, more subjective air; the boy's body was twisted like a flame...
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