What type of marble was used for Michelangelo's David?

Michelangelo's David was carved from Carrara marble.

The colossal statue was made between 1501 and 1504 from a huge block quarried at Fantiscritti in the Carrara marble district of Tuscany. The stone had already been transported to Florence for an abandoned cathedral project before Michelangelo received the commission. It was an ordinary white Carrara grade rather than the especially prized statuario variety.

David was intended to stand high on Florence Cathedral, but its completed size and visual power led officials to place it beside the Palazzo della Signoria instead. The statue's marble is unusually famous because its flaws and history became part of the work's story: the block had been considered difficult and had already been roughly worked by earlier sculptors.

Carrara identifies the marble's origin, not the statue's artistic style or color. Michelangelo used Carrara marble for many major works, including the Pietà, but David is not made from Sicilian, Parian, or Pentelic marble. Scientific analysis has linked the stone specifically to the Fantiscritti quarries near Miseglia.