Donatello created the bronze David around 1440.
Donatello’s David is widely regarded as the first known free-standing nude male sculpture made since antiquity. The youthful biblical hero stands after defeating Goliath, with one foot resting on the giant’s severed head. Its contrapposto stance and classical nudity show how Renaissance artists studied and revived ancient Greek and Roman forms.
The statue was probably commissioned by the Medici family and was originally displayed in a Medici palace in Florence. Its exact date and original patronage are not documented with complete certainty, so “around 1440” is the standard approximate dating. Donatello also made a later marble David, but the bronze work is the sculpture most associated with this breakthrough in Renaissance art.