Is Michelangelo’s David circumcised or not?
Some sources I’ve consulted say no, Michelangelo was an idiot [or was afraid of offending Italian sensibilities] and made David uncircumcised. Others say it’s hard to tell if the statue is circumcised or not. Yet others say Michelangelo was a genius because he knew that Jewish circumcision in David’s day involved removing only the very tip of the foreskin. (I don’t know if it did.)
I have been unable to find a close-up picture of the appropriate part of the statue. What is the straight dope?
If I remember correctly (be gentle, this was 12 years ago) when I did see David, I remember him to be uncircumsized. It is quite possible that he didn’t want to offend Italian sensibilities by showing him circumsized, or it’s just quite possible that he just didn’t think to make him that way.
I saw Michelangelo’s David after reading Joseph Heller’s book on King David (Sorry, read it in Danish - the English title might be “God knows” or some variation thereover), where Heller makes David lament the uncircumcised state of his statue. Extraordinary novel, by the way.
Having read it, I of course inspected the - eh - pertinent parts of the statue with some care, and he looks fully uncircumsized to me.
S. Norman
Spiny, I read the same book (in English, though). It is called God Knows. Excellent read. The more knowledge you have of biblical history (I Samuel, II Samuel, and I Kings specifically) and world history, the more you can appreciate this book. After reading it, I observed a couple of pictures of the statue as well (my interest was purely academic). Looks uncircumsized to me.
