The Economics of Art in Florence

After a crazy journey filled with delayed flights and lost luggage, we finally made it to Italy! Our first stop here is Florence, a beautiful old city that thrives on tourism. Today we visited the Accademia Gallery. This museum is filled with Italian artwork, including paintings, musical instruments, and statues. The most famous piece of art in the museum is Michelangelo's David, a statue representing the man who fought Goliath in the bible.

Artists have always had to balance creating art that appeals to the public and art that is satisfying to create. If people create art as their only source of income, they will be more likely to create art that appeals to a wide audience so they can sell more and increase their profits. The statue of David is now considered one of the greatest artistic accomplishments of all time, so it's easy to believe Michelangelo must have wanted this statue to appeal to the public when he created it. However, certain body parts of the statue are incredibly disproportionate, which goes against the heavy emphasis Italy placed on correct body proportions in artwork at the time. This leads me to believe that Michelangelo also considered his own artistic preferences when carving David.