David (Rear)

David (Rear)A black and white photograph of Michelangelo's David (15011504) from the rear the view most visitors to the Galleria dell'Accademia walk past without stopping. From behind, the composition reads differently: the long line of the spine, the counterpoised hips (the classical contrapposto), the right hand at the hip holding the sling stones. Michelangelo designed the statue for a viewer walking around it. The front is canonical, but the rear is where the

and the kibisis — the magic bag that will hold the Gorgon's head

fights Hector in single combat to a standstill

Minerva was the Roman counterpart of the Greek Athena — goddess of wisdom

The Greeks themselves were aware of how strange this looked

turns the usurping king Polydectes to stone

a princess so beautiful that Venus grows jealous

son of Achilles

Perseus first has to find the Graeae — the three grey sisters who share a single eye and tooth — and extract from them the location of the Naiad-nymphs who guard these divine objects

Antinous was famed for his extraordinary beauty

Expression became more legible (the furrowed brow of Laocoön

collectors and amateurs who would never travel to Italy

heir to Milton's Satan: intelligent