Duck and cover

We mentioned a while back that a copy of Michelangelo’s statue of Moses had been toured through New Zealand by the department store Milne and Choyce. In 1967 the company also toured Michelangelo’s David (those were the days) and we tried to find out whether or not it was fig-leafed. No luck. The reason for this interest is discovering (via Andrew Paul Wood, thanks) that the V&A owns a relevant fig leaf. It was custom made in the mid nineteenth century to protect Queen Victoria’s eyes and, we assume, mind, from the David’s carved equipment. A cast of the famous statue that stands at over five meters high was sent to Queen Victoria as a gift (er…thanks for that…) but she smartly handed it on to what is now known as the V&A. When the diminutive royal got her first eyeful of the David she was so shocked that this fig leaf was made to ensure future visits would be less stressful.  

Image: Plaster cast of a fig leaf, perhaps by the firm of D. Brucciani & Co, London, England, UK, about 1857. Collection: Victoria and Albert Museum, London. More here.

Here are some other OTN posts on Michelangelo's David
One day 
End of days
Moving along
Giving a fig 
David in adland