David at V&A

Here's another warrior from a past conflict: the biblical David sculpted between 1501 and 1504 by Michelangelo. In the 1850s Florentine cast-maker Clemente Papi created this plaster cast, which Leopold II, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, gave to Queen Victoria. She gave it to the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). Some idiots at the V&A had a fig leaf carved to cover David's genitals to spare the Queen's blushes when she visited, but she had ruder sculptures in her private residence Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. The photo shows V&A's sculpture conservator Johanna Puisto giving the plaster cast of David a brush up prior to the Italian Cast Court reopening after major refurbishment. It's been renamed the Weston Cast Court in honour of long-time supporters The Garfield Weston Foundation. Casts of over 60 masterpieces will be back on show from 29 November (CLICK).