David suffers weak ankles

He8217;s not in bad shape considering he celebrates his 500th birthday this year, but Michelangelo8217;s David is suffering from weak ankles. A team of art restorers, halfway through giving the statue his first bath in a century, said on Monday they wanted to give David a scan to assess the damage.

8216;8216;The ankles are one of the most fragile parts, they are full of cracks,8217;8217; Cinzia Parnigoni, the restorer in charge of the clean-up at Florence8217;s Galleria dell8217;Accademia, said. David has survived lightning, medieval riots, and a dousing in acid, however, and Parnigoni sees no need for alarm. 8216;8216;The scan, which we8217;ll do in the next few months, will help us get a more in-depth picture and gauge the risks. But8230; there8217;s no need to fear anything,8217;8217; she said. 8216;8216;I don8217;t think anyone has even thought about a possible remedy because honestly there are no fears that he will fall. We just want to check the situation.8217;8217;

The 16-foot nude, which depicts the Biblical hero who killed Goliath, was carved from a single block of marble from 1501 to 1504 and established Michelangelo as the foremost sculptor of his time, at the age of 29. Parnigoni said David8217;s ankle woes probably started when the statue stood outside in one of the Tuscan city8217;s squares. 8216;8216;There would have been floods, the ground would have absorbed water and subsided, meaning something had to give,8217;8217; she said.

Last September, Parnigoni and her team started wiping away 130 years of dirt and grime from the statue 8212; its first wash since 1873 when authorities moved it inside the gallery to protect it from bad weather and pollution. Using double-distilled water for a 8216;8216;gentle wash8217;8217;, the Florence team has now finished work on the left hand side of David. 8212; Reuters