Events

Grand Prince Dmitry of Moscow led a Russian coalition army of roughly 150,000 men against a Tatar-Mongol force of comparable size on the Kulikovo Field, near the confluence of the Don and Nepryadva Rivers, on September 8, 1380. The Battle of Kulikovo was the first major Russian victory against the Golden Horde in over a century of Mongol domination, and it established Moscow as the center of Russian resistance and the nucleus of the future Russian state. Dmitry, who earned the honorific "Donskoy" (of the Don) for the victory, was 29 years old. The Golden Horde, the western successor state of the Mongol Empire, had controlled Russia since the devastation of the Mongol invasion in 1237-1240. Russian princes paid tribute to the Khan, held their thrones at Mongol pleasure, and competed with each other for the Khan's favor. By the 1370s, however, the Horde was weakened by internal power struggles, and a warlord named Mamai, who was not of the Genghisid royal line, had seized effective control. Moscow's refusal to increase its tribute payments provoked Mamai to assemble an army to punish the upstart principality. Dmitry gathered forces from across the Russian principalities and advanced south to meet Mamai on ground of his choosing. He positioned his army with the Don River at its back, eliminating any possibility of retreat, and concealed a reserve force in the woods on his left flank. When the Tatar cavalry broke through the Russian center in heavy fighting, the hidden reserve smashed into the Mongol flank, routing Mamai's army. Casualties on both sides were enormous, and Dmitry himself was found barely conscious on the battlefield, his armor battered but his body protected. Kulikovo did not end Mongol rule over Russia. The Horde under Tokhtamysh sacked Moscow just two years later in 1382, and Russian princes continued paying tribute for another century. But the battle shattered the myth of Mongol invincibility in Russian minds and established the idea that a united Russian force could defeat the occupiers. Moscow's leadership of the coalition cemented its position as the preeminent Russian principality, and Kulikovo occupies a place in Russian national consciousness comparable to the Battle of Tours in French history.

Michelangelo's David was unveiled in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence on September 8, 1504, and the 17-foot marble figure immediately became the most celebrated work of art in a city already overflowing with masterpieces. The statue had taken Michelangelo three years to carve from a single block of Carrara marble that two previous sculptors had attempted and abandoned, leaving a narrow, shallow slab that most artists considered ruined. Michelangelo was 26 years old when he accepted the commission and 29 when the finished David was dragged on greased logs from his workshop to the piazza, a journey that took four days and required 40 men. The block of marble, known as "The Giant," had sat exposed to the elements in the courtyard of the Florence Cathedral workshop for 25 years after Agostino di Duccio and then Antonio Rossellino failed to produce a statue from it. The stone was unusually tall and thin, and the previous attempts had removed enough material to severely constrain what any subsequent sculptor could achieve. Michelangelo studied the damaged block and produced a figure that worked within its limitations so brilliantly that the constraints became invisible. The slight turn of David's head, the tension in his right hand, and the exaggerated proportions of the hands and head were all calculated to be viewed from below, where the statue was intended to stand. The committee that reviewed the finished work included Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, and other leading Florentine artists, who debated its placement for weeks. The original plan had the David mounted on a buttress of the cathedral, high above the street. Instead, the committee chose the entrance to the Palazzo della Signoria, the seat of Florentine government, where the statue took on explicit political meaning: David, the young shepherd who defeated Goliath, symbolized the Florentine republic's defiance against larger, more powerful enemies. David remained in the piazza for over 350 years before being moved indoors to the Galleria dell'Accademia in 1873 to protect it from weather damage. A replica now stands in its original position. The statue draws over 1.5 million visitors annually, and its image has become so ubiquitous that the sheer physical impact of standing before the original, confronting 14,000 pounds of marble brought to life by a chisel, still catches visitors unprepared.