Saturday Mornings at PAFA

I'm taking a life-drawing class at PAFA (Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.)  This morning the model didn't show (a perennial problem in art schools), so we drew from the casts in PAFA's famous cast hall.  This is a hall full of casts of famous sculptures, including Michelangelo's David.

Apparently John Wanamaker wanted a cast of David to promote Italian merchandise in his department store.  The plasterer asked him whether he wanted it life-size, and Wanamaker said yes, thinking the cast would be about the size of a man.  Instead, the plasterer made the cast the same size as the original statue, namely 17 feet high.  It was too huge for the department store and wound up in PAFA's cast hall.  At least that's the story I've heard.

So I spent the morning trying to draw it.  That head can't possibly be right, but it's too late now.