On this date in 1503 Michelangelo began work on his statue of David.

Frye in “Design as a Creative Principle n the Arts”:

In reading Cellini’s autobiography we can see how the well-trained artist of that day was ready to switch from a commission in the “major” arts to one of the “minor” ones and back again, with no loss of status or feeling of incongruity.  We think of Michelangelo as dwelling on the loftiest summits of the major arts, but Michelangelo too had his handyman assignments, such as designing the uniform of the Papal Guards, in which he acquitted himself indifferently but not incompetently.  (CW 27, 228-29)