David (Donatello) Roman type of mature, bearded head". Donatello's bronze statue of David (circa 1440s) is famous as the first unsupported standing work of bronze cast during the Renaissance, and the first freestanding nude male sculpture made since antiquity. It depicts David with an enigmatic smile, posed with his foot on Goliath's severed head just after defeating the giant. The youth is completely naked, apart from a laurel-topped hat and boots, bearing the sword of Goliath. The creation of the work is entirely undocumented, and it has been given a range of datings. According to one theory, it was commissioned by the
Christianity in the 15th century eventually of European society. In the emerging urban centers, however, the calamities of the 14th and early 15th century, and the resultant labor shortages, provided a strong impetus for economic diversification and technological innovations. Following the Black Death, the initial loss of life from famine, plague, and pestilence contributed to an intensification of capital accumulation in the urban areas and thus a stimulus to trade, industry, and burgeoning urban growth in fields as diverse as banking (the Fugger banking family in Augsburg and the Medici family of Florence being the most prominent); textiles, armaments, especially stimulated by the Hundred Years'