From discovery.com: Michangelo's David Missing a Back Muscle.
Posted on October 16, 2004 10:25 PM. Filed under: art.Michelangelo's David, the towering sculpture acclaimed for its depiction of male physical perfection, has a "hole" in the back, two anatomy professors announced at a recent conference in Florence.
Computer measurements of David's body taken by professors Massimo Gulisano and colleague Pietro Bernabei of Florence University show a hollow instead of a muscle on the right side of the back, between the spine and the shoulder blade.
"Michelangelo's David is the result of intense anatomy studies. Here the artist achieved an absolute perfection except for that muscle in the back," Gulisano said.
But it wasn't really a mistake. Michelangelo was aware of the flaw.
"In one of his letters, he wrote that a defect in the marble block made it impossible to reproduce the muscle," the researchers said. [continue]