Donatello’s sculpture of David had a profound influence on later sculptors, who admired his creation but strove to produce rival interpretations of the young hero.  Verrocchio’s David started the tradition in Florence of identifying David with the city’s love of freedom.  

          Verrocchio’s work, with its defiant stance, is a masterpiece of bravado; in its virility, it surpasses the sculpture that inspired it.  Florence’s ruling council so admired this work that they placed it in the seat of government, where it remained until Michelangelo’s David displaced it.