Question: Who commissioned Donatello to create the bronze statue David for the court of the Palazzo Medici?
About the article "Donatello", section "Major commissions in Florence".

Candidate passages:
The bronze sculpture Judith and Holofernes (1460), created by Donatello at the end of his career, can be seen in the Hall of Lilies (Sala dei Gigli), in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Italy.
A copy stands in one of the sculpture's original positions on the Piazza della Signoria, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio.
It depicts the assassination of the Assyrian general Holofernes by Judith and is remarkable for being one of the first Renaissance sculptures to be conceived in the round, with its four distinct faces.
The statue was commissioned by Cosimo de' Medici as a decoration for the fountain in the garden of the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi.
It stood in this palace together with Donatello's "David", standing in the courtyard, both depicting tyrant slayers.
These two statues are among the earliest freestanding bronze Italian Renaissance statues conceived "in the round".
Judith is considered the symbol of liberty, virtue and victory of the weak over the strong in a just cause.
She stands powerful with raised sword, holding the head of Holofernes by his hair.
The statue was originally gilded and its shine in the sunlight must have made the onlookers stare at it; some gilding remains on the sword.
To facilitate the gilding the bronze was cast in 11 parts.
The base of the sculpture resembles a cushion, a naturalistic device first used by Donatello for his "St. Mark" in the Orsanmichele.
It is believed that an inscription on the granite pedestal originally read, "Kingdoms fall through luxury , cities rise through virtues.
Behold the neck of pride severed by the hand of humility."
This dramatic and detailed statue is thus a metaphor of the Medici rule, as the defenders of Florentine liberty, akin to Judith, slayer of the tyrant Holofernes and defender of the people.
This view is supported by accounts that mention a second inscription on the pedestal which read, "The salvation of the state.
Piero de' Medici son of Cosimo dedicated this statue of a woman both to liberty and to fortitude, whereby the citizens with unvanquished and constant heart might return to the republic."
Inscribed on the cushion are the words OPVS .
DONATELLI .
FLOR (the work of the Florentine, Donatello), this being the only surviving signed work by the artist.
In 1495, the sculpture was placed on the Piazza della Signoria, at the side of main door the Palazzo Vecchio, in memory of the expulsion of Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici from Florence and the introduction of the Florentine republic under Girolamo Savonarola.
This time, this statue symbolized the expulsion of the tyrannical Medici.
The statue was later moved to the courtyard inside the Palazzo Vecchio, and still later into the Loggia dei Lanzi.
In 1919, it was then placed on the left side of the Palazzo Vecchio.
It was replaced by a bronze copy in 1988 and the original, after restoration, was given a final place in the Sala dei Gigli inside the Palazzo Vecchio. 
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.
This piece was requested by the Medici family to be placed in the center of the courtyard of the Medici Palace in Florence.
This daring move showed that the Medici family thought that they could take ownership of David, a symbol of the city of Florence.
Because this was such a scandalous idea at the time, Donatello put some shifts on the subject matter that could explain away the identity of David as "just another sculpture".
Goliath's helmet has a feather protruding that can be seen as attached to David's foot, and thus characterized as Hermes, the Greek god.
The David also has slight breasts which could classify him as a woman if seen from the side where his leg is blocking his testicles.
The Medici were exiled from Florence in 1494, and the statue was moved to the courtyard of the Palazzo della Signoria (the marble "David" was already in the palazzo).
It was moved to the Pitti Palace in the 17th century, to the Uffizi in 1777, and then finally, in 1865, to the Bargello museum, where it remains today.
According to Vasari, the statue stood on a column designed by Desiderio da Settignano in the middle of the courtyard of the Palazzo Medici; an inscription seems to have explained the statue's significance as a political monument.
Giorgio Vasari, "Le Vite...," ed.
G. Milanesi, Florence, 1878–1885, III, 108.
A quattrocento manuscript containing the text of the inscription is probably an earlier reference to the statue; unfortunately the manuscript is not dated.
Although a political meaning for the statue is widely accepted, exactly what that meaning is has been a matter of considerable debate among scholars.
Most scholars assume the statue was commissioned by Cosimo de' Medici, but the date of its creation is unknown and widely disputed; suggested dates vary from the 1420s to the 1460s (Donatello died in 1466), with the majority opinion recently falling in the 1440s, when the new Medici Palace designed by Michelozzo was under construction.
The iconography of the bronze "David" follows that of the marble "David": a young hero stands with sword in hand, the decapitated head of his enemy at his feet.
Visually, however, this statue is startlingly different.
David is both physically delicate and remarkably effeminate.
The head has been said to have been inspired by classical sculptures of Antinous, a favorite of Hadrian renowned for his beauty.
The statue's physique, which Mary McCarthy called "a transvestite's and fetishist's dream of alluring ambiguity," contrasted with the absurdly large sword in hand, shows that David has overcome Goliath not by physical prowess, but through God.
However, the intention of Donatello is still debated among scholars.
The boy's nakedness further implies the idea of the presence of God, contrasting the youth with the heavily-armored giant.
David is presented uncircumcised, which is generally customary for male nudes in Italian Renaissance art. 
Around 1430, Cosimo de' Medici, the foremost art patron of his era, commissioned from Donatello the bronze David (now in the Bargello) for the court of his Palazzo Medici.
This is now Donatello's most famous work.
At the time of its creation, it was the first known free-standing nude statue produced since ancient times.
Conceived fully in the round, independent of any architectural surroundings, and largely representing an allegory of the civic virtues triumphing over brutality and irrationality, it was the first major work of Renaissance sculpture.
Also from this period is the disquietingly small "Love-Atys", housed in the Bargello.
Some have perceived the David as having homo-erotic qualities, and have argued that this reflected the artist's own orientation.
Details of Donatello's relationships remain speculative.
The historian Paul Strathern makes the claim that Donatello made no secret of his homosexuality, and that his behaviour was tolerated by his friends.
This may not be surprising in the context of attitudes prevailing in the 15th- and 16th-century Florentine republic.
However, little detail is known with certainty about his private life, and no mention of his sexuality has been found in the Florentine archives (in terms of denunciations) albeit which during this period are incomplete.
The main evidence comes from anecdotes by Angelo Poliziano in his ""Detti piacevoli"".
When Cosimo was exiled from Florence, Donatello went to Rome, remaining until 1433.
The two works that testify to his presence in this city, the "Tomb of Giovanni Crivelli" at Santa Maria "in Aracoeli", and the "Ciborium" at St. Peter's Basilica, bear a strong stamp of classical influence.
Donatello's return to Florence almost coincided with Cosimo's.
In May 1434, he signed a contract for the marble pulpit on the facade of Prato cathedral, the last project executed in collaboration with Michelozzo.
This work, a passionate, pagan, rhythmically-conceived bacchanalian dance of half-nude putti, was the forerunner of the great "Cantoria", or singing tribune, at the Duomo in Florence on which Donatello worked intermittently from 1433 to 1440 and was inspired by ancient sarcophagi and Byzantine ivory chests.
In 1435, he executed the "Annunciation" for the Cavalcanti altar in Santa Croce, inspired by 14th-century iconography, and in 1437–1443, he worked in the Old Sacristy of the San Lorenzo in Florence, on two doors and lunettes portraying saints, as well as eight stucco tondoes.
From 1438 is the wooden statue of St. John the Evangelist for Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice.
Around 1440, he executed a bust of a "Young Man with a Cameo" now in the Bargello, the first example of a lay bust portrait since the classical era.
The pose of Michelangelo's David is unlike that of earlier Renaissance depictions of "David".
The bronze statues of David by Donatello and Verrocchio had both represented the hero standing victorious over the head of Goliath, the painter Andrea del Castagno had shown the boy in mid-swing, even as Goliath's head rested between his feet, but no earlier Florentine artist had omitted the giant altogether.
According to Helen Gardner and other scholars, David is depicted before his battle with Goliath.
Instead of being shown victorious over a foe much larger than he, David looks tense and ready for combat.
The statue appears to show David after he has made the decision to fight Goliath but before the battle has actually taken place, a moment between conscious choice and action.
His brow is drawn, his neck tense and the veins bulge out of his lowered right hand.
The twist of his body effectively conveys to the viewer the feeling that he is in motion, an impression heightened with contrapposto.
The statue is a Renaissance interpretation of a common ancient Greek theme of the standing heroic male nude.
In the High Renaissance, contrapposto poses were thought of as a distinctive feature of antique sculpture.
This is typified in "David", as the figure stands with one leg holding its full weight and the other leg forward.
This classic pose causes the figure’s hips and shoulders to rest at opposing angles, giving a slight s-curve to the entire torso.
The contrapposto is emphasised by the turn of the head to the left, and by the contrasting positions of the arms.
Michelangelo’s "David" has become one of the most recognized works of Renaissance sculpture, becoming a symbol of both strength and youthful human beauty.
It was the colossal size of the statue that impressed Michelangelo's contemporaries, however.
Vasari described it as "certainly a miracle that of Michelangelo, to restore to life one who was dead," and then listed all of the largest and most grand of the ancient statues that he had ever seen, concluding that Michelangelo's work surpassed "all ancient and modern statues, whether Greek or Latin, that have ever existed."
The proportions of the "David" are atypical of Michelangelo's work; the figure has an unusually large head and hands (particularly apparent in the right hand).
These enlargements may be due to the fact that the statue was originally intended to be placed on the cathedral roofline, where the important parts of the sculpture would necessarily be accentuated in order to be visible from below.
The statue is unusually slender (front to back) in comparison to its height.
This may be the result of the work that had been done on the block before Michelangelo began carving it.
It is possible that the "David" was conceived as a political statue before Michelangelo began to work on it.
Certainly David the giant-killer had long been seen as a political figure in Florence, and images of the Biblical hero already carried political implications there.
Donatello's bronze "David," made for the Medici family, perhaps 1440, had been appropriated by the Signoria in 1494, when the Medici were exiled from Florence, and the statue was installed in the courtyard of the Palazzo della Signoria, where it stood for the Republican government of the city.
By placing Michelangelo's statue in the same general location, the Florentine authorities ensured that "David" would be seen as a political parallel as well as an artistic response to that earlier work.
Commentators have noted "David"'s uncircumcised penis, which is at odds with Judaic practice, but is consistent with the conventions of Renaissance art.
In 2008, plans were proposed to insulate the statue from the vibration of tourists' footsteps at Florence's Galleria dell'Accademia, to prevent damage to the marble. 
Andrea del Verrocchio's bronze statue of David was most likely made between 1473 and 1475.
It was commissioned by the Medici family.
It is sometimes claimed that Verrocchio modeled the statue after a handsome pupil in his workshop, the young Leonardo da Vinci.
The statue represents the youthful David, future king of the Israelites, triumphantly posed over the head of the slain Goliath.
The bronze was initially installed in Palazzo Vecchio in 1476.
Placement of Goliath's head has been a source of some debate for art historians.
When exhibited at the National Gallery of Art, the head was placed between David's feet, as is the case in the statue's permanent home, the National Museum of the Bargello, in Florence, Italy.
Another school of art historians have suggested that Verrocchio intended for Goliath's head to be placed to David's right, pointing to the diagonals of the ensemble.
This placement was temporarily arranged at the National Gallery of Art, as well as Atlanta's High Museum, among others.
David was intended as a representation of Florence, as both were more powerful than they appeared, and both the shepherd boy and Florence could be viewed as rising powers.
The Victoria & Albert Museum in London also owns a plaster cast of Verrocchio's David.