Main theme: the political contrasts in Florence at the turn of the century and their reflection in Michelangelo's artistic work.

Part 1. Michelangelo's sojourn in Rome

• The Medici flight. Lorenzo's died in his villa in Careggi in 1492 at a most inopportune moment. His son Piero de' Medici took control of Florence, but only two years later the French launched an invasion of Florentine territory. The incident led to the Signoria's banishment of Piero, the Signoria literally shutting Palazzo Signoria's doors on him, his palace in Via Larga looted. Many treasures were removed, including Donatello's David which was placed on a column in Piazza Signoria in allusion to city's reawakened republican spirit. A week after the Medici flight Charles VIII paraded through Florence, staying in the Palazzo Medici. The occupation lasted 11 days.
• Loosing the Medici patronage. Following Lorenzo's death Michelangelo left Palazzo Medici for his father's house. His relationship with Piero remained difficult and the only commission he received from him was an invitation to make a sculpture of snow. He did however receive a commission from the Strozzi family but the resultant Hercules has been lost.
• Dissecting bodies in Santo Spirito. Much like Leonardo Michelangelo studied cadavers in the morgue (or nearby hospital) of the monastery of Santo Spirito. In gratitude he made the Crucifix, a copy of which is now on display in the church. Michelangelo's Crucifix is like his Madonna a rejection of the recently executed works by the early Renaissance masters. Compared the the Crucifixes by Donatello and Brunelleschi, his Christ is pathetic, unmuscular, acquiessent.
• Michelangelo's art scam. Due to political turmoil and Piero de' Medici's unpopularity Michelangelo had fled Florence in October 1494, only a few months before the Florentines drove out the Medici. Travelling for a while he returned the following year, just after Charles VIII had left the city. Michelangelo sought the partnership of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici (Lorenzo the Magnificent's second cousin) who suggested he make a Sleeping Cupid he had made look older, the first stage in an art scam that was to earn him notoriety in Rome.
• Michelangelo's Bacchus. Micherlangelo arrived in Rome in June 1496. Despite the scam Cardinal Riario liked his work and ended up commissioning a Bacchus to be made in marble. The work fused feminimity and masculinity, so evocative in fact that it was rejected by Riario. It thus ended up in the hands of Jacopo Galli. Still fresh in memory more than a decade later Sansovino sought to restore the god's classical features making a statue himself.

Sights and art works:

Monastery of Santo Spirito; Crucifix, c. 1492/3, Michelangelo, Casa Buonarrotti and/or Monastery of Santo Spirito

Crucifix, Brunelleschi, Santa Maria Novella

Crucifix, Donatello, Santa Croce

Sleeping Cupid is now lost

The Bacchus, 1496/7, Michelangelo, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence

Bacchus, 1512, Sansovino, Museo Nazionale del Bargello