Main theme: Michelangelo's work for the Medici and the siege of Florence in 1529.

Part 1. Glorifying the Medici

• Julius II's Holy League. A summary of the sequence of events leading to France's invasion of Italy and Julius II's Holy League (1511). The battle at Ravenna on Easter Sunday 1512 was essentially a draw between the papal and the French forces but bloody enough for the French to decide to return north across the Alps. Florence had remained neutral during the conflict and with the French out of the way Florence was fair game.
• The Medici return to Florence. Cardinal Medici had commanded the papal troops and the pope now gave Cardinal Medici the right to install himself as ruler of Florence. On 1 Sep 1512 Cardinal Medici entered Florence. He handed the rule over Florence to his brother Giuliano. The recently decorated Hall of the Great Council was stripped of its woodwork. Upon pope Julius' death in 1513 Cardinal de Medici was elected the new pope under the name of Leo X.
• Church of San Lorenzo. With a Medici as pope, Florence's independence under Giuliano was ensured. In December 1515 Leo paid a visit to Florence. The façade of the family church, San Lorenzo, had never been finished, talks were initiated with Michelangelo who moved back to Florence in 1516, marble was quarried, and in January 1518 a formal contract for a marble façade project was drawn up. The project required tremendous amounts of marble and despite Michelangelo's hard work to get the marble the pope derailed the project in 1520. It cost the pope too much money. For Michelangelo it meant four years of waste. The 100 tons of marble, much of which was piled up in Piazza San Lorenzo, ended up in the hands of others or was simply abandoned.
• Michelangelo's New Sacristy. The death of Giuliano de Medici in 1516 and Lorenzo de Medici in 1519 served to crystallise the idea of adding a new Sacristy to San Lorenzo as the old one, designed by Brunelleschi, was fully occupied. Michelangelo received commission, which he worked on on-and-off between 1520 and 1534. Michelangelo was working on the marble statue of Giuliano de' Medici after he had met Tommaso de Cavalieri in Rome, 1533. The statue of Lorenzo is abstract and characterless compared to Giuliano. Is there a connection?
• Frustration and depression. 1518 was a frustrating year for Michelangelo: quarrying marble and setting up a workshop in Florence. Whereas he wanted to quarry marble at Carrara the pope wanted him to quarry it at Pietrasanta. This led to endless discussions with the pope, with Michelangelo's friend Sebastiano as a go-between. The statue Risen Christ (commissioned in 1514) was delayed and the commissioners pushed on. There was also Julius' Tomb to think about which he had again focused on after the cancellation of the façade project. With the death of Leo X in 1521 Michelangelo lost his major patron and even though the next pope put off Julius' heirs, Michelangelo spent the beginning of the 1520s depressed and without direction. In this period he made the drawings, The Three Heads; the Fury; Venus, Mars and Cupid. Family affairs between 1523 and 1526 were no thrill either, constantly disrupted by financial worries.
• Michelangelo's Biblioteca Laurenziana. In 1524 Michelangelo nevertheless received the commission to furnish San Lorenzo with a library. Together the San Lorenzo projects would mark the transition from Renaissance to Mannerism. In the spring of 1524 he worked on Night for the Sacristy. By mid-1525 about 100 men were working on the Library in addition to the dozen marble workers working on the New Sacristy. By now, as a result of Charles V march on Rome, new problems loomed on the horizon though. One of Michelangelo's letters, written at the end of 1526, conveys the despair, the uncertainty of the period. In 1527 Michelangelo was forced to stop working; Charles V's troops were at the gates of Rome.

Sights and art works:

Model for the façade of San Lorenzo, c. 1518, Casa Buonarrotti

The New Sacristy, 1520-34, Michelangelo, San Lorenzo; The Old Sacristy, Brunelleschi, San Lorenzo

The Captives, Michelangelo, Accademia delle Belle Arti

The Three Heads; the Fury; Venus, Mars and Cupid, Galleria Uffizi

Biblioteca Laurenziana, begun 1524-?, Michelangelo, San Lorenzo