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Early Career By the time he was 16 Michelangelo had already produced 2 relief sculptures: the Battle of the Lapiths and the Centaurs and the Madonna of the Stairs (both from 1489-1492, Casa Buonarroti, Florence), which show that even at an early age he already had evolved a personal style. Around this time he was assaulted by the sculptor Torrigiani, an envious competitor, who, punching him, left him with his characteristic broken nose. In 1492, after leaving the Medici home in Via Larga, following the death of Lorenzo, he began studying anatomy with the covert help of the Prior of the Hospital of Santo Spirito. A wooden crucifix, now at the Casa Buonarotti, has been attributed to him, a work he may have produced for the prior in gratitude for the support he received. In July of the same year, planning to make a statue of Hercules, he bought a block of marble. No work ever being started, he eventually sold it some years later. |