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Venice, Bologna and Rome The following years were marked by the bankruptcy and fall of the Medici family and the rise of the Monk Savanarola, who took control of Florence in November 1494, ousting Lorenzo’s son Piero. By that time Michelangelo, who had first tried his luck in Venice, was already established in Bologna. Several marble statuettes for the Arca (Arc) of San Domenico in the Church of same name were executed by Michelangelo in 1494 and 1495, during this stay. In 1496, realising he was only wasting his time, he decided to return to Florence. Back home he made a sculpture of a sleeping cupid, to which he added a patina and sold as an antique. The story came out eventually and as a consequence Michelangelo was invited by Cardinal San Giorgio to move to Rome, where he staid for a year in the latter’s service. In Rome he made a statue of cupid and the first of his great works: the statue of Bacchus, now at the Bargello Museum, in Florence. Both works are from 1496. On 10 August 1497 Michelangelo gave in to his father’s insistent pleas for assistance and send him one of several remittances of money. The following year, on 26 August 1498, Michelangelo signed a contract with Cardinal San Diogini and, with the backing of Jacopo Galli, began to sculpt a Pietà to be placed in St Peter’s, in Rome. It was ready in 1499 and placed in the St Petronilla Chapel, being moved in the XVIII century to its present location. This Pietà is perhaps one of Michelangelo’s most famous works. It is a highly refined work and shows that he had already mastered anatomy and the disposition of drapery, but above all it shows that he had solved the problem of the representation of figures in unusual positions, in this case of Jesus stretched on Mary’s lap, even though he was criticised for the extreme youth of Mary. Contrary to the usual practice of the times, the statue is signed. |