The central premise for Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael: Florence, c.1504 at the Royal Academy of Arts is that at the turn of the sixteenth century, these three titans of the Italian Renaissance briefly crossed paths, competing for the attention of the most powerful patrons in Republican Florence.
The three regularly travelled in order to win and undertake commissions so were not consistently in Florence during the period covered by this exhibition, but the key dates in relation to the works shown are: Leonardo’s return to Florence in 1500; Michelangelo’s return in 1501; Leonardo commissioned to paint the ‘Battle of Anghiari’ for the Sala del Gran Consiglio in 1503; Michelangelo commissioned to paint the ‘Battle of Cascina’ for the Sala del Gran Consiglio in 1504; Raphael’s arrival in 1504; Michelangelo’s ‘Taddei Tondo’ commissioned for the Palazzo Taddei 1504-05; Leonardo’s ‘The Virgin and Child with St Anne and the infant St John the Baptist’ possibly exhibited in 1507; all three artists left Florence in 1508.
This period was one of considerable political and religious upheavals following the death of Lorenzo de’ Medici in 1494. The rise in influence of Girolamo Savonarola, a Dominican friar, created opportunities for the mural commissions in the Sala del Gran Consiglio received by Leonardo and Michelangelo. Both artists left Florence without completing their respective commissions, and in 1512, the Republic of Florence ended with its capitulation to Spanish and Papal troops, thus ending the artistic opportunities that had briefly brought Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael to Florence in the same time period.
Despite the major commissions in this period being paintings and sculptures, the exhibition focuses primarily on drawings. This is because it is in these artists’ sketches, preparatory drawings, and cartoons that their influences, one on the other, can most readily be glimpsed. The first room is primarily devoted to the influence of Michelangelo on Raphael through the ‘Taddei Tondo’ with several sheets of drawings by Raphael either with copies of the Tondo’s figures or preparatory drawings, using those studies, such as ‘The Bridgewater Madonna’ (c. 1507-08) and ‘The Esterházy Madonna’ (c. 1508), both of which are also shown. Also included are copies by Raphael of Michelangelo’s ‘David’ and Leonardo’s ‘Mona Lisa’ and ‘Leda and the Swan’. These reveal a sense of a younger generation learning from another, a sense also extended back in time through the inclusion of Piero di Cosimo’s ‘The Virgin and Child with the Infant St John the Baptist’ (c. 1490-1500), which influenced aspects of the design of the ‘Taddei Tondo’.
The central gallery is devoted to Leonardo’s ‘Burlington House Cartoon’ (c. 1506-08) – also an image of the Virgin and child with the infant St John the Baptist, this time with St Anne – with new research presented regarding the possible original context of this stunning cartoon. The case is made for this highly finished drawing having been exhibited in Florence in 1507 as part of a bid to offset the fallout from Leonardo’s failure to complete the ‘Battle of Anghiari’ commission and his bid to work on another stalled commission for the Sala del Gran Consiglio, an altarpiece begun initially by Filippino Lippi.
The final gallery has drawings relating to the unfinished commissions for the ‘Battle of Anghiari’ and ‘Battle of Cascina’ paintings that were to have graced Florence’s newly constructed council hall. In addition to much-admired preparatory drawings of Leonardo and Michelangelo from various collections across Europe, including a group from the Royal Collection, there are also copies made of the central scenes planned by Leonardo and Michelangelo for their respective paintings and drawings by Raphael copying aspects of their designs. The key contrast here is between Leonardo’s focus on the emotions of the face and Michelangelo’s focus on the movements of the body. Both are combined in Raphael’s work, although his idealised and contemplative images rarely feature the vigour and vim found in the work of his older peers.
Ultimately, from the ‘Taddei Tondo’ through the Sala del Gran Consiglio commissions, this is an exhibition of unfinished yet hugely influential works. The exhibition includes an edition of Cicero’s letters annotated by Agostino Vespucci, a Florentine man of letters and scribe. Vespucci is struck by Cicero’s description of how the painter Apelles fully finished the head of Venus but left the rest of her body roughed out. In his margin note, he states that Leonardo did the same in all his paintings.
While works in this period can be left unfinished for a whole host of pragmatic reasons, from political upheavals to lack of time through competing commissions and to flaws in materials or the untimely death of the artist, there does also seem to be an appreciation of the aesthetic beauty of the un- or partly finished work. Given the amount of time required for the detailed realism of these artists, as shown by the sketches, preparatory drawings, and cartoons here, it is no surprise that, combined with the other factors noted, they left much unfinished. It is a true sign of their genius that their unfinished works could also be among their most influential.
Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael: Florence, c.1504, 9 November 2024 – 16 February 2025, Royal Academy of Arts
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