MICHELANGELO di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni
Biography
Brutus
1540
Marble, height 95 cm
Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence
This is Michelangelo's last work of primarily
political significance. The bust of Brutus was fashioned for Cardinal Niccolo
Ridolfi, who, in 1530, had fled Florence for Rome like many other Florentines;
although Michelangelo might well have been thinking of Lorenzino Medici,
the well-known "Modern Brutus" who had killed Duke Alessandro
de' Medici in 1537, this is clearly an idealized portrait of the patron.
In the head, which shows strength of will in the way it is turned to the
right, a cold tranquillity and great energy blend fascinatingly with hatred,
wrath and bitter contempt.
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