Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael: Florence, c. 1504 explores the rivalry between the Renaissance titans Michelangelo and Leonardo and their influence on the young Raphael. In 1504, the three masters briefly coincided in Florence, seeking the attention of the city’s most influential patrons.
In this must-see exhibition, the Royal Academy presents more than 40 works, including Michelangelo’s Taddei Tondo, Leonardo’s Burlington House Cartoon, with new research regarding the original context of the drawing, and Raphael’s Bridgewater Madonna, which was heavily influenced by Taddei Tondo, together with some of the finest drawings from the Italian Renaissance.
Left: Leonardo da Vinci, The Virgin and Child with St Anne and the Infant St John the Baptist (“The Burlington House Cartoon”) c.1506-08 (*). Right: Raphael, The Virgin and Child with the Infant St John the Baptist (“The Esterhazy Madonna”), c. 1508 (**).
The exhibition culminates in the encounter between Leonardo and Michelangelo. In 1503, the Government of Florence had commissioned Leonardo to paint a monumental mural, the Battle of Anghiari, in its newly constructed council hall. At the end of the summer of 1504, around the time Michelangelo’s David was installed on the ringhiera in front of the Palazzo Vecchio, that artist was asked to paint the accompanying Battle of Cascina. Neither project was ever completed, but the exhibition brings together Leonardo and Michelangelo’s much-admired preparatory drawings from various collections across Europe, providing a fascinating insight into the approach of both artists as they developed their compositions. Visitors can also examine a drawing by Raphael, c. 1505-06 (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford), in which he painstakingly copies the central scene of Leonardo’s Battle of Anghiari.
Royal Academy of Arts, London W1J 0BD
The Gabrielle Jungels-Winkler Galleries | Burlington Gardens
9th November 2024 – 16th February 2025
For more information and tickets, HERE.
Other must-see exhibitions currently on show in London: Mapping the Tube, and Wes Lang: The Black Paintings among others. Visit our Culture section for more curated recommendations and reviews, and to stay updated on the art world’s elite events.
Author: Lavinia Dickson-Robinson
Opening image: Bastiano da Sangallo, after Michelangelo Buonarroti, The Battle of Cascina (“The Bathers”), c. 1542. Oil on panel. Holkham Hall, Norfolk, Collection of the Earl of Leicester. By kind permission of the Earl of Leicester and the Trustees of Holkham Estate.
(*) Charcoal with white chalk on paper, mounted on canvas, 141.5 x 104.6 cm. The National Gallery, London. Purchased with a special grant and contributions from the Art Fund, The Pilgrim Trust, and through a public appeal organised by the Art Fund, 1962.
(**) Tempera and oil on panel, 28.5 x 21.5 cm. Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest.
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