Three Michelangelos in Florence: Great Art Cities

In this episode we look at three less well known works by Michelangelo, including a Pieta he made for his own tomb, a controversial naked Jesus Christ created when he was just a teenager, and a Bacchus rejected by the man who commissioned it for being too raunchy. All three are in Florence, the birthplace of the Renaissance, and a city which houses one third of the world’s most important works of art. Michelangelo went to study in Florence at the age of 13, so he is inextricably linked to the city. Perhaps no more so than with his statue of David - the very embodiment of Florence and everything it stood for. He wasn’t the only genius in town. Even before he was born, Dante Alighieri had written his Divine Comedy and established the Italian language, Filippo Brunelleschi had completed his impossible dome for the Cathedral and kick started the Renaissance, and Lorenzo Ghiberti gave us the gates of paradise. No other place can rival Florence for the sheer quantity of master works, many of them still in the exact same sites for which they were created.