Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael: 

Florence c. 1504 

at the Royal Academy 

9 November 2024 - 6 Feb 2025 

In 1504 Michelangelo finished his marble David and Leonardo took part in the discussions to decide where it should go. Later that year Raphael arrived in Florence, where his work was transformed by the work of the two feuding masters. Over four separate talks we will see how this explosive combination of events and personalities is reflected in the Royal Academy’s remarkable exhibition. 

For each artist we will examine the works in the exhibition in depth, putting them in the context of the artist’s career as a whole. Starting with Michelangelo, and the Royal Academy’s own Taddei Tondo – the only marble sculpture by the great master in the UK – we will go on to discover how drawing was essential to his development as an artist, whether as a painter, sculptor or architect. In particular we will focus on his studies for his planned fresco of The Battle of Cascina, the first occasion on which he was deliberately pitted against Leonardo. 

As I will follow this series with an introduction to the forthcoming exhibition at the King's Gallery, Drawing the Italian Renaissance, I am planning to make things more coherent by including any drawings by Michelangelo from that exhibition in this talk - thus making the later talk more manageable!