tour 1 of 12
Michelangelo: money and medals
Michelangelo: Money and Medals
The Italian painter, sculptor and architect
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) was one of the greatest artists
of all time. He spent his life in Florence and Rome, where
commissions from rulers and popes made him extremely wealthy. This
tour examines his life through the coins and medals with which he
was familiar.
Coins fell
into three distinct types during Michelangelo's lifetime.
Firstly, there were pure gold coins, generally known as florins or
ducats, which were used throughout Italy as stores of wealth, for
major purchases, and in international trade. Secondly, there were
coins of fine silver, usually called grossi, still relatively
valuable but more usable in daily life. Finally, as small change,
there were small coins of silver mixed with copper. Different
cities and princes issued their own versions of these coins with
their own designs.
The
first medals were made in Italy less than forty years before
Michelangelo's birth in 1475. The earliest examples were
fed by a growing interest in the coins of ancient Rome, which they
were made to resemble. By the sixteenth century they were
mass-produced for a wide audience and often carried a political
message.
The tour was
written to accompany the exhibition
Michelangelo: Money and
Medals, at the British Museum (Room 69a,
admission free) from 12 January to 25 June
2006.