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Michelangelo: money and medals
Bronze medal of Clement VII, by Giovanni Bernardi
Giulio de' Medici became Pope Clement VII in 1523. He was the illegitimate son of Giuliano de' Medici, Lorenzo's younger brother, but was brought up by Lorenzo after his own father's murder in 1478. Prior to his papacy, Giulio was effectively governor of Florence and worked closely with Michelangelo on the Medici chapel in the church of San Lorenzo.
In 1527 Clement's pontificate hit disaster. Political misjudgments left him to face the wrath of the army of Emperor Charles V in the 1527 Sack of Rome. Clement was a prisoner in imperial custody for seven months until his escape and during this time he grew a beard as a sign of his grief; it is shown on this medal by Giovanni Bernardi. Medals had been made in Italy since around 1440 and were first mass-produced during the sixteenth century, when they became more overtly political.
The impotence of Clement VII after the Sack of Rome encouraged the Florentines to expel the Medici from Florence and restore the republic. Alessandro de' Medici became the first duke of Florence from 1532 but was widely hated. Michelangelo, a republican despite his close personal ties to specific members of the Medici family, felt himself personally threatened by the duke and left Florence for good in 1534.