tour 11 of 12
Michelangelo: money and medals
Bronze medal of Pius IV, by Gianfederico Bonzagna
Pius IV was pope between 1559 and 1565, and the
Porta Pia was among his civic improvements to Rome. Situated at the
end of a new street, the Via Pia, it was designed by Michelangelo.
Construction began in 1561 and ended in 1565, after the
artist's death. This medal by Gianfederico Bonzagna shows
an early plan by Michelangelo, very different from his final
design.
Pius was a great
admirer of Michelangelo and restored his salary as architect to St
Peter's, which had lapsed under his predecessor Paul
IV.
Principally because of
his work for the popes, Michelangelo's income and savings
dwarfed those of celebrated contemporaries such as Titian. When he
died in 1564, his estate was worth more than 24,000 florins, an
incredible sum for an artist. He always wanted access to ready
money, and among the few possessions near his bedside at his death
was a chest of 8289 gold ducats and scudi, amounting to almost 30
kilograms of gold.