Michelangelo: money and medals
12 January – 25 June 2006
Room 69a
Exhibition closed
Michelangelo: money and medals offers
a crucial perspective on Michelangelo's extraordinary life to
preface the Museum's major spring exhibition Michelangelo
drawings: closer to the master.
Through rare coins and medals from across
Renaissance Italy, explore the political contexts and monetary
transactions which shaped Michelangelo's career.
Discover how he combined ambition and
frugality to become the richest and most sought after artist in
Europe - paid twelve times his nearest rival, Titian. And examine
the medallic portraits of the powerful patrons and friends who
appear in Michelangelo's work, alongside the only contemporary
medal of the artist himself.
Image: Detail from a lead medal of
Michelangelo, by Leone Leoni