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.
View an online tour of Michelangelo: money and medals
Image: Detail from a lead medal of Michelangelo, by Leone Leoni