When it comes to the history of art, few names ring as legendary as Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Raphael – they’ve even had ninja turtles named after them for goodness’ sake. Yet one thing that many don’t realise is that, at one point in the early 1500s, all three were together in the city of Florence, spurring rivalry and influencing art for years to come.
That brief moment of the Renaissance is going to be the subject of a new exhibition opening at the Royal Academy (RA) in Piccadilly, London, this November. In it, the curators explore how Michelangelo and Leonardo, already luminaries across Europe, met while the city sought advice over where to place the former’s latest (then unfinished) work, the iconic marble masterpiece that is David. It also takes a look at how their work for some of the most influential and rich patrons of Florence impacted the works of then-up-and-coming artist, Raphael.
Aptly and simply called Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael – Florence, c. 1504, the exhibition will bring some amazing artefacts together, including Michelangelo’s unfinished Taddei Tondo, a marble relief that’s in the permanent collection of the RA; da Vinci’s charcoal and chalk drawing of The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist, which is colloquially known as “The Burlington House Cartoon”; and Raphael’s Virgin and Child with the Infant St John the Baptist oil-on-canvas, which is known as “The Esterhazy Madonna” and is usually held at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, Hungary.
The exhibition opens on November 9, 2024 and runs till February 16, 2025. Tickets cost between £19 (≈€22.47) and £21 (≈€24.83), including donation. For more information, please visit the RA’s official website.
