''Brutus'' is a marble bust of Marcus Junius Brutus sculpted by

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6March 147518February 1564), known mononymously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was inspir ...

around 1539–1540. It is now in the Bargello museum in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

. The sculpture gives Brutus a heroic aspect in keeping with political sentiment against tyranny at the time of its creation. It belongs to—and may have initiated—a revival of the classical bust in sculpture.

Background

carved ''Brutus'' a few years after the defeat of the Republic of Florence (1527–1531). As a supporter of the Florentine Republic who designed and supervised the remodeling and construction of its fortifications, Michelangelo was a strong opponent of tyranny. Charles de Tolnay, ''Michelangelo: Sculptor, Painter, Architect'' (translated from French by Gaynor Woodhouse) (Princeton, NJ; Princeton University Press: 1975) pp. 43–45, 61–63, 173. In the ''

Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' (, ) is an Italian narrative poetry, narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun and completed around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of ...

'',

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

had placed Brutus among the lowest of the low. Michelangelo was much devoted to the poems of Dante, but with the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

, Brutus came to be seen as a strong and defiant opponent of tyranny. "During the Renaissance, with the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

seen as the beginning of the decadence of Rome, a veritable cult of Brutus developed", Michelangelo's biographer Charles de Tolnay writes. During the years following the capitulation of Florence, Michelangelo remained in contact with some of the former leaders of the Republic, men who championed the liberty of the

city-state A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world throughout history, including cities such as Rome, ...

and opposed Medicean tyranny. De Tolnay believes that one of these men, namely Donato Giannotti, inspired the bust of Brutus. "The Bust is important for understanding ichelangeloBuonarroti's political views", De Tolnay states. "Michelangelo's conception of Brutus is clearly expressed in this bust: It represents heroic scorn for those who would destroy liberty". Contemporaries may have connected the sculpture with the assassination of Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence, by Lorenzino de' Medici in 1537. Johannes Wilde, another Michelangelo scholar, also sees the Brutus as a "glorification of liberty from tyranny". Wilde suggests that the sculpture remained unfinished.

Date

De Tolnay suggests that the bust was created around 1539–1540. The Museo Nazionale del Bargello in

, where the sculpture is usually displayed, also dates the work to 1539–1540National Museum of Bargello
accessed 4 November 2017. Thomas Martin questions this date, which originates with

Giorgio Vasari Giorgio Vasari (30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance painter, architect, art historian, and biographer who is best known for his work ''Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'', considered the ideol ...

, noting that ''Brutus'' did not leave Michelangelo's workshop until about 1555, suggesting that the sculpture might have been crafted over a long period, and was perhaps commissioned to commemorate the death of Lorenzino de' Medici in 1548."Michelangelo's 'Brutus' and the Classicizing Portrait Bust in Sixteenth-Century Italy", ''Artibus et Historiae'' 14(27), 1993
JSTOR
The work is generally considered to have been influential in reviving the classical bust form in sculpture. In Martin's view, however, the later dates of the sculpture make it a latecomer to the trend. ''Brutus'' is compared with a marble bust of Duke Cosimo I created by Bartolommeo Bandinelli in 1543–1545 and another bust of Duke Cosimo created by

Benvenuto Cellini Benvenuto Cellini (, ; 3 November 150013 February 1571) was an Italian goldsmith, sculptor, and author. His best-known extant works include the ''Cellini Salt Cellar'', the sculpture of ''Perseus with the Head of Medusa'', and his autobiography ...

in 1545–1547.

The work

The sculpture was commissioned by the republican Donato Giannotti for Cardinal Niccolò Ridolfi. The face of the sculpture is asymmetrical, with the side turned away from the spectator showing more signs of emotion, including a flared nostril.

Fibula as a study for the head

Brutus fibula compared with antique coin

wrote that Michelangelo had modeled Brutus from the image cut into a gem. Later scholars did not find the work to resemble any such extant gem, supposing instead that it may have been modeled after a bust of

Caracalla Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Lucius Septimius Bassianus, 4 April 188 – 8 April 217), better known by his nickname Caracalla (; ), was Roman emperor from 198 to 217 AD, first serving as nominal co-emperor under his father and then r ...

.Irving Lavin, "On Illusion and Allusion in Italian Sixteenth-Century Portrait u", ''Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society'' 119(5), October 15, 1975
JSTOR
De Tolnay in 1935 published his observation that the fibula in the sculpture is a study for the sculpture itself, providing a missing link to show the resemblance to classical coinage.Charles Tolnay, "Michelangelo's Bust of ''Brutus''", ''The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 67(338), July 1935
JSTOR
The shape of the head itself is simpler than that of the silhouette on the shoulder. According to de Tolnay:

In the former (the fibula), the silhouette of the head is roundish; the forehead in relief shows movement; the outline of the nose is undulating; the line of the lips is soft; the chin is sharply rounded. In the latter (the bust), everything is simplified for cutting; the comparatively small head rises above an unusually broad bull-neck, and has an almost straight rectangular silhouette; the forehead is quite smoothed off; the nose is severely straight; the lips are hard; the chin is angular and protruding. The minor details have disappeared and only the form as a whole remains effective. This evolution from an empirical, individual prototype to a universal, ideal type is characteristic of Michelangelo's procedure, and may be seen even in his early work.

References

External links