Why it matters
Michelangelo carved Marcus Junius Brutus as a heroic opponent of tyranny, a few years after the fall of the Florentine Republic he had supported. The bust may have started a revival of the classical portrait bust.
Did you know?
- It was carved around 1539–1540.
- Dante had placed Brutus in the lowest circle of hell, but Renaissance humanists admired him.
- His friend Donato Giannotti may have inspired it.
Based on the Wikipedia article Brutus (Michelangelo) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
