When Michelangelo Buonarroti finished his David in 1504 it became clear to all Florentines that the result achieved was extraordinarily above all expectations and that the colossal sculpture deserved a more ambitious placement in the heart of the Republic then governed by the Gonfaloniere Piero Soderini. David embodied the "right man" who, armed only with a slingshot and faith in God, manages to prevail over the "strong but unjust". An image that well represented the metaphor of good government, guarantor of freedoms and the common good, protected by divine favor. A commission was therefore convened which included the most important artists of the time: Sandro Botticelli, Filippino Lippi, Leonardo da Vinci, Perugino, Ghirlandaio, Sansovino. Starting from Michelangelo's famous Tondo Taddei, this exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London explores the rivalry between the two giants of the Italian Renaissance Michelangelo and Leonardo and the influence they both had on the young Raphael, who was also in Florence in the same years.
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