The Royal Academy set Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael side by side in Florence around 1504, with the Taddei Tondo, the Burlington House Cartoon and drawings for the Palazzo Vecchio murals.
The Royal Academy of Arts in Mayfair brought Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael together at the moment their paths crossed in Florence in 1504. The exhibition ran from Saturday 9 November 2024 to Sunday 16 February 2025.
Michelangelo and Leonardo had both lately returned to their native city, where they competed for the most powerful patrons of Republican Florence. On 25 January 1504 the city’s leading artists met to advise where Michelangelo’s nearly finished David should stand, and Leonardo was among them. Raphael, then young, watched both men and learnt from each.
The exhibition opened with Michelangelo’s Taddei Tondo, made around 1504 to 1505. It also showed both rivals’ studies for the murals the Florentine government commissioned for its new council hall in the Palazzo Vecchio.
Leonardo’s Burlington House Cartoon, made around 1506 to 1508, shows the Virgin and Child with St Anne and the infant St John. It hung with his drawing A Rearing Horse and Michelangelo’s Male Nude.
Raphael’s Esterhazy Madonna and his drawing after the David showed the young painter’s debt to both men.
The Royal Academy organised the exhibition in its Burlington Gardens galleries with Royal Collection Trust and the National Gallery.