Brutus (Michelangelo)

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Brutus is a marble bust of Marcus Junius Brutus sculpted by Michelangelo around 1539–1540. It is now in the Bargello museum in 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. Michelangelo 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. In the Divine Comedy, Dante had placed Brutus among the lowest of the low. Michelangelo was much devoted to the poems of Dante, but with the Renaissance, Brutus came to be seen as a strong and defiant opponent of tyranny. "During the Renaissance, with the Roman Empire 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 and opposed Medicean tyranny.