"Michelangelo Buonarroti" and "the Medici" are usually the first two names that come to mind when we recall the heroic figures of the Italian Renaissance—Michelangelo as a supremely gifted sculptor, painter, architect and poet, the Medici as an inspired family of patrons and collectors.
They were all Florentines, to be sure. But in real terms, were they friends or enemies, allies or antagonists—or all of these at once? Michelangelo created some of his most memorable works for the Medici (including the Medici tombs and the Laurentian Library in Florence).
