Brutus

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Brutus is a marble bust sculpted by Michelangelo around 1539-40. It is now in the Bargello museum in Florence. 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. De Tolnay believes that one of these men, namely Donato Giannotti, inspired the bust of Brutus. "The Bust is important for understanding [Michelangelo] Buonarroti's political views", De Tolnay states. "Michelangelo's conception of Brutus is clearly expressed in this bust: It represents heroic scorn for those who would destroy liberty". Contemporaries may have connected the sculpture with the assassination of Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence, by Lorenzino de' Medici in 1537. Johannes Wilde, another Michelangelo scholar, also sees the Brutus as a "glorification of liberty from tyranny". Wilde suggests that the sculpture remained unfinished.