Editing Michelangelo (section)

===Florence, 1499–1505===
{{Main|David (Michelangelo)}}
[[File:'David' by Michelangelo Fir JBU005 denoised.jpg|thumb|left|''[[David (Michelangelo)|David]]'', completed by Michelangelo in 1504, is one of the most renowned works of the Renaissance.]]
Michelangelo returned to Florence in 1499. The [[Republic of Florence|Republic]] was changing after the fall of its leader, anti-Renaissance priest [[Girolamo Savonarola]], who was executed in 1498, and the rise of the ''gonfaloniere'' [[Piero Soderini]]. Michelangelo was asked by the consuls of the Guild of Wool to complete an unfinished project begun 40 years earlier by [[Agostino di Duccio]]: a colossal statue of [[Carrara marble]] portraying [[David]] as a symbol of Florentine freedom to be placed on the gable of [[Florence Cathedral]].<ref name=Paoletti387>Paoletti and Radke, pp. 387–89</ref> Michelangelo responded by completing his most famous work, the statue of ''[[David (Michelangelo)|David]]'', in 1504. The masterwork definitively established his prominence as a sculptor of extraordinary technical skill and strength of symbolic imagination. A team of consultants, including [[Botticelli]], [[Leonardo da Vinci]], [[Filippino Lippi]], [[Pietro Perugino]], [[Lorenzo di Credi]], [[Antonio da Sangallo the Elder|Antonio]] and [[Giuliano da Sangallo]], [[Andrea della Robbia]], [[Cosimo Rosselli]], [[Davide Ghirlandaio]], [[Piero di Cosimo]], [[Andrea Sansovino]] and Michelangelo's dear friend Granacci, was called together to decide upon its placement, ultimately the Piazza della Signoria, in front of the [[Palazzo Vecchio]]. It now stands in the [[Galleria dell'Accademia|Academia]], and in 1910 a marble replica was raised its place in the square.<ref name="Goldscheider1962">{{cite book |last1=Buonarroti |first1=Michelangelo |last2=Goldscheider |first2=Ludwig |title=Michelangelo: Paintings, Sculptures, Architecture |year=1962 |publisher=Phaidon Publishers |page=10 |url=https://archive.org/details/michaelangelo0000unse_h2o4/page/10/mode/2up?q=%22marble+replica%22}}</ref> In the same period of placing the ''David'', Michelangelo may have been involved in creating the sculptural profile on Palazzo Vecchio's façade known as the [[Importuno di Michelangelo]]. The hypothesis<ref name="Marinazzo 2020">{{Cite journal|last=Marinazzo|first=Adriano|date=2020|title=Una nuova possible attribuzione a Michelangelo. Il Volto Misterioso|url=https://www.academia.edu/44494234|journal=Art e Dossier|volume=379|pages=76–81}}</ref> of Michelangelo's possible involvement in the creation of the profile is based on the strong resemblance of the latter to a profile drawn by the artist, datable to the beginning of the 16th century, now preserved in the [[Louvre]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Avant Banksy et Invader, Michel-Ange pionnier du street art dans les rues de Florence|url=https://www.lefigaro.fr/culture/avant-banksy-et-invader-michel-ange-pionnier-du-street-art-dans-les-rues-de-florence-20201122|access-date=11 April 2021|website=LeFigaro |date=22 November 2020|language=fr}}</ref>

With the completion of the ''David'' came another commission. In early 1504 Leonardo da Vinci had been commissioned to paint ''[[The Battle of Anghiari (painting)|The Battle of Anghiari]]'' in the council chamber of the Palazzo Vecchio, depicting the [[Battle of Anghiari|battle between Florence and Milan]] in 1440. Michelangelo was then commissioned to paint the ''[[Battle of Cascina (Michelangelo)|Battle of Cascina]]''. The two paintings are very different: Leonardo depicts soldiers fighting on horseback, while Michelangelo has soldiers being ambushed as they bathe in the river. Neither work was completed and both were lost forever when the chamber was refurbished. Both works were much admired, and copies remain of them, Leonardo's work having been copied by [[Rubens]] and Michelangelo's by [[Bastiano da Sangallo]].<ref>Paoletti and Radke, pp. 392–93</ref>

Also during this period, Michelangelo was commissioned by Angelo Doni to paint a "[[Holy Family]]" as a present for his wife, Maddalena Strozzi. It is known as the ''[[Doni Tondo|Doni Madonna]]'' and hangs in the Uffizi Gallery,<ref name="Goldscheider1962 11">{{cite book |last1=Buonarroti |first1=Michelangelo |last2=Goldscheider |first2=Ludwig |title=Michelangelo: Paintings, Sculptures, Architecture |year=1962 |publisher=Phaidon Publishers |page=11, plate 44 |url=https://archive.org/details/michaelangelo0000unse_h2o4/page/10/mode/2up?q=%27%27Angelo+Doni%27%27}}</ref> still in its original magnificent frame, which Michelangelo may have designed.<ref>Hirst and Dunkerton, p. 127</ref>  He also may have painted the Madonna and Child with [[John the Baptist]], known as the ''[[Manchester Madonna]]'' and now in the [[National Gallery]], London.<ref>Hirst and Dunkerton, pp. 83–105, 336–46</ref>