Michelangelo
Michelangelo returned to Florence in 1499. The 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. Michelangelo responded by completing his most famous work, the statue of 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 and Leonardo da Vinci, was called together to decide upon its placement, ultimately the Piazza della Signoria, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. It now stands in the Academia while a replica occupies its place in the square.
Michelangelo Spada
The son of Marcantonio Spada, a merchant, he trained initially under Simone Brentana (1656 – 1742), then traveled to Bologna to work under Giovanni Giuseppe dal Sole. In Bologna, he painted for the palace of the count Ercole Giusti. He painted two canvases, now lost, depicting "David playing Harp with Angels" and "Angels playing music". Another lost painting was the main altarpiece for the church of the Filippini in Verona, depicting the "Assumption of the Virgin with the Holy Trinity, and San Phillip Neri". He also painted for the church of Santa Caterina della Ruota, including one depicting events of the Apocalypse by St John: the "Woman of Babylon on the seven headed beast"; but also the "Fall of Lucifer", an "Immaculate Conception"; and a "God the father". He painted lunette frescoes (now lost) in the Convent of Sant'Anastasia ( which became the Lyceum), with scenes from the life of St Dominic and St Peter Martyr. Michelangelo Spada's sister, Veronica, was a painter of still-life.