Author’s Preface

This book deve­loped from an invi­ta­tion to speak on Michelangelo’s Bacchus at the sympo­sium Michel­an­gelo and His World in the 1490s, held at the Metro­po­litan Museum of Art in 2012. Over the follo­wing years, grap­pling with this topic led me into comple­xi­ties that only seemed to deepen and myste­ries that only seemed to multiply. Was Michel­an­gelo really a ‘forger’, and did Cardinal Riario reject the Bacchus soon after he commis­sioned it? What was Riario’s point of view and how does the Bacchus fit with his patro­nage more broadly? What was the rela­ti­onship of the Bacchus to the Slee­ping Cupid and to Riario’s recon­s­truc­tion of San Lorenzo in Damaso? What role did Jacopo Galli play in the crea­tion of the Bacchus and in Michelangelo’s career, and what insight might the Galli-Balducci bank records offer? In what ways did the ambi­tions and inte­rests of Riario, Galli, and Michel­an­gelo align or diverge? This book offers a re-exami­na­tion of these ques­tions from new perspec­tives and an invi­ta­tion for further debate. From a personal perspec­tive, this book preserves treasured memo­ries of places and people from the past—so many that it is now impos­sible to name them all. I will never forget the gracious­ness of hosts Kath­leen Weil-Garris Brandt and the late James Draper at the Michel­an­gelo sympo­sium of 2012, and the exem­plary work of those who presented at this event has been a constant inspi­ra­tion. My work on this manu­script began when I was a lecturer at the Open Univer­sity, where I bene­fitted from rese­arch funds and the support of colle­agues, in parti­cular Leah Clark. I am grateful to colle­agues who invited me to present at confe­rences and semi­nars where I could benefit from engaged, insightful audiences—to Glenn Richardson, for a paper on Raffaele Riario at the confe­rence Renais­sance Cardi­nals: Diplo­mats and Patrons in the Early Modern World in Twickenham; Flora Dennis, for a presen­ta­tion at the Univer­sity of Sussex; Kate Lowe, for a seminar at the Insti­tute of Histo­rical Rese­arch; Margaret Meserve, for a paper at The Promise of the Vatican Library confe­rence at Notre Dame; the orga­nisers of Faking it: Forgery and Fabri­ca­tion in Late Medieval and Early Modern Culture, for a paper at this confe­rence at the Univer­sity of Gothen­burg; Sebas­tian Hierl, for a lecture to the Friends of the Library of the American Academy in Rome; and Martin Szew­czyk, for a presen­ta­tion at the confe­rence La fabrique de l’Antique. What allowed me to develop my rese­arch into its current form was the bles­sing of a Donald and Maria Cox Post­doc­toral Rome Prize at the American Academy in 2016–2017. It was because of this crucial year of support, and the encou­ra­ge­ment of the fellows and the inspi­ring director, Kim Bowes, that I was able to complete the rese­arch and to begin writing in earnest. This rese­arch would not have been possible, as well, without the resources of nume­rous archives and libra­ries, inclu­ding the American Academy library, the Biblio­theca Hertziana, the Vatican library and archives, the State Archives of Florence, Naples, and Rome, and the Archivio Capi­to­lino. Among the many friends and colle­agues whom I relied upon for their feed­back, advice, and support were Piers Baker-Bates, Costanza Barbieri, Tatjana Bartsch, Susanna de Beer, Stefano de Bosio, Molly Bourne, Karl-Magnus Brose, Bianca de Divitiis, David Drogin, Barbara Furlotti, Robert Gaston, Leon Grek, Clare Guest, Phil­ippa Jackson, Fran­cesca Mattei, John Paoletti, Madda­lena Spagnolo, Will Sten­house, Claudia Wede­pohl, and Ed Wouk. Exchanges

with Diane Booton, Enzo Borsel­lino, Marco Pelle­g­rini, and Bern­hard Schirg offered important insights. Tom Cohen’s exper­tise in reading legal docu­ments was inva­luable, and I owe thanks to Paul Davies and Ortolf Harl for permis­sion to use their photo­graphs. I am grateful to Bill Sherman and Tristan Weddigen for their support in recent years and am, as ever, profoundly indebted to the late John Shearman and to Salva­tore Settis, who first inspired me to explore these topics. It was John Shearman’s lectures on Michel­an­gelo that were the starting point for many of the ques­tions discussed in this text. Special thanks, as well, go to Caro­line Elam, whose rese­arch on Lorenzo de’ Medici’s sculp­ture garden has been funda­mental for this study. Her comm­ents on the first proposal for this book, her edits on the manu­script in a near-final form, and her unique exper­tise have been inva­luable. Heart­felt thanks go to my colle­agues at the Institut für Kunst- und Bild­ge­schichte at the Humboldt-Univer­sität zu Berlin for their encou­ra­ge­ment, as well as to the wonderful student assistants in Berlin who dedi­cated many hours to prepa­ring the manu­script and illus­tra­tions: Pernille Dybvig, Olga Lysak, Jorinde Miller, Luise Mörke, and Clara Sawatzki. I am grateful as well for last-minute photo­graphs from the Archivio di Stato in Rome by Giorgia Pietro­paolo. The anony­mous readers of this manu­script, Cammy Brot­hers, and Carolyn Yerkes helped to move this project forward and to publish it in the new book series at Harvey Miller, All’antica. I am profoundly grateful to Johan Van der Beke for his faith in this venture and for being a patient and accom­mo­da­ting editor. Support for the e‑book edition of this text was graciously provided by the open access publi­ca­tion fund of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Finally, I owe the deepest grati­tude to my family—my parents, Bill and Elinor Chris­tian; my brother, Bill Chris­tian; Brigitte Baeder; and the late Dixon and Kate Roy Christian—for their support and guidance. It is with all my love that I dedi­cate this book to Andreas and Lian Baeder, whose humour and unwa­ve­ring pati­ence have sustained me every step of the way.