For Michelangelo, there was nothing to celebrate. Five hundred years ago, Pope Leo X forced him to leave his beloved Carrara and find new quarries in the impenetrable surroundings of Pietrasanta and Seravezza to extract marble for the façade of Florence’s San Lorenzo Basilica. Michelangelo was a stubborn man and strenuously opposed the papal decision, not seeing the point in changing suppliers. But Giovanni de’ Medici, a.k.a. Leo X, was resolute: Carrara marble came at a cost, while the Pietrasanta area was controlled by Florence, so the rock was free. It came at a high price for the artist who, already a sculptor, painter and architect, now had to improvise as quarryman and road builder too. If marble was to be found in the mighty Monte Altissimo overlooking Seravezza, it was not easy to get it.
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