Michelangelo the portraitist: Giuliano de' Medici

Speranza

Giuliano is the symbol of the ACTIVE life.

He is a lithe, alert figure, holding his baton of command, and his legs are posed to suggest that he may at any moment leap up to physical activity.

But his head is thoughtful, almost grave.

An exclusively active personality is outside Michelangelo's range.

Such a being would have seemed to him no more than a brute beast, and therefore unworthy of his art.