Prudent Michelangelo

In this second monochrome scene, Matteo Rosselli shows Michelangelo engaged in writing in his studio, inspired by the allegorical figure of Prudence, characterized by a mirror and a snake. We can track a reference to this kind of representation in the painting with Saint Jerome in his Study, carried out by Cigoli for the Roman church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini. The Casa Buonarroti’s composition, in fact, it originated by the Roman one, by replacing to the three theological virtues, that inspires Saint Jerome, the only Prudence.