A bit of graffiti by a Renaissance genius.
In Florence’s Piazza della Signoria, you’ll find an oddity that’s also a popular nugget of Florentine folklore known as L’Importuno di Michelangelo (The Nuisance by Michelangelo).
Pass the statues in Loggia dei Lanzi, and you’ll face the entry to Palazzo Vecchio (flanked by Michelangelo’s David (a replica) and Bardinelli’s Hercules and Cacus). Just behind Bardinelli’s sculpture, you can pick out the image of a man’s profile carved into the wall of Palazzo Vecchio. According to Florentine legend, this piece of graffiti was created by Michelangelo.
There are a few origin stories about the carving:
The first, is someone dared Michelangelo to deface the palace wall.
Another is that Michelangelo witnessed a man on his way to execution and was so taken with his expression that the artist carved it into the wall.
Still another tale is that a notoriously dull man started talking to Michelangelo in the piazza. Michelangelo couldn’t get away, and he made the carving to relieve his boredom.
The legend’s only consistency seems to be that Michelangelo was responsible for the profile.
There’s a plot twist! In 2020, art historian, Adriano Marinazzo, asserted that Michelangelo did create the graffiti. He arrived at his conclusion based on similarities between the Vecchio carving and other works by Michelangelo (including a drawing in the Louvre that bears a very strong resemblance to the carved profile).
JACQUELINE A. POLLARD 