A sculpture of a nude Christ on a cross. long thought to be lost, was re-installed last week in the Santo Spirito church in Florence, where he left it as a thank-you gift for hospitality when he was 18.
Michelangelo lived and studied at the church and its community after the death of his first patron, Lorenzo de Medici. During his time there, he studied anatomy at the church’s hospital, and made the 1.4 meter tall crucifix, which was intended to hang in the sacristy where it has now been place.
At some point after that, the crucifix disappeared from view and was assumed lost. In the 1960s, however, it was found in a corridor of one of the church’s cloisters, unrecognized and heavily overpainted. It has recently emerged from its restoration, and after a tour of Italy, it’s been re-installed where it was meant to be.
