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Michelangelo Buonarroti and Leonardo da Vinci struggle to find work and navigate the whims of patrons in Renaissance Florence. Florence at the end of the 15th century is famed for banking, trade and the skill of its artists. But being an artist is still a lowly trade.

The young Michelangelo is nonetheless determined to become an artist, defying the wishes of his father, and is lucky enough to catch the eye of the de facto ruler of Florence, Lorenzo de’ Medici.

But Leonardo da Vinci is less fortunate. Struggling to find sufficient commissions in Florence, he instead offers his services to Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan, a violent and dangerous man who Leonardo approaches not as an artist but as an engineer, able to design weapons of war.