Bandinelli was, after Michelangelo (1474-1564), the leading Florentine sculptor of the period. He was the son of the prominent Florentine goldsmith Michelangelo di Viviano (1459-1528), by whom he was first trained, and was subsequently apprenticed to a number of sculptors, including Gianfrancesco Rustici (1474-1554). Bandinelli was unswervingly loyal to the ruling Medici house, which resulted in a steady flow of prestigious, official commissions throughout his long career. The drawback was that this incurred the enmity of republican sympathizers, including Michelangelo. Among Bandinelli's early commissions was the marble statue of St. Peter for the facade of Florence Cathedral (1515). From 1517/18 to c.1525, he worked mostly in Rome. On his return to Florence he began the marble statue of Hercules and Cacus, erected outside the Palazzo Vecchio. During the 1530s he worked mostly on the tombs of the Medici Popes Leo X and Clement VII, for the church of S. Maria sopra Minerva, Rome. After 1540, he was mainly active in Florence, working on sculptures for the Sala dei Cinquecento in the Palazzo Vecchio and on the new high altar for Florence Cathedral (begun in 1552). In spite of Bandinelli's evident success, he never emerged from the shadow cast by Michelangelo's towering genius (Turner, N.: From Michelangelo to Annibale Carracci. A century of Italian drawings from the Prado, Art Services International-Museo Nacional del Prado, 2008, p. 64).