Pope Leo's epicurean tastes ran to painting and to Raphael. He was well aware of Michelangelo's prodigious talent, but it required the coaxing of his cousin, Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, the future Pope Clement VII, for Leo to find reason to employ the artist. During his recent visit to Florence in 1515, Leo was forcibly reminded that his family church of San Lorenzo still lacked a façade. A commission to complete the church would be an act of filial piety, a financial windfall for Florence, a magnificent modern monument, and a permanent reminder of Medici munificence.

The aged Giuliano da Sangallo made a number of impressive designs for the façade. Before he died in October 1516, Giuliano may have expressed a preference for Michelangelo to succeed him in the enterprise. The circumstances surrounding the awarding of the commission are obscure, but it appears that Michelangelo and the contemporary Florentine architect Baccio d'Agnolo wrested the project from all rivals by agreeing to collaborate: the now famous sculptor was to carve statues for a façade designed by Baccio, one of Florence's more experienced builders. The arrangement, with the architecture in the hands of a competent and experienced professional, was congenial to Michelangelo, who claimed that architecture (like painting and bronze casting), “is not my profession.” However, when he saw Baccio's wood model, he judged it “a childish thing.” Michelangelo must have realized that the sculptural decoration he imagined, no matter how ambitious and beautiful, would suffer in such a mediocre setting.