The complex of buildings was converted into a museum dedicated to the artist by his great nephew, Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger.

[2] The Galleria is decorated with paintings commissioned by Buonarroti the Younger and was created by Artemisia Gentileschi[3] and other early seventeenth-century Italian artists.

[5] After moving permanently to Rome in 1534, Michelangelo became increasingly obsessed with the idea of having an "honorable home" in his native city of Florence, as a palace that would represent his family with dignity.

He repeatedly asked his nephew Leonardo (1519–1599) to transform the five buildings at the corner of via Ghibellina and via Santa Maria into a family palace, but no work was initiated.

Showing little interest in the project, however, Leonardo committing only to a partial restoration of the complex that was carried out in 1590, 26 years after Michelangelo's death.