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Was Michelangelo
a saint or a sinner?

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He's a saint of art.

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He's certainly a patron saint of art

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and probably one of the most
famous artists in the world.

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So in that sense,

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he's saintly in that
we still respect him and observe him

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and go to his relics
and the remains that he's given us.

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But he thought of himself
as a sinner.

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I think in this case,
we have to separate

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the artist from the man
and when we think of an artist,

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the public persona
is always this genius,

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this guy who had the hands of God
to create these divine-like works.

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Then it's hard to think of him
in any other way than divine.

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But maybe this is the perfect
moment in time, in history,

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to think about him as a human being,
as a complicated human being.

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I love Michelangelo
on a very deep level.

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He's the ultimate artist for me.

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And I- I like to think of him
more like a God than a mere mortal.

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So, he's a complex man,

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and maybe it's time for me
to stop thinking about him as a God

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and think about him as a man.

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I never tire of being in Rome.

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I've been coming here
for 20 years for my career.

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It's almost as if I left
a little piece of myself here,

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and then I reconnect with it again
every time.

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It's a place
that just gives me so much energy.

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When I'm walking these cobblestones,

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I'm immediately connected
to Renaissance Masters.

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I'm looking
at these ancient monuments

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and I'm thinking of an
entirely different world.

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But a world that still
informs my existence today.

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'It's such a layered city,

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and I suppose I'm addicted to it.'

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'I'm a pilgrim. I keep returning.

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And there's one artist
more than anyone else

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that I'm in search for...

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..that I'm always keeping
an eye out for...

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and it's Michelangelo.'

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This is the tomb of Pope Julius II
by Michelangelo.

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It was supposed to be
one of the most magnificent,

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splendid, ground-breaking
artworks in history.

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And instead,
it's completely mired in controversy.

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It took 40 years to deliver.
It is far diminished.

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It is a modest artwork
instead of a magnificent artwork.

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And ultimately,

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it's something that really threatens
Michelangelo's reputation.

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It involves lots of scheming,
lots of letters,

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lots of accusations, several popes,

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Michelangelo's rivals,
Raphael and Bramante.

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Perhaps the biggest controversy
about Michelangelo, this tomb.

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The mausoleum
was to be Michelangelo's
commission of a lifetime

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that was meant
to secure his legacy forever,

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secure it beyond our wildest
dreams that we know today.

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'I think the failed tomb
of Pope Julius II

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can give us a different insight
into Michelangelo's personal life.

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Without this tomb,

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and the controversy
that surrounded it at the time,

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Michelangelo probably
would not have created

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some of his most magnificent work.

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So one could argue
that out of his darkest moments

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rose some of his
brightest achievements.'

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'As a sculptor,
he had imagined something ambitious,

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a marble monument like no other.

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This tomb for Pope Julius II,
known as the warrior pope,

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was meant to become
the eighth wonder of the world.'

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'We are unaware of the details
as we have no drawings.

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But we do know that he
wanted it to be magnificent.

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A celebration of Christianity,

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he wanted it to be
a freestanding tomb

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made entirely of the finest Carrara
marble he would choose himself.

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Never since classical times
had a mausoleum like this

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been built in the West
for one man alone.

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Michelangelo planned to finish it
in under six years.

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So why didn't he?'

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This mausoleum
would've immortalised Pope Julius II

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as this king-like pope,

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who was this architect of Rome
who helped enable Rome to prosper

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as one of the greatest cities
artistically in the world.

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It was supposed to be
the Sistine Chapel in marble,

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and instead we have Moses.

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And don't get me wrong,
I love Moses. It's a masterpiece.

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But he was supposed to have
serious company.

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And instead, he's on his own.

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The tomb ultimately cost
a huge amount of money.

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Maybe well into
the hundreds of thousands of dollars

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in modern equivalency.

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But here's where,
over the long, long history

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of this tomb of 40 years,
there were contracts

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and there was agreements
and there was funding,

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and then there was promotion,
more money presented.

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Michelangelo
didn't keep track of it!

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And this is how he got into trouble.
He didn't keep track of the money,

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he didn't- he couldn't legitimise,
or legitimate,

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what he was spending his money on.

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He was just a terrible,
terrible money manager.

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Mmm.

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Stop.

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Well...

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I began my career
at the British Museum,

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talking about Michelangelo
in these divine terms.

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But I never really thought about him
as a man before.

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And when I think
about the Tomb of Julius II,

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I realised that I haven't
acknowledged that perhaps...

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perhaps Michelangelo was flawed,
perhaps he made mistakes.

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Why did this tomb take 40 years
to deliver?

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Why was he hounded by the family

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asking for the artwork
that he promised them?

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Why did he take money and then
maybe not deliver on the sculptures?

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And I think that, as art historians,

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sometimes we're guilty
of just putting forward

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the story of Michelangelo
and all of his accomplishments.

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And we don't like to think about
all the messy, complicated stuff.

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I want to really understand
this artist that I love so much.

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You know, to be a true art historian
is to see an artist in the round.

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And that's what I need to do.

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'Michelangelo's born in 1475,
in a really tiny place,

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Caprese, it's near Arezzo,
in the Tuscan countryside.

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Michelangelo came from a family
which had very noble origins.

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He was always very keen to stress
this, it was important to him.

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But by no means was-
did he grew up in a family

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which had a huge amount of wealth.'

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And over 500 years later,

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this is still one of the most
remote parts of Italy I've ever seen.

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And it spectacular.
It's not about people.

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It's not about buildings.
It's not about money.

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It's not about status.
It's not about power.

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This place just seems
to be about light and nature.

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And actually, Michelangelo's making
more sense as an artist for me.

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It's really important for me
to come back to this place

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and trace his footsteps
and say, "He was born".

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He was-
He was flesh and blood, just like me.

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And I think this art is
known the world over.

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This, sort of, person who set
the benchmark for what art could be

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was born right here.

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He doesn't grow up
with a lot of money.

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There's no financial stability.

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There's definitely always
a concern in Michelangelo...

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Even when
he's in his much later years

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and he shouldn't be worrying about
money, he does worry about money.

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And you can see his letters
with his father.

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His father's constantly
writing to him to say,

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when he's a young man, "You should
be more financially secure,

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but you mustn't live in poverty.

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But at the same time,
you mustn't live extravagantly."

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There's all these pressures on him

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and that stays with him
throughout his entire life.

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It's definitely a really
psychological trait in Michelangelo

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to both uphold
the good name of the family,

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but not be seen to be too luxurious.

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And I think you see that
in the way that he handles money.

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I mean, he's slightly negligent
when he handles money.

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He's very concerned about money,
but he doesn't count every penny,

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he's so busy with his work,
so he's a bit of a contradiction.

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Well, Michelangelo was the person
in the family that made money.

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And so, um, yes, his father

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was constantly asking for money
from Michelangelo.

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And so Michelangelo's
a little bit irritated

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that other members of his family
weren't making as much money.

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But Michelangelo
made a LOT of money in his life.

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I mean, he- by the end of his life,
he was a multimillionaire,

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but he didn't spend money
on himself.

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He spent money on everything else,
his art and mostly on marble.

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So, the...
money was always a tension,

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as it probably is in many families.

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Well, Michelangelo came
from an old, noble family...

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uh, impoverished nobility.

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And so, his father
would naturally expect Michelangelo

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to become a member of the government
or a notary,

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or something
that was not manual labour,

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which is what art was considered,

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a manual labour
and not very prestigious.

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'When Michelangelo as a young man
says he wants to become an artist,

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you can imagine his family
were really shocked

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to the point of thinking
they might be disgraced

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by him becoming an artist.

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But he obviously just feels it
on a very instinctive level.'

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But I think what becomes very clear

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is that by the time
that Michelangelo is 13,

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he's basically just drawing
at school.

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He just wants to be an artist.

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And his father and his uncle try
and convince him not to be an artist.

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But eventually they submit,
and he goes to become an apprentice

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at the workshop of Ghirlandaio, who's
a very respected Florentine artist.

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'So, I've come to Florence
to retrace his footsteps

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and think about him
in all of his complexity.

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The Tomb of Julius II, it seems like
quite a contemporary problem.

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You know, there's fake news.

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There's people
trying to slander Michelangelo.

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They're trying to cancel him,
they're trying to bring him down.

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Was he a saint, or was he a sinner?
I don't know.

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Could Michelangelo ever be
so innocent?

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I've always thought him to be so.

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But now thinking about it, I realise
it's a much more complex picture.

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And I need to think carefully

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and try and understand him
as flesh and blood.'

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This is the cloister of the
Church of San Lorenzo in Florence,

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and it's a site of huge significance
in Michelangelo's career.

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It's the Medici family church.

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It's a place
where he had a huge success

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with the Medici Family Chapel.

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And so the Medici helped

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pave the way
for a Michelangelo career.

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And that career began, really,

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not actually in the Medici garden,

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but with the Ghirlandaio workshop,

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where probably
because of the Medici connection,

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Michelangelo was...
His way with smoothed into

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the most impressive and important
workshop in all of Florence

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A painter's workshop,

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which is not how we think
of Michelangelo being trained.

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Michelangelo is, however,
only there one year,

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and that's unusual for an apprentice.

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He gets summoned, he gets picked.
Lorenzo the Magnificent says,

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"Send me two of your best
pupils to Ghirlandaio."

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And Michelangelo's selected.

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And then, this really just changes
the course of Michelangelo's life.

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He's got this humanist education.

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He's looking at ancient sculptures
in the gardens,

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he's being tutored by great artists,

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he's living a princely kind of life
with this very wealthy Medici family.

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And what's critical
is that he would become very close,

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almost like family,
with two future popes.

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Michelangelo really, as yet,

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is not a sculptor when he's living
in the Medici household.

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He's something like being trained
in something like a courtier,

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sort of on the margins
of the court of the Medici.

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But then, with the death
of Lorenzo de' Medici,

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Michelangelo really needed a career,
he needed some kind of income.

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00:16:55,360 --> 00:16:59,400
And so he carved the Cupid
as a showpiece,

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00:16:59,440 --> 00:17:02,560
as a demonstration
that he could carve

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00:17:02,600 --> 00:17:06,920
as well as the antique sculptors
of the ancient world could carve.

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00:17:06,960 --> 00:17:09,240
And this Cupid was sent to Rome

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00:17:09,280 --> 00:17:13,520
as if it had been discovered
as an ancient work of art.

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But his big break
came from Raffaele Riario,

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00:18:01,120 --> 00:18:04,120
who actually asked Michelangelo,
"What can you do?"

238
00:18:04,160 --> 00:18:06,880
You know,
"OK, I've seen you carve the Cupid,

239
00:18:06,920 --> 00:18:09,160
but what can you do new for me?"

240
00:18:09,200 --> 00:18:12,320
And so, Michelangelo
actually then carved the Bacchus.

241
00:18:29,560 --> 00:18:33,080
Then a French cardinal
noticed the Bacchus

242
00:18:33,120 --> 00:18:36,440
and wanted a grave memorial
for himself,

243
00:18:36,480 --> 00:18:38,160
which is what the Pieta was.

244
00:18:38,200 --> 00:18:41,160
It was to mark the grave of this
very powerful French cardinal.

245
00:18:41,200 --> 00:18:43,880
Michelangelo finally gets
what he's looking for,

246
00:18:43,920 --> 00:18:48,240
a really serious commission by
a serious cardinal for the Vatican.

247
00:18:48,280 --> 00:18:50,320
And he's gonna make a Pieta.

248
00:19:49,200 --> 00:19:51,800
So this really was
Michelangelo's coming out,

249
00:19:51,840 --> 00:19:56,560
his debut sculpture that made him
famous immediately in the world.

250
00:19:56,600 --> 00:20:00,560
And one way it's famous is not only
is it beautifully carved,

251
00:20:00,600 --> 00:20:03,480
but it's a beautiful,
carved piece of marble.

252
00:20:03,520 --> 00:20:06,640
It's just an absolute
miracle sculpture.

253
00:20:06,680 --> 00:20:08,680
And I think he changes sculpture
in that moment.

254
00:20:08,720 --> 00:20:11,440
People look at this work
and they're incredibly jealous

255
00:20:11,480 --> 00:20:14,480
of this young artist
in his twenties in Rome.

256
00:20:14,520 --> 00:20:16,640
They think,
"Who the hell does he think he is,

257
00:20:16,680 --> 00:20:18,760
this young Michelangelo,
making a work like that?"

258
00:20:18,800 --> 00:20:21,680
It surpasses everything
his contemporaries have achieved.

259
00:20:21,720 --> 00:20:23,600
And it really just
speaks to the ancients.

260
00:20:23,640 --> 00:20:26,440
So, it's such a critical
moment in Michelangelo's life.

261
00:20:26,480 --> 00:20:29,440
And I think it's the moment where
he thinks he's suddenly made it.

262
00:20:29,480 --> 00:20:31,040
He returns to Florence

263
00:20:31,080 --> 00:20:33,160
and he really wants to make his name
in his homeland.

264
00:20:33,200 --> 00:20:34,640
This is really important for him.

265
00:20:34,680 --> 00:20:36,880
He gets a gift of a commission.

266
00:20:36,920 --> 00:20:38,240
It's for the Duomo.

267
00:20:38,280 --> 00:20:41,040
Unfortunately...
It's a bit of a poisoned chalice

268
00:20:41,080 --> 00:20:43,080
because they give Michelangelo
"the giant",

269
00:20:43,120 --> 00:20:45,240
which is this
enormous block of marble

270
00:20:45,280 --> 00:20:47,520
that three different artists
have had to go at.

271
00:20:47,560 --> 00:20:50,360
It's absolutely enormous
and it's been quarried

272
00:20:50,400 --> 00:20:53,400
40 years before,
which makes it even harder to carve.

273
00:20:53,440 --> 00:20:55,560
And so actually,
it's a really difficult commission

274
00:20:55,600 --> 00:20:57,200
to give this young artist.

275
00:20:57,240 --> 00:21:00,280
But Michelangelo knows
this is his big moment.

276
00:21:08,680 --> 00:21:12,120
The David is Michelangelo,
world stage,

277
00:21:12,160 --> 00:21:14,840
and fame with the David. Why?

278
00:21:19,600 --> 00:21:21,800
Look at the scale of David.

279
00:21:21,840 --> 00:21:24,920
Nobody in the Renaissance
had carved any sculpture

280
00:21:24,960 --> 00:21:26,800
nearly of this scale,

281
00:21:26,840 --> 00:21:29,400
and much less a nude figure

282
00:21:29,440 --> 00:21:32,520
that was so impressively
naturalistic.

283
00:21:32,560 --> 00:21:36,240
So, the David was actually
not even called "the David".

284
00:21:36,280 --> 00:21:39,680
People just called it "Il Gigante".

285
00:23:17,720 --> 00:23:21,320
So, Michelangelo was flourishing
as an artist in Florence.

286
00:23:21,360 --> 00:23:24,680
Especially after the David, all
kinds of commissions came his way.

287
00:23:24,720 --> 00:23:27,520
But suddenly,
he gets a call from Rome.

288
00:23:28,640 --> 00:23:32,000
'Pope Julius II
would like him to come to Rome

289
00:23:32,040 --> 00:23:34,200
to carve a mausoleum,

290
00:23:34,240 --> 00:23:38,120
a monumental burial tomb
for the pope.'

291
00:23:38,960 --> 00:23:41,840
So when he gets this papal summons
in 1505,

292
00:23:41,880 --> 00:23:44,760
it changes the course of his
life because it means suddenly

293
00:23:44,800 --> 00:23:47,640
he is right at the apotheosis
of the art world.

294
00:23:47,680 --> 00:23:49,440
He has been summoned by a pope.

295
00:23:49,480 --> 00:23:53,000
Not just any pope,
but a pope who wants to rebuild Rome.

296
00:24:59,040 --> 00:25:02,360
I think it's really difficult
to grasp quite what this means,

297
00:25:02,400 --> 00:25:06,320
because the papacy
didn't just represent Christendom,

298
00:25:06,360 --> 00:25:08,520
it represented power.

299
00:25:08,560 --> 00:25:10,560
Pope Julius II was a warrior pope,

300
00:25:10,600 --> 00:25:13,760
and he really wants to dominate
Italian politics.

301
00:25:13,800 --> 00:25:15,720
So we've got money,
we've got power,

302
00:25:15,760 --> 00:25:18,520
but also he's an extraordinary patron
of the arts.

303
00:25:18,560 --> 00:25:20,800
So, I think if you put it
in today's terms, you could say,

304
00:25:20,840 --> 00:25:23,760
"Oh, maybe it's like representing
your country at the Venice Biennale."

305
00:25:23,800 --> 00:25:25,080
But it's bigger than that.

306
00:25:25,120 --> 00:25:27,560
It's almost something that
we have to imagine for ourselves.

307
00:25:27,600 --> 00:25:30,040
Like, imagine if the Princess
of Wales and the Prince of Wales

308
00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:32,600
decided to build
a completely new palace in London

309
00:25:32,640 --> 00:25:35,640
and have one artist
come and be their court artist.

310
00:25:35,680 --> 00:25:37,880
Maybe that's what this is like.

311
00:26:33,360 --> 00:26:37,200
But what I think is most important
about this whole project

312
00:26:37,240 --> 00:26:39,560
is at the beginning of this project,

313
00:26:39,600 --> 00:26:42,160
there was no contract,
there was no drawing.

314
00:26:42,200 --> 00:26:45,520
It was a verbal agreement
between the Pope and the artist

315
00:26:45,560 --> 00:26:48,080
to create
this eighth wonder of the world.

316
00:28:05,120 --> 00:28:09,040
Michelangelo's life
is intrinsically linked with marble.

317
00:28:09,080 --> 00:28:12,040
It makes him and it also breaks him.

318
00:28:12,080 --> 00:28:14,240
He becomes obsessed with it.

319
00:28:15,880 --> 00:28:18,920
'I've come to Florence,
to Casa Buonarroti,

320
00:28:18,960 --> 00:28:21,640
a house he bought for his family,

321
00:28:21,680 --> 00:28:25,360
to find out exactly how
he imagined this tomb to be...

322
00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:29,680
..and to get an idea
of how much marble

323
00:28:29,720 --> 00:28:31,720
he was going to need to make it.'

324
00:28:42,440 --> 00:28:46,320
'This place holds one of the largest
Michelangelo archives.'

325
00:28:46,360 --> 00:28:48,720
And in this archive
are actually letters,

326
00:28:48,760 --> 00:28:52,280
correspondences between Michelangelo
and the heirs.

327
00:28:52,320 --> 00:28:54,840
And my journey has brought me here

328
00:28:54,880 --> 00:28:57,680
because in these letters,
I'll be able to shed more light

329
00:28:57,720 --> 00:28:59,600
on what went on.

330
00:29:01,120 --> 00:29:03,560
When we look at letters,
I think what we can do

331
00:29:03,600 --> 00:29:07,800
is actually put ourselves in the
shoes of those who lived that time.

332
00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:11,480
And to get that first
hand experience is extraordinary.

333
00:29:13,400 --> 00:29:16,720
'I can see from this document most
of the measurements for the tomb,

334
00:29:16,760 --> 00:29:20,480
and the number of statues
that Michelangelo wanted to create.

335
00:29:20,520 --> 00:29:25,840
It was supposed to be 7 metres wide,
11 metres deep and 8 metres high.

336
00:29:25,880 --> 00:29:30,120
It would have been adorned
by over 40 life-size statues

337
00:29:30,160 --> 00:29:32,520
placed in St Peter's,
all in marble.

338
00:29:32,560 --> 00:29:35,880
He puts an enormous emphasis
on the marble he wanted to use...

339
00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:39,800
Not just any marble, it had to be
the world-famous Carrara marble.'

340
00:29:43,600 --> 00:29:46,960
Michelangelo receives 1000 ducats
from Pope Julius II

341
00:29:47,000 --> 00:29:50,320
to go off to the quarries
to get the marble for this.

342
00:29:50,360 --> 00:29:53,240
Uh, again...
Once again, Michelangelo insisting

343
00:29:53,280 --> 00:29:55,960
that he choose the best materials.

344
00:29:56,000 --> 00:29:59,600
So, he started a lifelong love

345
00:29:59,640 --> 00:30:02,480
for marble
and for the marble quarries,

346
00:30:02,520 --> 00:30:05,240
a place where he probably
was the happiest of all.

347
00:30:13,160 --> 00:30:15,520
'Michelangelo once wrote,

348
00:30:15,560 --> 00:30:18,880
"The sculpture is already
complete within the marble block

349
00:30:18,920 --> 00:30:21,120
before I start my work.

350
00:30:21,160 --> 00:30:22,920
It is already there,

351
00:30:22,960 --> 00:30:26,920
I just need to chisel away
the superfluous material."

352
00:30:27,760 --> 00:30:30,120
I am visiting the same marble quarry

353
00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:32,040
where Michelangelo
spent eight months

354
00:30:32,080 --> 00:30:35,800
choosing the right slabs to use
to create the 40 statues

355
00:30:35,840 --> 00:30:38,640
for the tomb of Pope Julius II.'

356
00:30:49,200 --> 00:30:52,240
'Michelangelo described
this marble as being

357
00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:55,600
"of compact grain,
homogenous, crystalline,

358
00:30:55,640 --> 00:30:57,880
reminiscent of sugar."

359
00:30:57,920 --> 00:31:00,280
I can see exactly what he meant.

360
00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:04,080
Carrara is in the Apuan Mountains,

361
00:31:04,120 --> 00:31:06,600
Italy's most marble-rich area.

362
00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:12,240
Hundreds of quarries have
operated here since Roman times.'

363
00:31:25,760 --> 00:31:29,680
'I am meeting professor and sculptor
Luciano Massari

364
00:31:29,720 --> 00:31:33,000
to find out more about
Michelangelo's obsession with marble

365
00:31:33,040 --> 00:31:35,640
and these marble quarries.'

366
00:31:35,680 --> 00:31:37,560
What is so special
about Carrara marble?

367
00:32:44,320 --> 00:32:48,240
So, after Michelangelo gets
the commission from Pope Julius II,

368
00:32:48,280 --> 00:32:51,840
he comes to Carrara and it's here
where he has to extract

369
00:32:51,880 --> 00:32:55,720
40 blocks of marble
to create these 40 sculptures.

370
00:32:55,760 --> 00:32:58,480
What kind of feat was this
for him then?

371
00:32:58,520 --> 00:33:00,520
And what does that translate to now?

372
00:33:34,880 --> 00:33:37,360
So, you as a professor,
but also as a sculptor...

373
00:33:37,400 --> 00:33:40,520
When you're tackling Carrara marble,
what do you do with it?

374
00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:44,080
And how would that be different
to how Michelangelo tackled it?

375
00:36:44,960 --> 00:36:47,400
Michelangelo arrived in Rome

376
00:36:47,440 --> 00:36:50,600
after carefully
selecting his marble,

377
00:36:50,640 --> 00:36:53,600
quarrying at Carrara
to great expense.

378
00:36:53,640 --> 00:36:55,720
He then has to say goodbye to it,

379
00:36:55,760 --> 00:36:59,280
as it makes its way on a boat
to Ripa Grande in Rome.

380
00:36:59,320 --> 00:37:01,680
It's gonna arrive
in the port in Rome.

381
00:37:01,720 --> 00:37:04,760
And what a sight it would've been
to see these enormous blocks

382
00:37:04,800 --> 00:37:09,080
arriving in Rome, ready to fulfil
their artistic destiny.

383
00:37:09,120 --> 00:37:12,840
It's poetic to me, but it must've
been terrifying to Michelangelo.

384
00:37:46,200 --> 00:37:49,760
So, when Michelangelo comes back
to Rome with all of this marble

385
00:37:49,800 --> 00:37:53,480
and he's ready to start creating
this greatest creation of all time,

386
00:37:53,520 --> 00:37:57,440
then he's gonna, all of a sudden,
demand attention from the Pope

387
00:37:57,480 --> 00:38:00,840
that the Pope doesn't have time for.
Time or money.

388
00:38:18,680 --> 00:38:21,480
I think the rupture
between Michelangelo and Julius II

389
00:38:21,520 --> 00:38:23,920
came mainly when Michelangelo

390
00:38:23,960 --> 00:38:26,240
was unable to get an audience
with the Pope.

391
00:38:26,280 --> 00:38:29,440
Uh, not only to get an audience,
but to get money to...

392
00:38:29,480 --> 00:38:31,560
in order to continue this project.

393
00:38:31,600 --> 00:38:34,800
And so Michelangelo left Rome
without the papal permission,

394
00:38:34,840 --> 00:38:37,560
and this is the rupture.
You don't say no to a pope.

395
00:38:37,600 --> 00:38:42,320
And you don't just leave his employ
without asking permission.

396
00:38:53,360 --> 00:38:56,360
The groundwork for the rupture
was laid by Bramante,

397
00:38:56,400 --> 00:38:59,320
who was probably the person
who convinced the Pope

398
00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:01,920
that it's not a good idea
to build your own tomb monument

399
00:39:01,960 --> 00:39:04,000
in your own lifetime,
this is unlucky.

400
00:39:04,040 --> 00:39:06,360
Well, Bramante is quite a character.

401
00:39:06,400 --> 00:39:08,960
He's the papal architect,

402
00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:11,640
is someone that really unsettles
Michelangelo.

403
00:39:11,680 --> 00:39:14,840
And throughout the course
of his life, Michelangelo complains

404
00:39:14,880 --> 00:39:18,520
about Bramante's influence
on his own career.

405
00:39:18,560 --> 00:39:21,560
Pope Julius II really relies
on Bramante.

406
00:39:21,600 --> 00:39:24,000
He's not just building him a tomb
or painting him a picture,

407
00:39:24,040 --> 00:39:25,920
he's rebuilding St Peter's.

408
00:39:25,960 --> 00:39:29,480
And Bramante probably was helpful

409
00:39:29,520 --> 00:39:33,160
in redirecting the Pope's attention
to the Sistine ceiling.

410
00:39:33,200 --> 00:39:36,640
"Why don't we have Michelangelo
paint the Sistine ceiling instead?"

411
00:39:36,680 --> 00:39:40,680
Bramante hears Michelangelo's gonna
build the tomb for Pope Julius II.

412
00:39:40,720 --> 00:39:44,000
He knows
he is a supremely gifted sculptor.

413
00:39:44,040 --> 00:39:46,960
And he's jealous,
and he says to Pope Julius II,

414
00:39:47,000 --> 00:39:49,480
"You should get him to paint
the Sistine Chapel ceiling."

415
00:40:21,800 --> 00:40:25,080
Bramante thinks that Michelangelo's
totally gonna fail at the ceiling.

416
00:40:25,120 --> 00:40:29,320
It's absolutely enormous.
And Bramante probably knows

417
00:40:29,360 --> 00:40:32,160
that Michelangelo only had one year
with Ghirlandaio.

418
00:40:32,200 --> 00:40:34,880
He was a young man, he didn't
have a long apprenticeship.

419
00:40:34,920 --> 00:40:37,240
He wouldn't have worked
on any fresco cycles with him.

420
00:40:37,280 --> 00:40:40,040
In fact, probably,
the day that Michelangelo turns up

421
00:40:40,080 --> 00:40:43,640
to the Sistine Chapel in 1508,
thinking about making these frescoes

422
00:40:43,680 --> 00:40:46,440
is the closest he's ever come
to making a fresco.

423
00:41:47,320 --> 00:41:50,520
There's about eight months
there before he actually starts.

424
00:41:50,560 --> 00:41:52,560
He's doing a lot of drawing.

425
00:41:52,600 --> 00:41:55,320
He's making a lot of projects
and a lot of designs.

426
00:41:55,360 --> 00:41:58,360
He's thinking about what's
appropriate for the ceiling.

427
00:41:58,400 --> 00:42:02,160
He's consulting with the Pope
about what is wanted on the ceiling.

428
00:42:02,200 --> 00:42:04,480
So, there's a long period there

429
00:42:04,520 --> 00:42:06,720
before Michelangelo
actually starts to paint,

430
00:42:06,760 --> 00:42:10,400
where he's sort of figuring out
that, "OK, I can do this."

431
00:42:10,440 --> 00:42:12,360
And this is typical Michelangelo,

432
00:42:12,400 --> 00:42:15,120
that he becomes a painter
when he needs to become a painter.

433
00:42:15,160 --> 00:42:18,080
He became an architect
when he was needed as an architect.

434
00:42:18,120 --> 00:42:20,360
He had never studied architecture
in his life.

435
00:42:20,400 --> 00:42:24,000
He became a poet
when he wanted to write poetry.

436
00:42:24,040 --> 00:42:27,080
So, he learned how to paint fresco
rather quickly.

437
00:42:27,120 --> 00:42:29,920
Uh, it's a- it's a miracle.
It really is a miracle,

438
00:42:29,960 --> 00:42:32,960
which is part
of the astonishment of the Sistine,

439
00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:36,000
not just its scale and its grandeur,
but the fact that this person

440
00:42:36,040 --> 00:42:37,960
who had never painted a fresco
in his life

441
00:42:38,000 --> 00:42:40,600
painted the greatest fresco
of all time.

442
00:42:44,800 --> 00:42:47,520
'In the middle of Rome,

443
00:42:47,560 --> 00:42:51,720
just in a tiny area,
is a place that holds

444
00:42:51,760 --> 00:42:56,640
some of the most extraordinary
masterpieces ever created.'

445
00:42:58,360 --> 00:43:00,200
'It's the Vatican City.

446
00:43:00,240 --> 00:43:03,360
And the jewel for me
there is the Sistine Chapel.

447
00:43:04,200 --> 00:43:07,240
It's the ultimate work of art.

448
00:43:07,280 --> 00:43:12,160
You can't believe that it was
designed and executed by one man.

449
00:43:12,200 --> 00:43:15,720
The sheer invention of it,
the originality,

450
00:43:15,760 --> 00:43:18,440
it changes art history forever.

451
00:43:18,480 --> 00:43:21,360
But for me,
it changes history forever.

452
00:43:21,400 --> 00:43:24,960
This is Michelangelo showing us
what humankind is capable of.

453
00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:27,800
It works on an intimate level
with me,

454
00:43:27,840 --> 00:43:30,400
but also works
on a universal level.

455
00:43:30,440 --> 00:43:34,720
You don't need to know very much
to fall in love with that chapel.

456
00:43:34,760 --> 00:43:36,840
I took my one-year-old daughter there

457
00:43:36,880 --> 00:43:40,920
and a noisy, rambunctious toddler
suddenly just stood still.

458
00:43:40,960 --> 00:43:44,080
And that's when I knew
that it was true, that it really...

459
00:43:44,120 --> 00:43:46,480
It really touches people.'

460
00:43:57,360 --> 00:44:00,920
'Even just standing
in the Sistine Chapel with you now,

461
00:44:00,960 --> 00:44:03,720
my heart beats fast,
I have goose bumps.

462
00:44:03,760 --> 00:44:07,080
It's hard to imagine that Bramante
thought that Michelangelo would fail

463
00:44:07,120 --> 00:44:10,680
when he has achieved
such an extraordinary thing,

464
00:44:10,720 --> 00:44:13,120
and I get to come in and enjoy it.'

465
00:44:37,000 --> 00:44:41,440
'For Michelangelo,
it must have been, at times, brutal.

466
00:44:41,480 --> 00:44:45,360
I mean, this is a such
a physical undertaking, isn't it?'

467
00:46:12,520 --> 00:46:14,400
Michelangelo is extremely excited

468
00:46:14,440 --> 00:46:17,040
about the tomb
commissioned for Pope Julius II.

469
00:46:17,080 --> 00:46:20,040
We know that he begins work,
he's full of youthful bravado,

470
00:46:20,080 --> 00:46:21,880
he wants to make something
extraordinary.

471
00:46:21,920 --> 00:46:25,600
And yet, so quickly
after getting the tomb commission,

472
00:46:25,640 --> 00:46:27,360
his attentions are diverted.

473
00:46:27,400 --> 00:46:29,080
I mean, he has no choice, does he?

474
00:46:29,120 --> 00:46:32,080
He has to follow
what the pope wants him to do?

475
00:47:17,080 --> 00:47:20,520
It's almost as if sometimes it's not
just the achievement of Michelangelo.

476
00:47:20,560 --> 00:47:22,960
Sometimes it feels like
it's the achievement of humankind.

477
00:47:23,000 --> 00:47:24,920
If this is what
stands for our culture,

478
00:47:24,960 --> 00:47:29,120
then it's an extraordinary thing
that humankind can achieve this.

479
00:48:10,320 --> 00:48:15,320
The tomb of Pope Julius II is the
most long, drawn out, protracted,

480
00:48:15,360 --> 00:48:19,800
ultimately disappointing part of
Michelangelo's career, if you ask me.

481
00:48:19,840 --> 00:48:22,120
He gets the commission in 1505.

482
00:48:22,160 --> 00:48:26,320
He stops work in 1508,
paints the Sistine Chapel, no less.

483
00:48:26,360 --> 00:48:28,720
1512, finishes the Sistine Chapel.

484
00:48:28,760 --> 00:48:33,120
But then in 1513, just a few months
after the Sistine Chapel is unveiled,

485
00:48:33,160 --> 00:48:35,440
Pope Julius II dies.

486
00:48:54,560 --> 00:48:57,400
Pope Julius II dies
without seeing the tomb

487
00:48:57,440 --> 00:48:59,920
he had commissioned
from Michelangelo...

488
00:49:01,760 --> 00:49:04,280
A tomb
that was going to be so grandiose,

489
00:49:04,320 --> 00:49:06,880
it would've overshadowed
any other mausoleum

490
00:49:06,920 --> 00:49:08,920
in the Western world.

491
00:49:12,480 --> 00:49:14,800
'Although we don't have drawings,

492
00:49:14,840 --> 00:49:18,360
Michelangelo writes about his vision
for this masterpiece.

493
00:49:18,400 --> 00:49:21,680
So, we know that it was meant
to have two or three floors.

494
00:49:21,720 --> 00:49:24,840
It was meant to be adorned
by no less than 40 statues

495
00:49:24,880 --> 00:49:27,680
as big and as perfect as the Moses.

496
00:49:27,720 --> 00:49:31,120
And it was meant to represent
the Christian world.'

497
00:49:52,240 --> 00:49:54,480
'This tomb would've been
so ground-breaking

498
00:49:54,520 --> 00:49:57,600
that experts have been trying
to bring it back to life

499
00:49:57,640 --> 00:49:59,680
for decades.

500
00:50:03,680 --> 00:50:07,440
But only now does the right
technology exist to do that.'

501
00:50:14,240 --> 00:50:16,640
So, Mitchell, tell us about
what we're looking at here.

502
00:50:16,680 --> 00:50:19,040
We are using
actual historical documents

503
00:50:19,080 --> 00:50:21,280
to create the volumes
and the designs.

504
00:50:21,320 --> 00:50:23,440
We are using open source software

505
00:50:23,480 --> 00:50:25,440
to create the model
right from scratch.

506
00:50:25,480 --> 00:50:28,720
Then we are going to apply materials
in order to make it beautiful.

507
00:50:28,760 --> 00:50:31,280
And the process
is part a technical effort

508
00:50:31,320 --> 00:50:33,840
and part an artistic effort
because, of course,

509
00:50:33,880 --> 00:50:37,320
there is no real object
to reconstruct.

510
00:50:37,360 --> 00:50:41,120
So we need to start from what
we have and imagine what we don't.

511
00:50:41,160 --> 00:50:45,240
We are trying to remain as faithful
as we can to the source material.

512
00:50:45,280 --> 00:50:49,120
But, of course, what we don't have,
we need to fill in the blanks.

513
00:50:49,960 --> 00:50:54,320
We are here in the very beautiful
setting of San Pietro in Vincoli

514
00:50:54,360 --> 00:50:57,240
as we are now wrapping up
the digital reconstruction

515
00:50:57,280 --> 00:50:59,680
of the mausoleum by Michelangelo.

516
00:50:59,720 --> 00:51:03,280
And in this context,
we are creating a 3D scan

517
00:51:03,320 --> 00:51:06,480
of the Moses statue,
again by Michelangelo,

518
00:51:06,520 --> 00:51:10,840
which will be then placed within the
3D reconstruction of the mausoleum.

519
00:51:10,880 --> 00:51:13,400
It's a very important
technical challenge for us.

520
00:51:13,440 --> 00:51:16,240
We are using
one of the most advanced techniques.

521
00:51:16,280 --> 00:51:18,640
We're using
a structured light scanner

522
00:51:18,680 --> 00:51:22,480
which uses high-energy
pulsating light beams

523
00:51:22,520 --> 00:51:27,640
to recreate both the volumes
and the surface of the statue.

524
00:51:27,680 --> 00:51:29,560
This 3D model will then be placed

525
00:51:29,600 --> 00:51:31,920
within our digital twin
of the mausoleum

526
00:51:31,960 --> 00:51:33,760
to make it as real-life as possible.

527
00:51:33,800 --> 00:51:36,080
But with the flexibility

528
00:51:36,120 --> 00:51:39,160
and the capabilities
of the 3D world, of course.

529
00:51:43,400 --> 00:51:46,840
'And the Moses stands there,
still as always,

530
00:51:46,880 --> 00:51:51,600
in its timeless beauty with his
ferocious gaze as it gets scanned

531
00:51:51,640 --> 00:51:55,480
and it awaits to be put
where he should've been all along,

532
00:51:55,520 --> 00:52:00,280
on the mausoleum that Michelangelo
wanted to carve all those years ago.

533
00:52:00,320 --> 00:52:01,960
But he never did.

534
00:52:02,000 --> 00:52:05,600
And the curse of the papal tomb
continued.'

535
00:52:33,360 --> 00:52:36,920
'To think that this tomb
became so intrinsically linked

536
00:52:36,960 --> 00:52:40,960
with his own life, reputation
and success is astounding.

537
00:52:41,000 --> 00:52:44,240
As a deeply religious man,
he wanted to deliver the world

538
00:52:44,280 --> 00:52:46,520
not just a tomb, but a symbol

539
00:52:46,560 --> 00:52:49,840
that celebrated Christianity
in all its glory.

540
00:52:49,880 --> 00:52:51,600
But he failed.

541
00:52:51,640 --> 00:52:54,960
And this failure tormented him
for the rest of his days.

542
00:52:55,760 --> 00:52:58,320
When the pope died in 1513,

543
00:52:58,360 --> 00:53:00,920
the pope's heirs,
the Della Rovere family,

544
00:53:00,960 --> 00:53:04,920
were very keen on having
the pope's tomb now completed.

545
00:53:04,960 --> 00:53:07,480
And, of course, they felt
that they had already invested

546
00:53:07,520 --> 00:53:09,360
a huge amount of money,
which they had.

547
00:53:09,400 --> 00:53:12,840
The family had already invested a
huge amount of money in the project.

548
00:53:12,880 --> 00:53:15,800
So, this is the beginning
of the difficulties of the tomb.

549
00:53:55,880 --> 00:53:57,720
The thing is, there's a new pope.

550
00:53:57,760 --> 00:54:01,080
It's Pope Leo X, which is one
of Michelangelo's childhood friends.

551
00:54:01,120 --> 00:54:04,160
He's hanging around in the court
of the Medici at the same time.

552
00:54:04,200 --> 00:54:06,640
He's Lorenzo the Magnificent's heir.

553
00:54:06,680 --> 00:54:09,440
He also wants to give Michelangelo

554
00:54:09,480 --> 00:54:11,240
his own commissions,
his own projects,

555
00:54:11,280 --> 00:54:14,200
and he gives Michelangelo one
of the most tantalising commissions

556
00:54:14,240 --> 00:54:15,840
he could possibly have asked for...

557
00:54:15,880 --> 00:54:19,000
to create the facade of San Lorenzo.

558
00:54:19,040 --> 00:54:20,680
And he wants a Medici tomb,

559
00:54:20,720 --> 00:54:24,320
so Michelangelo's busy trying
to fulfil the wishes of a new pope.

560
00:55:19,280 --> 00:55:22,560
Now, what happens is they need
to put a new contract in place.

561
00:55:22,600 --> 00:55:25,280
So, the heirs of Pope Julius II
want to make sure

562
00:55:25,320 --> 00:55:28,640
that there's a really sort of clear
arrangement with Michelangelo,

563
00:55:28,680 --> 00:55:30,440
because actually everything
with the pope

564
00:55:30,480 --> 00:55:32,560
had been done more
in a gentlemen's agreement.

565
00:55:32,600 --> 00:55:34,440
There was, sort of, no money set.
It was like,

566
00:55:34,480 --> 00:55:37,560
"Have all the money in the world,
make me the greatest tomb on earth."

567
00:55:37,600 --> 00:55:39,720
And it was all,
kind of, relatively hyperbolic,

568
00:55:39,760 --> 00:55:42,080
whereas the heirs want
to put a contract in place.

569
00:56:18,560 --> 00:56:21,040
I mean,
he's awarded a huge amount of money.

570
00:56:21,080 --> 00:56:24,240
An equivalent of, say,
a villa and a Ferrari, or something.

571
00:56:24,280 --> 00:56:28,520
It's not money for life, but it is
an extraordinary amount of money.

572
00:56:42,480 --> 00:56:44,280
He spent lots of money.

573
00:56:44,320 --> 00:56:47,120
He spent lots of money,
but he never spent money on himself.

574
00:56:47,160 --> 00:56:50,000
He actually lived rather simply,
poorly.

575
00:56:50,040 --> 00:56:51,880
He spent money on marble.

576
00:57:15,600 --> 00:57:17,440
The heirs, on their perspective,

577
00:57:17,480 --> 00:57:19,760
when we put ourselves
in the shoes of the heirs,

578
00:57:19,800 --> 00:57:22,600
they've paid Michelangelo
a lot of money already to do this,

579
00:57:22,640 --> 00:57:25,000
yet they don't have
the financial ability

580
00:57:25,040 --> 00:57:27,200
to go through
with the original plans,

581
00:57:27,240 --> 00:57:29,040
so they have to downsize it.

582
00:57:30,840 --> 00:57:34,480
In 1516,
the heirs give him another contract

583
00:57:34,520 --> 00:57:36,760
because they're really
trying to keep him in line.

584
00:57:36,800 --> 00:57:39,800
They reduce significantly
what the tomb should be.

585
00:57:39,840 --> 00:57:42,200
So, instead of being this amazing
freestanding monument,

586
00:57:42,240 --> 00:57:44,080
it becomes a wall tomb.

587
00:57:44,120 --> 00:57:46,520
Far less exciting for Michelangelo,
probably,

588
00:57:46,560 --> 00:57:49,120
even though it's still designed
to be quite large.

589
00:58:09,280 --> 00:58:11,960
And then in 1523, there's yet
another new pope,

590
00:58:12,000 --> 00:58:13,960
Pope Clement VII.

591
00:58:14,000 --> 00:58:16,960
Now, Clement VII is another
childhood friend of Michelangelo,

592
00:58:17,000 --> 00:58:20,320
another Medici pope,
who also wants Michelangelo

593
00:58:20,360 --> 00:58:23,400
to fulfil loads of extraordinary
obligations for him too,

594
00:58:23,440 --> 00:58:27,240
including finishing the Medici tomb,
and The Last Judgement.

595
00:58:27,280 --> 00:58:29,000
Michelangelo's now in a situation

596
00:58:29,040 --> 00:58:31,840
where there are so many
competing demands for his time.

597
00:58:31,880 --> 00:58:35,720
He can't turn down the Pope
for the heirs of Pope Julius II

598
00:58:35,760 --> 00:58:37,600
but he's also terrified of them.

599
00:58:37,640 --> 00:58:40,480
Michelangelo felt like
he was a victim of this story,

600
00:58:40,520 --> 00:58:44,600
and Francesco Maria Della Rovere
was certainly the, um, villain.

601
00:59:11,120 --> 00:59:15,040
Francesco Maria Della Rovere
took over.

602
00:59:15,080 --> 00:59:19,800
And here was a man who's, sort of,
a vicious soldier,

603
00:59:19,840 --> 00:59:22,520
and not very sensitive to the arts,
and not very-

604
00:59:22,560 --> 00:59:24,880
not at all sensitive
to Michelangelo,

605
00:59:24,920 --> 00:59:28,920
who felt like the family had spent
far too much money already

606
00:59:28,960 --> 00:59:33,360
and Michelangelo was not producing
anything or finishing this project.

607
00:59:33,400 --> 00:59:37,600
In fact, Michelangelo was actually
accused of embezzling funds

608
00:59:37,640 --> 00:59:40,840
and misusing the funds,
which he probably did.

609
00:59:40,880 --> 00:59:43,960
And so-
But Francesco de Maria Della Rovere

610
00:59:44,000 --> 00:59:47,920
never was a friend of Michelangelo,
and vice versa.

611
00:59:47,960 --> 00:59:49,440
They really didn't get along.

612
00:59:49,480 --> 00:59:52,600
And in which case,
nothing was happening on the tomb.

613
00:59:52,640 --> 00:59:55,120
Michelangelo didn't-
He always had an excuse

614
00:59:55,160 --> 00:59:58,720
about why he couldn't produce
what Francesco Maria expected.

615
00:59:58,760 --> 01:00:00,640
So,
it's a bit like you take a house...

616
01:00:00,680 --> 01:00:03,920
You wanna redo the kitchen,
so you pay someone a lot of money

617
01:00:03,960 --> 01:00:05,680
because you want
to get a new kitchen.

618
01:00:05,720 --> 01:00:07,960
Perhaps you want
some Carrara marble fitted...

619
01:00:08,000 --> 01:00:10,440
And the builders are coming,

620
01:00:10,480 --> 01:00:13,240
but they're not really showing up,
and at the end result,

621
01:00:13,280 --> 01:00:15,960
you haven't got anything better
than you even begun with.

622
01:00:16,000 --> 01:00:17,920
And if you're
the owner of the house,

623
01:00:17,960 --> 01:00:19,920
you're not gonna be too pleased
about this.

624
01:00:19,960 --> 01:00:22,080
And in a way,
this is almost parallel

625
01:00:22,120 --> 01:00:24,880
to what the heirs
were experiencing with Michelangelo.

626
01:00:24,920 --> 01:00:28,480
They'd paid him a lot of money,
yet he wasn't delivering.

627
01:00:41,840 --> 01:00:43,880
Michelangelo promises this,
or promises that,

628
01:00:43,920 --> 01:00:46,600
and he'll do it in a certain amount
of time with this amount of money.

629
01:00:46,640 --> 01:00:48,960
But this is yet
the third or fourth time

630
01:00:49,000 --> 01:00:51,720
that Michelangelo
has gone through this, you know,

631
01:00:51,760 --> 01:00:54,680
project in a different way
with a different person.

632
01:00:54,720 --> 01:00:57,160
And the result of this, you know,

633
01:00:57,200 --> 01:01:00,320
imbroglio between him
and Francesco Maria Della Rovere

634
01:01:00,360 --> 01:01:02,000
is that nothing was done.

635
01:01:28,000 --> 01:01:31,120
I mean, they are really on his case.
He says, you know,

636
01:01:31,160 --> 01:01:35,200
"I'm losing weight, I'm losing sleep.
They won't get off my back."

637
01:01:35,240 --> 01:01:37,760
So, actually,
he kind of asks Pope Clement VII

638
01:01:37,800 --> 01:01:40,880
to sort of step in
and protect him from the heirs.

639
01:01:40,920 --> 01:01:42,400
He's really worried about them,

640
01:01:42,440 --> 01:01:44,520
particularly
Francesco Maria Della Rovere,

641
01:01:44,560 --> 01:01:46,600
who's actually
a not particularly nice character

642
01:01:46,640 --> 01:01:49,480
and totally unsympathetic
to Michelangelo.

643
01:03:47,680 --> 01:03:50,840
He was, in a sense,
flattering Michelangelo, by saying,

644
01:03:50,880 --> 01:03:53,200
"You've already created
the greatest fresco of all time

645
01:03:53,240 --> 01:03:54,720
in painting the ceiling.

646
01:03:54,760 --> 01:03:58,160
Could you finish the chapel,
the great chapel of the Sistine,

647
01:03:58,200 --> 01:03:59,960
by painting The Last Judgement?"

648
01:04:00,000 --> 01:04:03,120
And here again, Michelangelo
cannot say no to a pope.

649
01:04:27,960 --> 01:04:32,200
So the first big commission
that takes Michelangelo away

650
01:04:32,240 --> 01:04:35,200
from Julius II's tomb
is the ceiling.

651
01:04:35,240 --> 01:04:38,800
He completes the ceiling, he goes
straight back to work on the tomb.

652
01:04:38,840 --> 01:04:42,560
And then, of course, the Della Rovere
heirs are asking for a new contract.

653
01:04:42,600 --> 01:04:44,880
They want
to get the work going again.

654
01:04:44,920 --> 01:04:47,440
And there are a succession
of reasons why Michelangelo

655
01:04:47,480 --> 01:04:50,360
is delayed on the tomb.
It becomes quite protracted.

656
01:04:50,400 --> 01:04:52,040
And then I turn and face
this way and say,

657
01:04:52,080 --> 01:04:55,240
"Well, this is a whole other reason
why the tomb is further delayed

658
01:04:55,280 --> 01:04:57,040
because he's working for other popes,

659
01:04:57,080 --> 01:05:00,400
for their plans
and for their grand ambitions.

660
01:05:00,440 --> 01:05:03,480
And it's such an extraordinary thing,
I'm so pleased it exists.

661
01:05:03,520 --> 01:05:08,000
But I'm sure the Della Rovere heirs
were frustrated by this, perhaps,

662
01:05:08,040 --> 01:05:11,160
because they thought this is another
reason why the tomb is not ready.

663
01:06:04,680 --> 01:06:06,760
Mmm.

664
01:06:23,200 --> 01:06:24,720
Mmm.

665
01:06:39,760 --> 01:06:41,960
As he painted The Last Judgement,

666
01:06:42,000 --> 01:06:44,280
Michelangelo himself
was being judged

667
01:06:44,320 --> 01:06:48,640
for taking the Della Rovere money
and not working on the tomb.

668
01:06:48,680 --> 01:06:53,160
His reputation as a godlike genius
was being stained.

669
01:06:53,200 --> 01:06:55,880
I want to understand
how this situation

670
01:06:55,920 --> 01:06:58,240
was perceived during his lifetime.

671
01:06:58,280 --> 01:07:00,200
Maybe he was right to set aside

672
01:07:00,240 --> 01:07:03,040
the much diminished tomb
of Pope Julius II

673
01:07:03,080 --> 01:07:06,040
and focus
on more ambitious projects.

674
01:07:06,080 --> 01:07:08,360
Maybe he had no choice.

675
01:07:08,400 --> 01:07:10,440
Nestled in the Tuscan hills,

676
01:07:10,480 --> 01:07:15,200
surrounded by nothing much but
forest, is Castello Malaspina.

677
01:07:15,240 --> 01:07:19,080
This is where Michelangelo stayed
during his many trips to Carrara,

678
01:07:19,120 --> 01:07:21,160
and where it's likely
that he received

679
01:07:21,200 --> 01:07:24,400
a very scathing letter
from Pietro Aretino

680
01:07:24,440 --> 01:07:26,680
Pietro Aretino was a powerful man

681
01:07:26,720 --> 01:07:29,120
who wielded an enormous influence

682
01:07:29,160 --> 01:07:31,520
on Renaissance art and politics.

683
01:07:31,560 --> 01:07:33,840
His opinions mattered a great deal.

684
01:07:33,880 --> 01:07:36,800
He could make or break reputations.

685
01:07:36,840 --> 01:07:38,880
In the letter he wrote
to Michelangelo

686
01:07:38,920 --> 01:07:42,640
in 1545 about The Last Judgement,

687
01:07:42,680 --> 01:07:45,200
although full of innuendos,
it's pretty clear

688
01:07:45,240 --> 01:07:47,480
that he was trying
to raise suspicions

689
01:07:47,520 --> 01:07:49,680
about Michelangelo's
moral standing.

690
01:07:49,720 --> 01:07:51,600
He writes,

691
01:07:51,640 --> 01:07:55,680
"Your art would be at home
in some voluptuous Roman bathhouse,

692
01:07:55,720 --> 01:07:59,080
certainly not
in the highest chapel in the world.

693
01:07:59,120 --> 01:08:03,360
Less criminal were it
if you were an infidel,

694
01:08:03,400 --> 01:08:07,320
than being a believer,
thus to sap the faith of others.

695
01:08:07,360 --> 01:08:09,160
Up to the present time,

696
01:08:09,200 --> 01:08:11,560
the splendour
of such audacious marvels

697
01:08:11,600 --> 01:08:13,440
hath not gone unpunished."

698
01:08:15,240 --> 01:08:19,120
"Well, if the treasure bequeathed
to you by Pope Julius,

699
01:08:19,160 --> 01:08:23,600
in order that you might deposit his
ashes in an urn of your own carving,

700
01:08:23,640 --> 01:08:26,800
was not enough to make you keep
your plighted word,

701
01:08:26,840 --> 01:08:29,400
what can I expect from you?"

702
01:08:32,520 --> 01:08:35,120
And in the first part
of the letter,

703
01:08:35,160 --> 01:08:38,120
he's criticising
Michelangelo's Last Judgement.

704
01:08:38,160 --> 01:08:40,000
But as we read on,

705
01:08:40,040 --> 01:08:44,560
we actually also see him
looking at Pope Julius II's tomb.

706
01:08:44,600 --> 01:08:47,280
And by how it's phrased,
it gives insight

707
01:08:47,320 --> 01:08:50,920
into how some of the public
perceived Michelangelo

708
01:08:50,960 --> 01:08:54,280
and actually how, perhaps,
he didn't handle well

709
01:08:54,320 --> 01:08:57,240
the relationship
between the Della Rovere family

710
01:08:57,280 --> 01:09:00,200
and the Pope Julius II tomb.

711
01:09:00,240 --> 01:09:05,080
"God wills that Julius should live
renowned forever in a simple tomb,

712
01:09:05,120 --> 01:09:07,160
inurned in his own merits,

713
01:09:07,200 --> 01:09:11,320
and not in some proud monument
dependent on your genius.

714
01:09:11,360 --> 01:09:14,960
Meantime, your failure
to discharge your obligation

715
01:09:15,000 --> 01:09:18,240
is reckoned to you
as an act of thieving."

716
01:09:18,280 --> 01:09:21,400
Well, I mean,
it's pretty harsh in a way.

717
01:09:21,440 --> 01:09:24,480
But, you know, I mean,
it's interesting to see

718
01:09:24,520 --> 01:09:26,600
the public perceptions
of Michelangelo

719
01:09:26,640 --> 01:09:29,400
and to see how people viewed him.

720
01:09:33,520 --> 01:09:36,800
In Michelangelo's time,
art was the news.

721
01:09:36,840 --> 01:09:39,640
Art was the thing
that people paid most attention to,

722
01:09:39,680 --> 01:09:41,480
other than maybe religion.

723
01:09:41,520 --> 01:09:44,080
So really,
the art of the Renaissance

724
01:09:44,120 --> 01:09:46,000
was the news of the Renaissance,

725
01:09:46,040 --> 01:09:48,560
was the news
of the time and the people.

726
01:09:51,640 --> 01:09:55,120
One of the most astonishing things
about Michelangelo

727
01:09:55,160 --> 01:09:57,440
is that he was so famous
in his lifetime

728
01:09:57,480 --> 01:09:59,920
that actually two biographies

729
01:09:59,960 --> 01:10:02,040
were written while he was still
alive.

730
01:10:04,120 --> 01:10:07,800
He's probably the first artist ever

731
01:10:07,840 --> 01:10:09,560
to read his own biography

732
01:10:09,600 --> 01:10:12,160
and decide
to edit it in some ways.

733
01:10:12,200 --> 01:10:14,720
And so, the first biography
that was written of him

734
01:10:14,760 --> 01:10:17,360
was by Giorgio Vasari.

735
01:10:20,440 --> 01:10:22,720
Vasari would like to think
that I would sit here

736
01:10:22,760 --> 01:10:25,160
and call him a great painter
from the Italian Renaissance.

737
01:10:25,200 --> 01:10:27,600
But actually I sit here
and call him a great writer.

738
01:10:27,640 --> 01:10:30,320
He almost founded
the tradition of art history.

739
01:10:30,360 --> 01:10:33,840
He wrote a series of biographies
of all of the great Italian artists.

740
01:10:33,880 --> 01:10:38,040
So, he gives us, like, a firsthand
account of the Italian Renaissance.

741
01:10:56,000 --> 01:10:58,960
And while Michelangelo
was certainly flattered by the fact

742
01:10:59,000 --> 01:11:02,120
that Vasari was writing
a biography of this artist,

743
01:11:02,160 --> 01:11:06,200
he was reminded constantly
of his many unfinished works.

744
01:11:06,240 --> 01:11:09,840
So,
he wanted to sort of tell the story

745
01:11:09,880 --> 01:11:12,960
or control the media,
control the message.

746
01:11:13,000 --> 01:11:17,080
And that's when he had
Ascanio Condivi, a friend of his,

747
01:11:17,120 --> 01:11:19,840
really write
an alternative biography

748
01:11:19,880 --> 01:11:22,840
that Michelangelo felt
was closer to the truth.

749
01:11:36,200 --> 01:11:40,160
The thing is, is that Michelangelo
wasn't particularly happy

750
01:11:40,200 --> 01:11:43,280
with how Vasari had framed him,
essentially.

751
01:11:59,280 --> 01:12:01,480
So Michelangelo's very distressed

752
01:12:01,520 --> 01:12:03,680
at the prospect
that people misunderstand.

753
01:12:03,720 --> 01:12:06,640
So,
he commissions his own autobiography.

754
01:12:18,400 --> 01:12:20,280
So, we start to get the sense
that Michelangelo

755
01:12:20,320 --> 01:12:22,360
almost wants to have his own
press agent, you know?

756
01:12:22,400 --> 01:12:25,880
In today's terms, he wants to go out
there and set the record straight.

757
01:12:25,920 --> 01:12:28,880
And he wants Condivi
to write this authorised account

758
01:12:28,920 --> 01:12:31,000
of what happened with the tomb.

759
01:12:31,040 --> 01:12:33,800
And he calls it
the great "tragedy" of the tomb.

760
01:12:56,600 --> 01:12:59,600
It's almost like Michelangelo's
desperately trying

761
01:12:59,640 --> 01:13:02,840
to reposition himself
and secure his legacy.

762
01:13:02,880 --> 01:13:04,680
And I think,
you know, in today's parlance

763
01:13:04,720 --> 01:13:07,600
we would say that it was
cancel culture coming to get him.

764
01:13:07,640 --> 01:13:12,240
He was a subject of gossip, subject
of rumours, and he hated that.

765
01:13:12,280 --> 01:13:14,920
He thought he was a man
of noble standings.

766
01:13:14,960 --> 01:13:18,880
He's not someone whose name
should be smeared in the tabloids,

767
01:13:18,920 --> 01:13:21,320
as it probably felt to him,
as we see it now.

768
01:13:21,360 --> 01:13:23,960
And today, we see it the whole time

769
01:13:24,000 --> 01:13:26,080
with members in the public eye,

770
01:13:26,120 --> 01:13:29,440
for example,
certain members of the royal family.

771
01:13:29,480 --> 01:13:31,840
They might not be so clear on paper.

772
01:13:31,880 --> 01:13:35,520
Yet, what they want to do
is have authorised biographies,

773
01:13:35,560 --> 01:13:39,200
so people in 10, 50, 100 years' time

774
01:13:39,240 --> 01:13:43,600
will remember them the way
that they want to be remembered.

775
01:13:44,920 --> 01:13:48,000
Well, I think it's a contemporary
story, in the sense that...

776
01:13:48,040 --> 01:13:50,280
it's sort of tale as old as time,

777
01:13:50,320 --> 01:13:53,000
in terms of what we should believe
and what we should not believe.

778
01:13:53,040 --> 01:13:55,520
Gossip has been swarming our world
for millennia.

779
01:13:55,560 --> 01:13:57,200
And actually, if anything,

780
01:13:57,240 --> 01:13:59,880
it gives a more human aspect
to Michelangelo,

781
01:13:59,920 --> 01:14:01,320
because at the end of the day,

782
01:14:01,360 --> 01:14:03,400
yes, he created
these divine like figures,

783
01:14:03,440 --> 01:14:05,840
but he was also just a human...

784
01:14:05,880 --> 01:14:08,680
A human
who wanted to secure his legacy

785
01:14:08,720 --> 01:14:13,200
and authorise how the public would
perceive him in centuries to come.

786
01:14:13,240 --> 01:14:15,200
Toward the end of his life,

787
01:14:15,240 --> 01:14:19,440
Michelangelo shows a more cordial
relationship with Vasari.

788
01:14:19,480 --> 01:14:22,600
He answers more of his letters,
and you get the sense that

789
01:14:22,640 --> 01:14:25,960
Michelangelo's thinking about Vasari
as the great biographer,

790
01:14:26,000 --> 01:14:29,640
and Vasari as, maybe, holding the key
to part of Michelangelo's legacy.

791
01:14:29,680 --> 01:14:31,640
And after Michelangelo dies,

792
01:14:31,680 --> 01:14:35,000
Vasari,
in the second edition of The Lives,

793
01:14:35,040 --> 01:14:37,160
the great biographies,

794
01:14:37,200 --> 01:14:40,320
entirely reworks
the Michelangelo chapter.

795
01:14:40,360 --> 01:14:43,680
It's much longer,
he incorporates huge swathes

796
01:14:43,720 --> 01:14:46,280
that were written
in Condivi's authorised biography,

797
01:14:46,320 --> 01:14:48,520
although he doesn't actually
mention Condivi.

798
01:14:48,560 --> 01:14:52,360
But what's fundamental is that
Vasari is part of the campaign

799
01:14:52,400 --> 01:14:55,280
to set the record straight
about Michelangelo's life.

800
01:14:55,320 --> 01:14:58,640
And so...
the information about his ancestors,

801
01:14:58,680 --> 01:15:03,000
the information about the tomb,
are changed. They're modified.

802
01:15:03,040 --> 01:15:04,720
And what we learn is that, you know,

803
01:15:04,760 --> 01:15:06,520
Michelangelo is the great man.

804
01:15:06,560 --> 01:15:09,400
And actually, to this day,
art historians are still quite keen

805
01:15:09,440 --> 01:15:11,800
to talk about Michelangelo,
the great man.

806
01:15:11,840 --> 01:15:13,640
There is no doubt whatsoever

807
01:15:13,680 --> 01:15:16,280
that Michelangelo
wanted to tell the story his way,

808
01:15:16,320 --> 01:15:20,200
and to save, in a sense,
some things of his legacy,

809
01:15:20,240 --> 01:15:22,800
especially to counter
the accusations

810
01:15:22,840 --> 01:15:25,040
of money embezzlement,
this sort of thing.

811
01:15:25,080 --> 01:15:27,640
Michelangelo
had his own explanation,

812
01:15:27,680 --> 01:15:32,160
which Visari very much developed
in his biography for Michelangelo

813
01:15:32,200 --> 01:15:34,120
after they got to know each other

814
01:15:34,160 --> 01:15:36,560
and after Michelangelo told Visari

815
01:15:36,600 --> 01:15:39,200
what was really
the important parts of his story.

816
01:15:39,240 --> 01:15:42,320
And Visari then republishes
his Lives of the Artist

817
01:15:42,360 --> 01:15:43,880
in a much expanded edition.

818
01:15:43,920 --> 01:15:45,880
I think the thing
that's important to remember,

819
01:15:45,920 --> 01:15:48,280
as big a fan of Michelangelo as I am,

820
01:15:48,320 --> 01:15:50,520
is that he did keep the money.

821
01:15:50,560 --> 01:15:54,560
He continually agreed to deadlines
that he couldn't meet.

822
01:15:54,600 --> 01:15:58,120
He kept the money. He claimed
that ended up out of pocket,

823
01:15:58,160 --> 01:16:01,120
which is a bit duplicitous
because it's not really true.

824
01:16:01,160 --> 01:16:02,880
We can see that from the records.

825
01:16:02,920 --> 01:16:06,200
So he's, by no stretch
of the imagination, innocent here.

826
01:16:06,240 --> 01:16:09,960
Michelangelo misused the funds
that the Della Rovere...

827
01:16:10,000 --> 01:16:13,520
excessive amounts of funds
for the tomb.

828
01:16:13,560 --> 01:16:15,080
"We've spent a huge amount of money,

829
01:16:15,120 --> 01:16:18,320
40 years have gone by,
and we still don't have a tomb."

830
01:16:36,360 --> 01:16:40,400
It's the fourth project when
Guidobaldo Della Rovere takes over,

831
01:16:40,440 --> 01:16:42,720
who not only
knows Michelangelo very well,

832
01:16:42,760 --> 01:16:45,960
but understands him
and highly respects him,

833
01:16:46,000 --> 01:16:48,040
and mostly allows Michelangelo
to work

834
01:16:48,080 --> 01:16:50,560
at his own pace and in his own time.

835
01:16:50,600 --> 01:16:54,520
That's the kind of patron that
Michelangelo always worked best for.

836
01:16:54,560 --> 01:16:57,480
And it's not a surprise
that it's under Guidobaldo

837
01:16:57,520 --> 01:16:59,480
that the tomb is finally finished.

838
01:16:59,520 --> 01:17:02,200
The new heir, Guidobaldo,
is much more sympathetic,

839
01:17:02,240 --> 01:17:05,160
and at this point,
it's been over 30 years

840
01:17:05,200 --> 01:17:07,960
since Pope Julius the second died.
I mean, it's getting ridiculous.

841
01:17:08,000 --> 01:17:11,080
So he just says, when you've finished
working for Pope Paul III,

842
01:17:11,120 --> 01:17:14,080
then you'll make it for me, right?
And Michelangelo says yes.

843
01:17:14,120 --> 01:17:16,600
He's got someone finally
who's sympathetic,

844
01:17:16,640 --> 01:17:18,800
who writes courteous letters,

845
01:17:18,840 --> 01:17:21,200
who treats him with the respect
that he demands.

846
01:17:21,240 --> 01:17:24,160
So actually, it's quite amazing.
Once that contract's in place

847
01:17:24,200 --> 01:17:26,400
and Pope Paul III's
given him his protection.

848
01:17:26,440 --> 01:17:28,880
Michelangelo finishes it
in two years.

849
01:17:28,920 --> 01:17:32,400
It took 40 years
to nail down this commission.

850
01:17:32,440 --> 01:17:35,880
And ultimately, Pope Julius II's tomb

851
01:17:35,920 --> 01:17:38,240
is not something
that we all talk about.

852
01:17:38,280 --> 01:17:41,640
We talk about Moses, we talk
about one sculpture in this tomb.

853
01:17:43,640 --> 01:17:46,680
It's not even in the Vatican
where it was supposed to be.

854
01:17:46,720 --> 01:17:49,760
And actually, I barely even notice

855
01:17:49,800 --> 01:17:53,320
the lying figure of Pope Julius II on
the tomb, I just look at the Moses.

856
01:17:55,280 --> 01:17:58,120
So, it's not even
what it's supposed to be.

857
01:17:58,160 --> 01:18:00,520
It's become something
completely different.

858
01:18:03,280 --> 01:18:06,320
'This is such a long
and protracted story.

859
01:18:06,360 --> 01:18:10,000
40 years, several redesigns...

860
01:18:10,040 --> 01:18:14,320
Several stories, 40 figures, bronzes

861
01:18:14,360 --> 01:18:18,080
Absolutely extraordinary,
there's nothing like it.

862
01:18:18,120 --> 01:18:23,040
It remains a huge unfulfilled
part of art history.

863
01:18:23,080 --> 01:18:26,160
And then slowly see it
begin to diminish.

864
01:18:26,200 --> 01:18:28,360
Instead of becoming freestanding,

865
01:18:28,400 --> 01:18:30,600
that you would be able
to walk around,

866
01:18:30,640 --> 01:18:32,960
it becomes wall-based.

867
01:18:33,000 --> 01:18:35,920
And then the number of
figures gets reduced dramatically.

868
01:18:35,960 --> 01:18:39,440
We start losing things. We lose
the niches, we lose the bronzes.

869
01:18:39,480 --> 01:18:41,320
So, a lot of the complexity

870
01:18:41,360 --> 01:18:45,080
and the thing that would've given
the tomb this great advantage

871
01:18:45,120 --> 01:18:48,680
of having been so epic,
that starts to fade away.

872
01:18:48,720 --> 01:18:52,280
And actually, when I think about
Julius II's tomb now,

873
01:18:52,320 --> 01:18:56,000
I think about it
as an unfulfilled promise

874
01:18:56,040 --> 01:18:59,000
that left me Moses.'

875
01:19:03,400 --> 01:19:05,520
'When I'm standing here,

876
01:19:05,560 --> 01:19:08,760
the redesigns, the contracts,

877
01:19:08,800 --> 01:19:10,760
it all fades to black.

878
01:19:10,800 --> 01:19:14,280
And what remains is a masterpiece.

879
01:19:15,400 --> 01:19:18,160
Michelangelo has made flesh
and blood out of marble.

880
01:19:18,200 --> 01:19:22,320
He's made Moses a man,
and he's a furious man.

881
01:19:22,360 --> 01:19:25,240
And I'm frozen to the spot
looking at him.

882
01:19:25,280 --> 01:19:30,000
And there's this deep connection,
and I feel the suspense in the air.

883
01:19:30,040 --> 01:19:32,760
And there's a question
that I need answered.

884
01:19:32,800 --> 01:19:35,280
And like Michelangelo once said,

885
01:19:35,320 --> 01:19:37,520
"Why don't you talk, Moses?

886
01:19:38,360 --> 01:19:40,960
You've been witness to so much."'

887
01:19:41,305 --> 01:20:41,502
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