![]() He is a sculptor, for heavens’ sakes, not a painter. Decorate it with large portraits of the twelve apostles, with suitable patterns to fill up the spaces. It is now Michelangelo’s task to redo the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The paint on the vaulted ceiling has peeled and is patchy, unsightly. Unfortunately, over time, the decoration of the Sistine Chapel has deteriorated a good deal. This is where Julius likes to hold daily prayers, and where he feels most comfortable. It was built by Julius’s uncle, Pope Sixtus IV, and is therefore known as the Sistine Chapel. This, explains Julius, is a chapel very close to his own heart. The Pope leads both men-along with a small entourage of the pontiff’s-into a modest chapel that is part of the papal palace. Instead, Julius has something else for Michelangelo to do.īramante (Harry Andrews), the architect who’s working on St Peter’s, doesn’t get along too well with Michelangelo, but right now he is as flummoxed as the sculptor. Julius is (and no surprise, this) not happy.īut he has made a decision about Michelangelo and his work. He’s also-not in writing, though-called Julius a freebooter and a conqueror. Julius proceeds to read out the poem, in which Michelangelo has compared the Pope to a Medusa. During his campaign, he has come across a poem (and pretty bad poetry, too) that Michelangelo has written about him, the Pope. Julius, however, nurses a greater grudge. Michelangelo has a complaint to make: Julius has not paid him some of the money due for his work so far. While he’s holding court, dismissing a disgruntled French ambassador and dealing with recalcitrant cardinals, Julius also finds time to meet the sculptor he’s commissioned to create a grand tomb for the Pope. Now he’s back in Rome after another important victory on the battlefields. Pope Julius II (Rex Harrison) is not so much a pious pope as a warrior pope he’s as comfortable in his armour and on his horse as he is in his vestments. His first major work, a bas relief called The Madonna of the Steps, was created when he was 15, and by the time he was 21, he had arrived in Rome-where he proceeded not just to carve the famous David:īut also the Piet à, at the Basilica of St Peter, which had been commissioned by Pope Julius II.Īnd this is where our story really begins. … but went on, eventually, to specialise in his first love, which was sculpture. Still a teenager, he went to Florence, where he also learnt the art of painting… Michelangelo was born in Caprese, Tuscany, and in his childhood itself developed a love for stone carving. The camera takes us to the modern Vatican City, to Florence, and to a sleepy little town in Tuscany: some of the important places in the life of Michelangelo Buonarotti (AD 1475-1564). ![]() The film begins with a 10-minute introduction to Michelangelo. It is, instead, a wonderful look into early 16 th century Italy, the strange relationship between an artist and his patron, a man and his passion for the work he creates. In fact, it’s not really a painting lesson at all. The Agony and the Ecstasy is about how Michelangelo came to paint The Creation of Man (and the rest of the Sistine Chapel ceiling). I don’t even need to open that book now to see what The Creation of Man looked like, spread across the top half of two pages. That was where I first saw The Music Lesson, La Grande Jatte, The Arnolfini Wedding, Sunflowers… and The Creation of Man. You didn’t need to be able to read much to be able to enjoy it, because it was full of the most amazing paintings. ![]() ![]() My favourite book from my parents’ vast collection was a large Readers’ Digest coffee table book called Family Treasury of Great Painters and Great Paintings. Those books, big tomes that were all words and no pictures, were of no interest to a 6-year old who wasn’t too deeply into literature. One of the good things about growing up in a family that loved reading was that even as a child, I was surrounded by books-novels, of course and treatises on everything from Wordsworth’s poetry (thanks to my mother) to gardening and homoeopathy (thanks to my father). ![]()
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