WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.439 Okay, let's unpack this. When you hear the name 00:00:02.439 --> 00:00:05.099 Michelangelo, your mind probably jumps straight 00:00:05.099 --> 00:00:07.620 to a single monumental image. Oh, absolutely. 00:00:07.960 --> 00:00:10.320 The fingers. The outstretched fingers of God 00:00:10.320 --> 00:00:12.859 and Adam on the Sistine ceiling, or, you know, 00:00:12.859 --> 00:00:14.919 maybe you picture the perfect challenging beauty 00:00:14.919 --> 00:00:17.359 of the David. Right. But the man behind those 00:00:17.359 --> 00:00:20.420 masterpieces, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti 00:00:20.420 --> 00:00:25.100 Simone, was... Well, he was less a calm classical 00:00:25.100 --> 00:00:28.179 genius and more a volatile, solitary force of 00:00:28.179 --> 00:00:30.500 nature. Far more. He was, I mean, he was the 00:00:30.500 --> 00:00:33.380 undisputed high Renaissance giant. And unlike 00:00:33.380 --> 00:00:35.340 his great contemporary and, let's be honest, 00:00:35.460 --> 00:00:38.060 rival, Leonardo da Vinci, he mastered all four 00:00:38.060 --> 00:00:40.939 major disciplines of art. All four. Sculptor, 00:00:40.939 --> 00:00:43.420 painter, architect, and poet. His contemporaries 00:00:43.420 --> 00:00:45.520 didn't just admire him, they revered him. They 00:00:45.520 --> 00:00:48.799 lauded him as supreme in not one art alone, but 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:50.780 in all three. And they gave him that ultimate 00:00:50.780 --> 00:00:54.219 nickname, Il Divino. Our mission today is to 00:00:54.219 --> 00:00:57.079 move beyond that postcard mythology and, you 00:00:57.079 --> 00:00:59.799 know, dive deep into the real man. We are sorting 00:00:59.799 --> 00:01:02.700 through this incredible volume of surviving correspondence, 00:01:03.159 --> 00:01:05.680 sketches, and firsthand biographical notes to 00:01:05.680 --> 00:01:08.939 understand the true source of his legendary power, 00:01:09.159 --> 00:01:11.939 his terabilita. That untranslatable quality, 00:01:12.239 --> 00:01:14.939 that ability his work has to instill a sense 00:01:14.939 --> 00:01:18.939 of... sometimes even frightening emotional power 00:01:18.939 --> 00:01:20.900 in you when you see it. Exactly. So we're delivering 00:01:20.900 --> 00:01:23.400 the essential chronology, sure, but we're really 00:01:23.400 --> 00:01:26.299 focusing on the deep cuts, the drama behind his 00:01:26.299 --> 00:01:28.900 greatest commissions, the political perils that 00:01:28.900 --> 00:01:32.859 shaped his career, and the surprising psychological 00:01:32.859 --> 00:01:35.420 contradictions of his personal life. You'll leave 00:01:35.420 --> 00:01:37.739 this deep dive with a comprehensive, nuanced 00:01:37.739 --> 00:01:40.879 understanding of why Michelangelo remains, five 00:01:40.879 --> 00:01:43.560 centuries later, the ultimate definition of the 00:01:43.560 --> 00:01:45.780 Renaissance genius. So where do we start? Let's 00:01:45.780 --> 00:01:48.120 begin where his destiny began. Most of us, I 00:01:48.120 --> 00:01:50.260 think, we think of Michelangelo as being purely 00:01:50.260 --> 00:01:52.140 a creature of Florence. Right, the heart of the 00:01:52.140 --> 00:01:55.560 city. But his origins are surprisingly far from 00:01:55.560 --> 00:01:58.620 that glittering, sophisticated center. He was 00:01:58.620 --> 00:02:02.159 born in 1475 in a small town called Caprese in 00:02:02.159 --> 00:02:04.719 the Republic of Florence. And that location tells 00:02:04.719 --> 00:02:07.700 you something immediately. His family had aspirations. 00:02:07.819 --> 00:02:10.879 They were small -scale Florentine bankers. But 00:02:10.879 --> 00:02:14.099 they'd failed financially. So they weren't wealthy. 00:02:14.379 --> 00:02:18.680 No. His father, Ludovico, had to rely on these 00:02:18.680 --> 00:02:20.659 brief government posts out in the countryside 00:02:20.659 --> 00:02:23.819 just to make ends meet. And this lingering sense 00:02:23.819 --> 00:02:27.860 of lost social standing. It played Michelangelo 00:02:27.860 --> 00:02:31.060 his entire life. And it was ironically compensated 00:02:31.060 --> 00:02:33.400 for by the incredible wealth he later accumulated 00:02:33.400 --> 00:02:35.949 through his art. Precisely. And this leads us 00:02:35.949 --> 00:02:38.169 to maybe the most revealing anecdote of his early 00:02:38.169 --> 00:02:40.389 childhood, a story he himself loved to tell. 00:02:40.669 --> 00:02:43.610 His mother died when he was only six in 1481. 00:02:43.949 --> 00:02:45.789 Right. So he was sent to live with a nanny and 00:02:45.789 --> 00:02:48.449 her husband in a town called Sedignana. And this 00:02:48.449 --> 00:02:51.129 wasn't just a random town. No, not at all. Sedignana 00:02:51.129 --> 00:02:52.889 was where his father happened to own a small 00:02:52.889 --> 00:02:55.370 marble quarry. So the man who would later wrestle 00:02:55.370 --> 00:02:57.430 with these colossal blocks of Carrara marble 00:02:57.430 --> 00:03:00.110 was literally raised in the presence of the material. 00:03:00.650 --> 00:03:02.969 He didn't just drink milk there. He absorbed 00:03:02.969 --> 00:03:05.370 the very essence of his calling. There's that 00:03:05.370 --> 00:03:07.469 famous quote. Oh, the one about the nurse's milk. 00:03:07.550 --> 00:03:10.310 It's perfect. He said, along with the milk of 00:03:10.310 --> 00:03:12.689 my nurse, I received the knack of handling chisel 00:03:12.689 --> 00:03:15.270 and hammer with which I make my figures. It's 00:03:15.270 --> 00:03:16.990 not just a charming story, is it? It's like a 00:03:16.990 --> 00:03:19.250 foundational piece of his artistic philosophy. 00:03:19.750 --> 00:03:23.250 It is. It suggests his genius was natural, innate, 00:03:23.469 --> 00:03:25.949 that it came directly from the earth and the 00:03:25.949 --> 00:03:28.229 material itself, not just from human teaching. 00:03:28.800 --> 00:03:32.240 It reinforces that later nickname, Il Divino. 00:03:32.379 --> 00:03:35.020 But despite the sort of perceived destiny, his 00:03:35.020 --> 00:03:37.500 father was entirely against him becoming an artist. 00:03:37.719 --> 00:03:40.979 He saw it as a trade, something beneath the family's, 00:03:40.979 --> 00:03:44.259 you know, decayed patrician status. Ludovico 00:03:44.259 --> 00:03:47.139 forced him into grammar schooling under a humanist 00:03:47.139 --> 00:03:50.180 named Francesco d 'Urbino. And Michelangelo naturally 00:03:50.180 --> 00:03:53.150 showed zero interest in it. None. He was driven 00:03:53.150 --> 00:03:55.469 to the art. He just wanted to seek out other 00:03:55.469 --> 00:03:57.710 artists, copy paintings in the Florentine churches. 00:03:57.949 --> 00:04:00.349 I mean, Florence at this time was the undisputed 00:04:00.349 --> 00:04:03.110 art capital of Italy, arguably the world. So 00:04:03.110 --> 00:04:06.289 by age 13, his drive was so undeniable that his 00:04:06.289 --> 00:04:09.710 father finally relented. He did. He apprenticed 00:04:09.710 --> 00:04:12.530 him to Domenico Ghirlandaio, who ran the largest 00:04:12.530 --> 00:04:15.189 and most prestigious fresco workshop in Florence 00:04:15.189 --> 00:04:17.759 at the time. And this is where we get the first 00:04:17.759 --> 00:04:21.199 real sign of his incredible talent. It really 00:04:21.199 --> 00:04:23.540 is. I mean, typically an apprentice was treated 00:04:23.540 --> 00:04:25.779 like an indentured servant. You paid for your 00:04:25.779 --> 00:04:29.279 training with labor. But within a year, Michelangelo's 00:04:29.279 --> 00:04:33.000 father. persuaded Gerlandaio the master to pay 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:35.819 Michelangelo as a working artist. To be paid 00:04:35.819 --> 00:04:38.639 at 14? It was almost unheard of. It meant he 00:04:38.639 --> 00:04:41.160 was immediately recognized as producing quality, 00:04:41.339 --> 00:04:43.379 marketable work. He didn't stay long, though. 00:04:43.439 --> 00:04:46.740 From 1490 to 1492, he moved into the Medici orbit, 00:04:46.959 --> 00:04:49.680 attending the Platonic Academy founded by Lorenzo 00:04:49.680 --> 00:04:51.560 the Magnificent. And this shift was maybe the 00:04:51.560 --> 00:04:53.500 most crucial influence on his entire career. 00:04:53.759 --> 00:04:56.839 Why is that? Because this is where his art becomes 00:04:56.839 --> 00:04:59.879 infused with philosophy. The Academy was home 00:04:59.879 --> 00:05:03.560 to these brilliant humanist thinkers like Marsilio 00:05:03.560 --> 00:05:06.980 Ficino and Pico della Marandola. They were reviving 00:05:06.980 --> 00:05:10.110 Neoplatonism. This idea that earthly beauty is 00:05:10.110 --> 00:05:12.329 just a reflection of a divine spiritual beauty 00:05:12.329 --> 00:05:17.410 and that the artist's task is to liberate the 00:05:17.410 --> 00:05:20.589 perfect ideal form that's hidden inside the material. 00:05:20.790 --> 00:05:23.230 So this philosophical grounding directly informs 00:05:23.230 --> 00:05:25.670 his whole sculptural process, doesn't it? It's 00:05:25.670 --> 00:05:28.350 not just about shaping stone. It's about revealing 00:05:28.350 --> 00:05:30.829 the divine form that's already inside the marble. 00:05:30.990 --> 00:05:33.589 Absolutely. And during this period, he created 00:05:33.589 --> 00:05:36.370 his earliest known works. He did. The Madonna 00:05:36.370 --> 00:05:39.430 of the stairs, a shallow relief, shows the influence 00:05:39.430 --> 00:05:42.370 of Donatello with this very deep internalized 00:05:42.370 --> 00:05:44.810 emotional state. And then there's the Battle 00:05:44.810 --> 00:05:47.110 of the Centaurs, which has this dynamic, almost 00:05:47.110 --> 00:05:49.389 violent movement that points toward the restless 00:05:49.389 --> 00:05:51.930 energy of his later figures. Now for the detail 00:05:51.930 --> 00:05:54.990 that physically defined him for life, the incident 00:05:54.990 --> 00:05:57.970 with Pietro Torrigiano. Yes. At 17, while he's 00:05:57.970 --> 00:06:00.230 still a pupil under the Medici, he was struck 00:06:00.230 --> 00:06:02.800 in the nose by a jealous fellow student. Pietro 00:06:02.800 --> 00:06:05.240 Torgiano. And it caused this lifelong disfigurement 00:06:05.240 --> 00:06:07.420 that you can see clearly in every single one 00:06:07.420 --> 00:06:09.899 of his portraits. Right. Torgiano apparently 00:06:09.899 --> 00:06:12.459 boasted about it later in life, saying he'd marked 00:06:12.459 --> 00:06:15.459 the divine one for life. And this physical vulnerability, 00:06:15.779 --> 00:06:18.899 this permanent visible mark, it may have really 00:06:18.899 --> 00:06:21.720 contributed to Michelangelo's famously solitary 00:06:21.720 --> 00:06:24.759 and melancholic nature. After Lorenzo de' Medici's 00:06:24.759 --> 00:06:27.600 death in 1492, the political climate in Florence 00:06:27.600 --> 00:06:30.740 got pretty ugly. It did. And Michelangelo... 00:06:30.970 --> 00:06:34.290 always intensely focused, carved a wooden crucifix 00:06:34.290 --> 00:06:37.029 as a gift for the prior of Santo Spirito Hospital. 00:06:37.250 --> 00:06:39.310 In return, he gained permission for something 00:06:39.310 --> 00:06:42.089 absolutely critical to his art. Studying anatomy 00:06:42.089 --> 00:06:45.269 by dissecting corpses from the hospital. That 00:06:45.269 --> 00:06:47.290 is a level of dedication that few artists of 00:06:47.290 --> 00:06:49.610 his time could match. We know he returned to 00:06:49.610 --> 00:06:52.350 this practice multiple times. This meticulous, 00:06:52.350 --> 00:06:54.730 direct study of musculature, bone structure, 00:06:55.069 --> 00:06:57.649 tendon placement. It's why his figures look the 00:06:57.649 --> 00:07:00.019 way they do. Their physical perfection, their 00:07:00.019 --> 00:07:02.660 often painful tension, it's all the result of 00:07:02.660 --> 00:07:05.060 deep scientific knowledge married to artistic 00:07:05.060 --> 00:07:07.860 skill. This is the foundation of his Terribilita. 00:07:07.959 --> 00:07:10.720 The figures are so intensely, almost violently 00:07:10.720 --> 00:07:14.120 real. And it was this intense realism that led 00:07:14.120 --> 00:07:16.620 to his spectacular entry onto the Roman stage, 00:07:16.899 --> 00:07:19.699 which was facilitated by a rather audacious art 00:07:19.699 --> 00:07:21.980 fraud. Oh, the story of the Sleeping Cupid is 00:07:21.980 --> 00:07:24.160 fantastic. Tell us about it. So Michelangelo 00:07:24.160 --> 00:07:27.660 carved this Sleeping Cupid statue. The middleman 00:07:27.660 --> 00:07:29.899 handling the sale realized that if it looked 00:07:29.899 --> 00:07:32.300 old, it would fetch a much higher price. Of course. 00:07:32.540 --> 00:07:34.579 So he instructed Michelangelo to treat the marble 00:07:34.579 --> 00:07:36.819 to make it look as if it had been buried for 00:07:36.819 --> 00:07:39.339 centuries. And then he passed it off as a valuable 00:07:39.339 --> 00:07:41.879 ancient Roman work. The buyer was a cardinal 00:07:41.879 --> 00:07:44.959 in Rome, Raphael Riario. He eventually discovered 00:07:44.959 --> 00:07:47.259 the deceit. But instead of demanding his money 00:07:47.259 --> 00:07:49.720 back or, you know, prosecuting the artist, the 00:07:49.720 --> 00:07:52.319 cardinal was so genuinely impressed by the quality 00:07:52.319 --> 00:07:54.920 of the carving. the technical skill required 00:07:54.920 --> 00:07:57.860 to fake antiquity, that he invited the 21 -year 00:07:57.860 --> 00:08:01.100 -old Michelangelo to Rome in 1496. He turned 00:08:01.100 --> 00:08:03.959 a forgery scandal into a career -defining opportunity. 00:08:04.519 --> 00:08:06.920 It speaks volumes about the power of his technical 00:08:06.920 --> 00:08:10.360 skill. But his first major Roman work, the Bacchus, 00:08:10.519 --> 00:08:13.360 was a bit of a riskier move. Right. He carved 00:08:13.360 --> 00:08:16.040 this over -life -sized statue of the Roman god 00:08:16.040 --> 00:08:19.000 of wine, also for Cardinal Riario, who ended 00:08:19.000 --> 00:08:22.050 up rejecting it. And you can see why. The Cardinal 00:08:22.050 --> 00:08:25.129 was expecting an idealized classical God. What 00:08:25.129 --> 00:08:28.050 Michelangelo delivered was this dynamic, psychologically 00:08:28.050 --> 00:08:31.170 complex figure. He's not very God -like, is he? 00:08:31.310 --> 00:08:34.690 No. His Bacchus has bleary, slightly cross eyes, 00:08:34.850 --> 00:08:37.690 a swollen bladder. Yeah. Suggests he's had way 00:08:37.690 --> 00:08:40.750 too much to drink. And he's genuinely swaying, 00:08:40.750 --> 00:08:43.549 unsteady on his feet. It was too realistic, too 00:08:43.549 --> 00:08:46.330 human, maybe too messy for the Roman taste at 00:08:46.330 --> 00:08:48.769 the time. But that rejection led directly to 00:08:48.769 --> 00:08:51.110 acceptance because the Bacchus showcased his 00:08:51.110 --> 00:08:53.250 unique genius, paving the way for the work that 00:08:53.250 --> 00:08:56.679 secured his fame forever. The Pieta. Commissioned 00:08:56.679 --> 00:08:58.559 by a French ambassador, Cardinal Jean de Bidler, 00:08:58.679 --> 00:09:00.980 and it was finished before Michelangelo was even 00:09:00.980 --> 00:09:03.980 25. And it was an instant sensation upon its 00:09:03.980 --> 00:09:06.700 unveiling in St. Peter's. Vasari, his biographer, 00:09:06.940 --> 00:09:10.100 described it as a miracle. It was. Why a miracle? 00:09:10.139 --> 00:09:12.259 I mean, beyond the obvious technical perfection 00:09:12.259 --> 00:09:14.299 of the drapery and the flawless finish of the 00:09:14.299 --> 00:09:16.820 flesh, there's a profound theological audacity 00:09:16.820 --> 00:09:19.139 to the composition, isn't there? There is. Mary 00:09:19.139 --> 00:09:21.960 is depicted as exceptionally young, perhaps even 00:09:21.960 --> 00:09:23.820 younger than Christ would have been at his death. 00:09:24.159 --> 00:09:26.940 Deliberate choice. Absolutely. It elevates the 00:09:26.940 --> 00:09:30.220 theological over the literal. It implies Mary's 00:09:30.220 --> 00:09:32.320 purity and virginity maintained her youthful 00:09:32.320 --> 00:09:34.960 perfection, demonstrating the incorruptibility 00:09:34.960 --> 00:09:37.980 of her soul. The whole composition is just this 00:09:37.980 --> 00:09:41.519 incredible exercise in blending emotional tragedy 00:09:41.519 --> 00:09:45.379 with idealized Neoplatonic form. And crucially, 00:09:45.500 --> 00:09:48.019 this is the only work we know of that Michelangelo 00:09:48.019 --> 00:09:50.259 ever signed. He carved his name right across 00:09:50.259 --> 00:09:52.860 Mary's sash. It's a really unusual gesture for 00:09:52.860 --> 00:09:55.269 him. It speaks to the confidence and pride he 00:09:55.269 --> 00:09:57.409 must have felt in achieving that level of perfection 00:09:57.409 --> 00:10:00.370 so young. Legend says he overheard some visitors 00:10:00.370 --> 00:10:02.929 attributing the work to another sculptor, which 00:10:02.929 --> 00:10:05.529 drove him to sign it himself. After that, he 00:10:05.529 --> 00:10:07.269 was secure enough in his reputation that he never 00:10:07.269 --> 00:10:09.809 signed a work again. With his fame secured, he 00:10:09.809 --> 00:10:13.090 returns to Florence around 1499, and the city, 00:10:13.250 --> 00:10:15.509 now under Republican governance, was desperate 00:10:15.509 --> 00:10:17.309 for a political symbol. And they commissioned 00:10:17.309 --> 00:10:19.450 him to complete the David. This was a massive 00:10:19.450 --> 00:10:22.389 undertaking. The block of Carrara marble had 00:10:22.389 --> 00:10:24.549 been sitting outside the Duomo workshops for 00:10:24.549 --> 00:10:27.710 40 years. Started and abandoned by two previous 00:10:27.710 --> 00:10:30.809 sculptors. He was known as Ilgi Gandhi, the giant, 00:10:30.970 --> 00:10:33.570 and widely considered ruined. It's a testament 00:10:33.570 --> 00:10:36.269 to his ambition that he took on a damaged, enormous 00:10:36.269 --> 00:10:39.389 block of marble. The finished David, unveiled 00:10:39.389 --> 00:10:43.029 in 1504, became the ultimate symbol of Florentine 00:10:43.029 --> 00:10:45.990 freedom. The young underdog defying tyranny. 00:10:46.090 --> 00:10:49.470 And unlike earlier depictions of David like Donatello's, 00:10:49.490 --> 00:10:51.750 who's shown after the battle. Michelangelo chose 00:10:51.750 --> 00:10:53.970 to depict David before the action. He's tense. 00:10:54.250 --> 00:10:56.370 He's ready. His brow is furrowed. His veins are 00:10:56.370 --> 00:10:58.389 bulging. He's holding the sling casually over 00:10:58.389 --> 00:11:01.029 his shoulder. The terribility here is that intense 00:11:01.029 --> 00:11:03.909 psychological focus that contained power just 00:11:03.909 --> 00:11:06.269 before the explosion of violence. And the statue's 00:11:06.269 --> 00:11:09.210 size and political importance led to this massive 00:11:09.210 --> 00:11:12.730 civic event, the placement debate. Imagine the 00:11:12.730 --> 00:11:15.250 scene. A consulting team with the greatest minds 00:11:15.250 --> 00:11:17.929 of the era, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Filippino 00:11:17.929 --> 00:11:20.549 Lippiol, meeting to decide where this 17 -foot, 00:11:20.570 --> 00:11:22.950 multi -ton statue should stand. And Leonardo 00:11:22.950 --> 00:11:25.529 argued it should be housed indoors, in a sheltered 00:11:25.529 --> 00:11:27.710 loggia. Right, maybe because he preferred protection 00:11:27.710 --> 00:11:31.110 from the elements? Or maybe, maybe his desire 00:11:31.110 --> 00:11:33.509 to prevent Michelangelo from taking center stage. 00:11:34.009 --> 00:11:36.230 Ultimately, the citizens won out, and it was 00:11:36.230 --> 00:11:38.529 placed in the Piazza della Signoria, the heart 00:11:38.529 --> 00:11:41.309 of Florentine political life. Which made an undeniable 00:11:41.309 --> 00:11:43.750 statement. And that placement right in the civic 00:11:43.750 --> 00:11:46.830 square set up the direct rivalry with Leonardo. 00:11:47.149 --> 00:11:49.509 Sotirini immediately commissioned Michelangelo 00:11:49.509 --> 00:11:51.889 to paint the Battle of Cascina in the Palazzo 00:11:51.889 --> 00:11:55.370 Vecchio council chamber. Directly opposite Leonardo's 00:11:55.370 --> 00:11:57.789 commission, the Battle of Anghiari. What a high 00:11:57.789 --> 00:12:00.509 stakes public artistic duel. And neither mural 00:12:00.509 --> 00:12:03.289 was ever completed in fresco. No, Michelangelo 00:12:03.289 --> 00:12:05.850 abandoned his for the call to Rome and Leonardo 00:12:05.850 --> 00:12:08.210 experimented unsuccessfully with oil paints. 00:12:08.919 --> 00:12:11.379 But their preparatory cartoons were revered and 00:12:11.379 --> 00:12:13.899 copied for decades. And Michelangelo's cartoon 00:12:13.899 --> 00:12:16.299 for Cascino was famous because it showed Florentine 00:12:16.299 --> 00:12:18.259 soldiers being ambushed while bathing in the 00:12:18.259 --> 00:12:21.120 Arno River. A perfect excuse to display his total 00:12:21.120 --> 00:12:24.059 mastery of the male nude figure in every conceivable 00:12:24.059 --> 00:12:26.980 twisting pose. It was essentially an anatomy 00:12:26.980 --> 00:12:29.419 lesson rendered in charcoal, directly challenging 00:12:29.419 --> 00:12:32.379 Leonardo's style. This period also saw his panel 00:12:32.379 --> 00:12:35.399 painting, specifically the Donitondo. This piece 00:12:35.399 --> 00:12:37.879 is notable for its contrapposto, that twisting 00:12:37.879 --> 00:12:40.799 motion, and the vibrant, almost heraldic use 00:12:40.799 --> 00:12:43.320 of color, which really offers a clear preview 00:12:43.320 --> 00:12:45.659 of the dynamic, muscular forms he would soon 00:12:45.659 --> 00:12:49.500 unleash on a much, much grander scale. The callback 00:12:49.500 --> 00:12:53.120 to Rome in 1505. This marked a huge transition. 00:12:53.279 --> 00:12:55.580 He's moving from the city of his artistic development 00:12:55.580 --> 00:12:57.779 to the city of his immense professional struggle 00:12:57.779 --> 00:13:00.639 and, ultimately, his triumph. Pope Julius II 00:13:00.639 --> 00:13:03.340 summoned him for what should have been the greatest 00:13:03.340 --> 00:13:06.149 commission of the era. the papal tomb. And this 00:13:06.149 --> 00:13:08.850 became the defining agony of Michelangelo's adult 00:13:08.850 --> 00:13:11.049 life. It really did. It was planned as this monumental 00:13:11.049 --> 00:13:13.669 structure for old St. Peter's, meant to house 00:13:13.669 --> 00:13:16.889 40 statues and be completed in five years. Instead, 00:13:17.090 --> 00:13:19.429 it became a 40 -year source of intense personal 00:13:19.429 --> 00:13:22.029 frustration. The documents, the correspondence, 00:13:22.250 --> 00:13:25.169 they reveal this heartbreaking despair. He repeatedly 00:13:25.169 --> 00:13:27.350 calls the tomb commission the tragedy of the 00:13:27.350 --> 00:13:30.110 burial. The irony is that out of this frustration 00:13:30.110 --> 00:13:33.309 came some of his most profound sculptural works. 00:13:33.840 --> 00:13:36.639 The central figure of the later, drastically 00:13:36.639 --> 00:13:39.360 reduced tomb is the massive, imposing figure 00:13:39.360 --> 00:13:43.059 of Moses, completed around 1516. And this Moses 00:13:43.059 --> 00:13:45.820 is a prime example of his terribility. He's not 00:13:45.820 --> 00:13:48.500 the gentle, guiding prophet we often see. No, 00:13:48.539 --> 00:13:51.620 he is a force barely contained. His gaze is furious. 00:13:51.740 --> 00:13:54.840 He looks ready to leap up. Exactly. The statue 00:13:54.840 --> 00:13:57.399 depicts Moses returning from Mount Sinai to find 00:13:57.399 --> 00:13:59.860 his people worshiping the golden calf. He has 00:13:59.860 --> 00:14:02.759 coiled energy, his beard is like a torrent, his 00:14:02.759 --> 00:14:07.100 posture suggests just contained rage. And controversially, 00:14:07.139 --> 00:14:09.740 he has horns. Which is often a point of confusion 00:14:09.740 --> 00:14:12.399 for modern viewers. Why the horns? It all stems 00:14:12.399 --> 00:14:14.840 from a mistranslation of the Latin Vulgate Bible, 00:14:14.980 --> 00:14:18.320 which describes Moses' face as cornuta. That 00:14:18.320 --> 00:14:21.000 can be translated as horned or shining forth 00:14:21.000 --> 00:14:24.019 with rays of light. Michelangelo chose the literal, 00:14:24.159 --> 00:14:26.620 more aggressive depiction. Which perfectly aligns 00:14:26.620 --> 00:14:28.580 with the character's terribility. A divine power 00:14:28.580 --> 00:14:30.960 that is almost too much for a human vessel to 00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:33.840 hold. Beyond Moses, the tomb project also yielded 00:14:33.840 --> 00:14:37.659 these famous incomplete figures. Yes. The figures 00:14:37.659 --> 00:14:40.340 known as the captives. Particularly the rebellious 00:14:40.340 --> 00:14:42.820 slave and the dying slave. They were intended 00:14:42.820 --> 00:14:45.059 for the lower register of the tomb, and they 00:14:45.059 --> 00:14:47.419 are stunning in their emotional weight. And the 00:14:47.419 --> 00:14:49.779 later, even more incomplete figures like the 00:14:49.779 --> 00:14:53.259 Atlas Slave, they offer this unique window into 00:14:53.259 --> 00:14:55.740 his method. Because they appear to be struggling 00:14:55.740 --> 00:14:58.200 to free themselves from the rock. Illustrating 00:14:58.200 --> 00:15:00.399 his Neoplatonic belief that the perfect form 00:15:00.399 --> 00:15:03.039 was trapped inside the marble, and his job was 00:15:03.039 --> 00:15:06.100 to liberate it. Precisely. They are figures of 00:15:06.100 --> 00:15:09.690 raw, unfinished potential. They reveal the struggle 00:15:09.690 --> 00:15:12.470 of the artist with the material itself. They 00:15:12.470 --> 00:15:14.850 went on to influence modern sculptors like Rodin 00:15:14.850 --> 00:15:18.389 so intensely. But the reason Julius II interrupted 00:15:18.389 --> 00:15:20.710 the tomb was for the most spectacular commission 00:15:20.710 --> 00:15:23.889 of his life, the Sistine Chapel ceiling. And 00:15:23.889 --> 00:15:25.730 here is where it gets really interesting, because 00:15:25.730 --> 00:15:27.649 the source material suggests he didn't even want 00:15:27.649 --> 00:15:31.070 the job. The sheer irony is delicious. Michelangelo 00:15:31.070 --> 00:15:34.039 did not consider himself a painter. He publicly 00:15:34.039 --> 00:15:36.940 declared sculpture his one true art. So what 00:15:36.940 --> 00:15:39.320 happened? Well, biographers like Vasari suggest 00:15:39.320 --> 00:15:43.159 that his rival, the architect Bramante, championed 00:15:43.159 --> 00:15:45.679 Michelangelo for the sealing commission, hoping 00:15:45.679 --> 00:15:48.679 that forcing him into fresco painting, a medium 00:15:48.679 --> 00:15:51.419 he was supposedly unfamiliar with, would guarantee 00:15:51.419 --> 00:15:54.220 his failure. And his humiliation. So he was set 00:15:54.220 --> 00:15:56.360 up to fail by his enemies. That's the story. 00:15:56.419 --> 00:15:58.860 And the initial commission, which began in 1508, 00:15:58.960 --> 00:16:01.610 was actually manageable. just painting the 12 00:16:01.610 --> 00:16:04.450 apostles on the triangular pendentives. But Michelangelo, 00:16:04.450 --> 00:16:07.470 in true fashion, found that scope creatively 00:16:07.470 --> 00:16:10.309 constraining. Right. So he persuaded Julius II 00:16:10.309 --> 00:16:13.850 to grant him a carte blanche, a free hand, to 00:16:13.850 --> 00:16:16.289 design the entire decorative scheme. And the 00:16:16.289 --> 00:16:19.110 resulting work was just gargantuan, over 500 00:16:19.110 --> 00:16:21.809 square meters featuring more than 300 figures. 00:16:22.129 --> 00:16:24.269 Representing the entire sweeping narrative from 00:16:24.269 --> 00:16:27.169 creation to the path to salvation. The scale 00:16:27.169 --> 00:16:29.700 is monumental. especially considering the technical 00:16:29.700 --> 00:16:31.940 difficulty of fresco. You have to paint rapidly 00:16:31.940 --> 00:16:34.179 onto wet plaster, and you're doing it while looking 00:16:34.179 --> 00:16:36.059 straight up. The physical toll must have been 00:16:36.059 --> 00:16:38.519 immense. He wrote these famous poems detailing 00:16:38.519 --> 00:16:41.779 the strain, complaining that he grew a goiter 00:16:41.779 --> 00:16:44.360 from the constant neck straining, and that paint 00:16:44.360 --> 00:16:47.059 was perpetually dripping into his eyes. And he 00:16:47.059 --> 00:16:49.220 worked largely alone, often locking the doors, 00:16:49.340 --> 00:16:51.860 fearful that assistants would steal his secrets 00:16:51.860 --> 00:16:54.179 or claim credit. So let's break down the iconography 00:16:54.179 --> 00:16:57.009 of the ceiling. Okay, at the center, we have 00:16:57.009 --> 00:16:59.590 nine episodes from Genesis running chronologically. 00:17:00.210 --> 00:17:02.529 They're separated into three thematic groups. 00:17:03.129 --> 00:17:05.569 God's creation of the cosmos, the creation and 00:17:05.569 --> 00:17:08.430 fall of humankind. Including the iconic creation 00:17:08.430 --> 00:17:11.289 of Adam. Of course. And then the state of humanity 00:17:11.289 --> 00:17:13.710 as represented by Noah and the flood story. And 00:17:13.710 --> 00:17:16.470 lining the outer edge are the prophets and sibyls. 00:17:16.470 --> 00:17:18.670 Yes, the ancient seers who prophesied the coming 00:17:18.670 --> 00:17:21.230 of Christ. Seven prophets of Israel and five 00:17:21.230 --> 00:17:23.269 sibyls, the prophetic women of the classical 00:17:23.269 --> 00:17:26.460 world. This blending of biblical and pagan prophecy 00:17:26.460 --> 00:17:29.519 is deeply rooted in the Neoplatonic humanism 00:17:29.519 --> 00:17:32.140 he learned at the Medici Academy. It's suggesting 00:17:32.140 --> 00:17:34.380 divine truth can be found in both Christian and 00:17:34.380 --> 00:17:37.400 classical sources. Now, the creation of Adam 00:17:37.400 --> 00:17:39.960 is the most famous panel. But what about the 00:17:39.960 --> 00:17:42.599 figures that surround the central scenes, the 00:17:42.599 --> 00:17:46.390 ignudi? The ignudi. those 20 heroic, muscular, 00:17:46.430 --> 00:17:49.890 naked male youths who sit framing the narrative 00:17:49.890 --> 00:17:53.109 panels. They are crucial to understanding the 00:17:53.109 --> 00:17:55.630 ceiling's theological complexity. What are they 00:17:55.630 --> 00:17:58.089 supposed to be? Well, they're interpreted as 00:17:58.089 --> 00:18:00.990 everything from angels to muses to allegorical 00:18:00.990 --> 00:18:03.849 representations of the soul's ascent. What they 00:18:03.849 --> 00:18:07.009 did was allow Michelangelo to reintroduce the 00:18:07.009 --> 00:18:10.450 heroic male nude into sacred art on an unprecedented 00:18:10.450 --> 00:18:14.109 scale. Again, emphasizing that neoclatonic idea 00:18:14.109 --> 00:18:16.430 that the beauty of the human body is a reflection 00:18:16.430 --> 00:18:19.069 of divine perfection. You got it. And we can 00:18:19.069 --> 00:18:20.849 actually track his learning curve, can't we? 00:18:21.009 --> 00:18:23.509 As he progressed, the figures in the later compositions, 00:18:23.710 --> 00:18:25.769 the ones closer to the altar, they actually grew 00:18:25.769 --> 00:18:28.049 larger. This was partly a practical adjustment. 00:18:28.529 --> 00:18:30.650 When the first half of the scaffolding was removed, 00:18:30.910 --> 00:18:32.970 he realized the figures he painted at the entrance 00:18:32.970 --> 00:18:35.029 looked too small from the floor of the chapel. 00:18:35.430 --> 00:18:38.309 He had to consciously increase the scale to achieve 00:18:38.309 --> 00:18:40.859 the necessary monumental impact. We mentioned 00:18:40.859 --> 00:18:43.380 his self -portraits. He wasn't subtle about sneaking 00:18:43.380 --> 00:18:46.079 himself in, was he? No, but he was incredibly 00:18:46.079 --> 00:18:49.119 clever. He painted himself into the action in 00:18:49.119 --> 00:18:51.619 a couple of ways. He's generally identified as 00:18:51.619 --> 00:18:54.359 the brooding, melancholy prophet Jeremiah. Right, 00:18:54.400 --> 00:18:56.579 contemplating the downfall of Jerusalem. But 00:18:56.579 --> 00:18:59.740 in a more subtle, self -referential move, he 00:18:59.740 --> 00:19:01.920 seems to have painted his own figure as the model 00:19:01.920 --> 00:19:04.279 for God the Creator in the separation of light 00:19:04.279 --> 00:19:06.980 from darkness. He's effectively putting the artist 00:19:06.980 --> 00:19:09.839 in the role of the divine creator. The sealing 00:19:09.839 --> 00:19:13.140 took him four years, finishing in 1512, and it 00:19:13.140 --> 00:19:15.740 was a triumph that silenced his rivals. It was, 00:19:15.900 --> 00:19:18.700 but that triumph was short -lived because the 00:19:18.700 --> 00:19:21.059 next great painting commission, the altar wall 00:19:21.059 --> 00:19:23.759 fresco, the Last Judgment, brought him his greatest 00:19:23.759 --> 00:19:25.740 controversy. This was commissioned two decades 00:19:25.740 --> 00:19:29.099 later in 1534 by Pope Clement VII, though it 00:19:29.099 --> 00:19:32.140 was completed under Pope Paul III. And this fresco, 00:19:32.140 --> 00:19:34.710 which took seven years, created an immediate 00:19:34.710 --> 00:19:37.450 and violent backlash. The core issue was his 00:19:37.450 --> 00:19:39.990 portrayal of Christ. Absolutely. He depicted 00:19:39.990 --> 00:19:42.630 Christ as a massive, muscular, youthful figure, 00:19:42.769 --> 00:19:47.579 beardless and crucially stark naked. And he dispensed 00:19:47.579 --> 00:19:50.480 with the traditional orderly hierarchy of heaven 00:19:50.480 --> 00:19:53.180 and hell. It's all just this chaotic, almost 00:19:53.180 --> 00:19:55.880 violent energy. Right. And the sight of Christ 00:19:55.880 --> 00:19:58.079 and the Virgin Mary nude on the altar wall of 00:19:58.079 --> 00:20:00.440 the holiest chapel in Christendom was deemed 00:20:00.440 --> 00:20:02.859 sacrilegious by many conservatives in the Counter 00:20:02.859 --> 00:20:05.319 -Reformation Church. The backlash came quickly 00:20:05.319 --> 00:20:08.339 from figures like Cardinal Carafa, who campaigned 00:20:08.339 --> 00:20:11.000 vigorously for the complete removal, or at the 00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:14.099 very least, censorship of the work. And the censorship 00:20:14.099 --> 00:20:18.130 arrived in 1564. just weeks after Michelangelo's 00:20:18.130 --> 00:20:21.069 death. The Council of Trent formally decreed 00:20:21.069 --> 00:20:23.509 that figures in sacred art must be clothed and 00:20:23.509 --> 00:20:26.230 modest. So they commissioned Danielle de Volterra, 00:20:26.349 --> 00:20:29.130 ironically Michelangelo's own apprentice, to 00:20:29.130 --> 00:20:31.589 paint draperies over the offensive parts. Earning 00:20:31.589 --> 00:20:34.029 him the nickname Il Bregatone, the breaches maker, 00:20:34.250 --> 00:20:37.069 for his unwelcome modifications. And his final 00:20:37.069 --> 00:20:39.490 signature in that fresco, the self -portrait, 00:20:39.569 --> 00:20:42.710 is just hauntingly dark. It's a profound psychological 00:20:42.710 --> 00:20:45.829 statement on artistic torment. He painted himself 00:20:45.829 --> 00:20:48.329 into the flayed skin held by St. Bartholomew. 00:20:48.329 --> 00:20:51.009 Who was martyred by being flayed alive. Exactly. 00:20:51.009 --> 00:20:54.230 By inserting his own likeness into that discarded 00:20:54.230 --> 00:20:57.430 drooping skin, Michelangelo seems to be expressing 00:20:57.430 --> 00:21:00.109 his own feelings of being flayed by the papal 00:21:00.109 --> 00:21:03.130 court, the political machinations, and the constant 00:21:03.130 --> 00:21:06.170 agony of his commissions. It's an act of deep 00:21:06.170 --> 00:21:09.170 personal confession hidden in plain sight. After 00:21:09.170 --> 00:21:11.369 the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo entered this 00:21:11.369 --> 00:21:13.670 period where architecture became the primary 00:21:13.670 --> 00:21:16.930 vehicle for his genius, but it was often interwoven 00:21:16.930 --> 00:21:19.109 with this volatile political relationship he 00:21:19.109 --> 00:21:22.029 had with the Medici family. That Medici patronage 00:21:22.029 --> 00:21:24.609 in Florence was a real double -edged sword. After 00:21:24.609 --> 00:21:27.430 Pope Julius II died, He was succeeded by Pope 00:21:27.430 --> 00:21:29.970 Leo X, who was the son of Lorenzo the Magnificent. 00:21:29.990 --> 00:21:32.490 And Leo X commissioned him to reconstruct the 00:21:32.490 --> 00:21:34.990 facade of the Basilica of San Lorenzo. Right. 00:21:35.049 --> 00:21:37.829 So he spends three arduous years developing these 00:21:37.829 --> 00:21:40.089 designs and elaborate models. He even went so 00:21:40.089 --> 00:21:42.269 far as trying to open a new marble quarry near 00:21:42.269 --> 00:21:44.829 Carrara to source the specific stone he needed. 00:21:44.930 --> 00:21:47.329 That detail about the quarry is key. He was never 00:21:47.329 --> 00:21:49.630 just the designer. He was the hands -on engineer, 00:21:49.890 --> 00:21:52.289 the quarry master, the logistician. He needed 00:21:52.289 --> 00:21:54.049 control over the material from the moment it 00:21:54.049 --> 00:21:56.730 left the earth. But this project was just abruptly 00:21:56.730 --> 00:22:00.490 canceled in 1520 due to financial strain, leaving 00:22:00.490 --> 00:22:03.890 the Basilica bare to this day. A massive waste 00:22:03.890 --> 00:22:06.410 of his time and emotional energy. But the Medici 00:22:06.410 --> 00:22:09.130 quickly reassigned him to another massive project 00:22:09.130 --> 00:22:11.869 at San Lorenzo, the family funerary chapel, the 00:22:11.869 --> 00:22:14.250 Medici Chapel. Where he created the elaborate 00:22:14.250 --> 00:22:17.230 tombs for Giuliano and Lorenzo Medici, featuring 00:22:17.230 --> 00:22:20.589 those famous allegorical reclining figures, night, 00:22:20.730 --> 00:22:24.109 day. dusk, and dawn. These are not serene classical 00:22:24.109 --> 00:22:27.430 figures. They are restless, dynamic, and unsettling. 00:22:27.549 --> 00:22:30.309 Oh, absolutely. Night seems to be sleeping anxiously, 00:22:30.410 --> 00:22:32.950 and day is a figure of barely contained muscular 00:22:32.950 --> 00:22:35.450 power. Scholars interpret them as expressions 00:22:35.450 --> 00:22:38.529 of political anxiety and the artist's own restless 00:22:38.529 --> 00:22:41.410 soul. And this project, the Medici Chapel, it 00:22:41.410 --> 00:22:43.289 leads us directly to one of the most poignant 00:22:43.289 --> 00:22:45.170 moments in his life, a story that was literally 00:22:45.170 --> 00:22:47.789 hidden for centuries. This is the high political 00:22:47.789 --> 00:22:50.589 drama that makes the man so complex. Florence 00:22:50.589 --> 00:22:52.450 briefly threw out the Medici and restored the 00:22:52.450 --> 00:22:55.609 Republic in 1527. And Michelangelo, who had this 00:22:55.609 --> 00:22:58.490 deep, almost Republican streak, took sides against 00:22:58.490 --> 00:23:01.029 his longtime patrons. He served as the city's 00:23:01.029 --> 00:23:03.430 chief military engineer, overseeing defensive 00:23:03.430 --> 00:23:06.009 fortifications against the returning Medici. 00:23:06.150 --> 00:23:09.890 So when the Medici regained power in 1530, Michelangelo 00:23:09.890 --> 00:23:12.230 was sentenced to death for high treason. The 00:23:12.230 --> 00:23:14.650 man who was building their chapel was now a fugitive. 00:23:15.119 --> 00:23:17.660 He had to hide for two months, fearing execution. 00:23:18.240 --> 00:23:22.019 And the great discovery in 1976, which was finally 00:23:22.019 --> 00:23:25.759 opened to the public in 2023, was this tiny concealed 00:23:25.759 --> 00:23:28.700 corridor under the new sacristy, the Medici Chapel 00:23:28.700 --> 00:23:30.720 itself. And it was filled with his drawings. 00:23:31.140 --> 00:23:34.059 Charcoal and chalk drawings on the walls, made 00:23:34.059 --> 00:23:36.920 in secret by candlelight or a tiny bit of window 00:23:36.920 --> 00:23:39.119 light, while he was hiding from the very people 00:23:39.119 --> 00:23:41.779 whose tombs he was designing. The irony is immense. 00:23:41.980 --> 00:23:44.819 These crude sketches of figures, heads, legs, 00:23:45.039 --> 00:23:47.680 they were a rehearsal, or maybe just a desperate 00:23:47.680 --> 00:23:50.079 means of maintaining a sanity and creative output 00:23:50.079 --> 00:23:52.420 while under extreme duress. The fact that the 00:23:52.420 --> 00:23:54.579 most celebrated artist in Europe was hiding under 00:23:54.579 --> 00:23:57.660 his patrons' floorboards is just a stunning illustration 00:23:57.660 --> 00:24:00.200 of the intersection of art and political life 00:24:00.200 --> 00:24:02.319 in the Renaissance. Once he was pardoned, he 00:24:02.319 --> 00:24:04.160 was allowed to finish the chapel, but he also 00:24:04.160 --> 00:24:07.099 designed another key Florentine structure, the 00:24:07.099 --> 00:24:09.970 Laurentian Library. This library is not just 00:24:09.970 --> 00:24:12.130 a building, it's a declaration of a new style. 00:24:12.490 --> 00:24:15.769 He designed the interior and most famously the 00:24:15.769 --> 00:24:18.789 extraordinary vestibule. He utilized classical 00:24:18.789 --> 00:24:22.829 forms, columns, staircases, niches, but he manipulated 00:24:22.829 --> 00:24:26.220 them in these dynamic, unsettling ways. Columns 00:24:26.220 --> 00:24:28.680 are sunk into the walls, appearing trapped. The 00:24:28.680 --> 00:24:31.420 windows are blind. And the staircase seems to 00:24:31.420 --> 00:24:34.319 spill out like a torrent of molten lava. Right. 00:24:34.400 --> 00:24:36.559 And this deliberate manipulation of classical 00:24:36.559 --> 00:24:39.660 harmony essentially establishes him as the forerunner 00:24:39.660 --> 00:24:42.299 of Baroque architecture. This is Mannerism in 00:24:42.299 --> 00:24:45.019 its most sublime architectural form. In 1534, 00:24:45.240 --> 00:24:47.539 he left Florence for good and settled permanently 00:24:47.539 --> 00:24:50.359 in Rome, transitioning almost entirely into architecture 00:24:50.359 --> 00:24:52.799 for the last three decades of his life. And he 00:24:52.799 --> 00:24:54.680 became the preeminent architect for the papacy. 00:24:55.019 --> 00:24:57.559 The capstone of this period was St. Peter's Basilica. 00:24:57.640 --> 00:25:01.880 At the age of 71, in 1546, he was appointed architect. 00:25:02.299 --> 00:25:04.400 Taking over a project that had become this complex 00:25:04.400 --> 00:25:06.980 tangle of competing plans and incomplete construction 00:25:06.980 --> 00:25:10.220 over the previous 40 years. And Michelangelo 00:25:10.220 --> 00:25:12.200 just cut through the complexity. He returned 00:25:12.200 --> 00:25:14.640 to the original centralized Greek cross plan 00:25:14.640 --> 00:25:17.319 envisioned by Bramante, simplifying the design 00:25:17.319 --> 00:25:19.960 and strengthening the structure. His key innovation 00:25:19.960 --> 00:25:22.859 was the design of the enormous dome. He famously 00:25:22.859 --> 00:25:25.220 said he would raise the Pantheon onto the structure. 00:25:25.519 --> 00:25:28.460 And he did. Though it was completed after his 00:25:28.460 --> 00:25:30.319 death, it's been called the greatest creation 00:25:30.319 --> 00:25:33.420 of the Renaissance and influenced church architecture 00:25:33.420 --> 00:25:36.859 worldwide for centuries. Beyond St. Peter's, 00:25:36.880 --> 00:25:39.160 he radically redesigned the Capitoline Hill, 00:25:39.319 --> 00:25:42.799 the Campidoglio. He unified this awkward asymmetrical 00:25:42.799 --> 00:25:46.380 space with the trapezoid piazza and an extraordinary 00:25:46.380 --> 00:25:50.160 ovoid pavement design, creating a sense of harmonious 00:25:50.160 --> 00:25:52.900 grandeur that was entirely new. Right up until 00:25:52.900 --> 00:25:55.079 his death, we see his genius reflecting on his 00:25:55.079 --> 00:25:57.140 own mortality, particularly through his final 00:25:57.140 --> 00:25:59.900 sculptures. Yes. In his old age, his pitas become 00:25:59.900 --> 00:26:02.839 intensely personal, reflecting a deepening faith 00:26:02.839 --> 00:26:06.109 and almost palpable exhaustion. The Florentine 00:26:06.109 --> 00:26:08.450 Pietà is striking because he depicts himself 00:26:08.450 --> 00:26:11.750 as the aged Nicodemus, literally lowering Christ's 00:26:11.750 --> 00:26:14.269 body into the tomb. And the sources tell us he 00:26:14.269 --> 00:26:16.450 actually smashed parts of the figure of Jesus' 00:26:16.630 --> 00:26:19.390 left side. What drove that act of destruction? 00:26:19.950 --> 00:26:22.250 Biographers suggest it was a sudden act of intense 00:26:22.250 --> 00:26:24.789 frustration, either with the marble quality itself 00:26:24.789 --> 00:26:28.170 or maybe a moment of spiritual or artistic anguish 00:26:28.170 --> 00:26:30.549 where he felt the stone would not yield the form 00:26:30.549 --> 00:26:32.750 he desperately sought. Then we have the Rondinini 00:26:32.750 --> 00:26:35.420 Pietà. His last sculpture. He was working on 00:26:35.420 --> 00:26:38.680 it literally six days before his death in 1564 00:26:38.680 --> 00:26:42.220 at age 88. It's a work of almost radical incompleteness. 00:26:42.460 --> 00:26:45.480 He carved the figures away so dramatically that 00:26:45.480 --> 00:26:48.460 there was insufficient stone left to fully realize 00:26:48.460 --> 00:26:51.099 the form, resulting in this profoundly abstract 00:26:51.099 --> 00:26:54.180 quality. The figures of Christ and Mary are barely 00:26:54.180 --> 00:26:56.759 there, attenuated, seeming to merge together. 00:26:57.019 --> 00:26:59.619 It's a remarkable ending for the master of anatomical 00:26:59.619 --> 00:27:02.619 realism. He ends his career by carving away reality 00:27:02.619 --> 00:27:05.170 until only the emotion and spiritual essence 00:27:05.170 --> 00:27:08.789 remains. A fitting final paradox. His body was 00:27:08.789 --> 00:27:11.250 transported back to Florence for burial at the 00:27:11.250 --> 00:27:13.769 Basilica of Santa Croce, fulfilling his final 00:27:13.769 --> 00:27:16.289 wish to be buried in the city that first recognized 00:27:16.289 --> 00:27:19.089 his divine genius. We've covered the art, the 00:27:19.089 --> 00:27:21.769 architecture and the political struggles. Now 00:27:21.769 --> 00:27:24.130 let's turn to the man who endured all this, the 00:27:24.130 --> 00:27:27.309 personality, the habits and the surprising personal 00:27:27.309 --> 00:27:29.940 life. What's fascinating here is that given the 00:27:29.940 --> 00:27:32.380 sheer volume of surviving correspondence letters 00:27:32.380 --> 00:27:36.000 to family, notes to patrons, detailed reminiscences 00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:39.400 written by biographers during his lifetime, Michelangelo 00:27:39.400 --> 00:27:42.460 is arguably the best documented artist of the 00:27:42.460 --> 00:27:45.660 16th century. We have unprecedented access to 00:27:45.660 --> 00:27:47.539 his inner workings. And what they reveal is a 00:27:47.539 --> 00:27:50.019 man defined by contradictions. The first contradiction 00:27:50.019 --> 00:27:53.130 involves wealth versus lifestyle. He once told 00:27:53.130 --> 00:27:55.450 his apprentice, however rich I may have been, 00:27:55.589 --> 00:27:58.130 I have always lived like a poor man. And that 00:27:58.130 --> 00:28:01.069 statement is profoundly misleading. His net worth 00:28:01.069 --> 00:28:03.670 was estimated at about 50 ,000 gold ducats when 00:28:03.670 --> 00:28:06.269 he died, making him one of the wealthiest individuals 00:28:06.269 --> 00:28:09.069 in Italy. Surpassing many contemporary dukes 00:28:09.069 --> 00:28:12.549 and princes. Exactly. Yet his habits were notoriously 00:28:12.549 --> 00:28:15.589 rough and uncouth. His biographer Paolo Giovio 00:28:15.589 --> 00:28:18.109 described his domestic arrangements as incredibly 00:28:18.109 --> 00:28:21.890 squalid. He sounds like a true eccentric. Condivi 00:28:21.890 --> 00:28:24.250 noted that he ate and drank more out of necessity 00:28:24.250 --> 00:28:27.069 than of pleasure. We hear stories of him sleeping 00:28:27.069 --> 00:28:29.829 in his clothes and boots for weeks on end. Right, 00:28:29.890 --> 00:28:32.150 only removing them when they began to peel off 00:28:32.150 --> 00:28:35.430 his skin. We have to pause and consider the level 00:28:35.430 --> 00:28:38.589 of obsessive focus this implies. For a man who 00:28:38.589 --> 00:28:40.710 was arguably the wealthiest artist in Europe, 00:28:41.240 --> 00:28:43.900 This personal squalor suggests his entire identity 00:28:43.900 --> 00:28:47.519 was consumed by the stone, the paint or the blueprints. 00:28:47.660 --> 00:28:50.000 Almost to the exclusion of basic human comfort. 00:28:50.180 --> 00:28:52.660 He was described as solitary and melancholy. 00:28:52.960 --> 00:28:55.880 Using the term bizarro, a fantastico -centric, 00:28:56.099 --> 00:28:58.640 and fantastic to describe a man who withdrew 00:28:58.640 --> 00:29:01.079 himself almost entirely from social company. 00:29:01.259 --> 00:29:03.400 But despite that solitude and eccentricity, his 00:29:03.400 --> 00:29:05.960 faith was a constant anchor. Absolutely. He was 00:29:05.960 --> 00:29:08.140 a devout Catholic whose faith deepened significantly, 00:29:08.420 --> 00:29:10.299 particularly after the political turmoil of the 00:29:10.299 --> 00:29:13.180 1530s. His late -life enrollment in the secular 00:29:13.180 --> 00:29:16.000 Franciscan order reflects this deepening spirituality. 00:29:16.500 --> 00:29:19.000 And that profound late -life spiritual focus 00:29:19.000 --> 00:29:21.519 is crystallized in his poetry. We have lines 00:29:21.519 --> 00:29:23.380 from one of his... later sonnets that perfectly 00:29:23.380 --> 00:29:26.400 capture the shift away from earthly glory. Neither 00:29:26.400 --> 00:29:28.759 painting nor sculpture will be able any longer 00:29:28.759 --> 00:29:31.319 to calm my soul, now turned toward that divine 00:29:31.319 --> 00:29:33.440 love that opened his arms on the cross to take 00:29:33.440 --> 00:29:35.819 us in. His poetry, however, brings us to the 00:29:35.819 --> 00:29:38.660 biggest revelation about his personal life, his 00:29:38.660 --> 00:29:41.079 relationships. Right. Michelangelo wrote over 00:29:41.079 --> 00:29:43.839 300 sonnets and madrigals, and approximately 00:29:43.839 --> 00:29:46.279 60 of those were explicitly addressed to men. 00:29:46.730 --> 00:29:49.410 This collection constitutes the first significant 00:29:49.410 --> 00:29:52.710 modern corpus of love poetry from one man to 00:29:52.710 --> 00:29:55.309 another. This is our aha moment. The longest 00:29:55.309 --> 00:29:57.509 and most intense sequence of these poems was 00:29:57.509 --> 00:30:00.529 dedicated to Tommaso de Cavalieri, a young Roman 00:30:00.529 --> 00:30:04.730 patrician who Michelangelo met in 1532. Michelangelo 00:30:04.730 --> 00:30:08.109 was 57, Cavalieri was 23. And the depth of this 00:30:08.109 --> 00:30:10.630 emotional connection is extraordinary. Cavalieri 00:30:10.630 --> 00:30:12.869 was of high social standing and Michelangelo 00:30:12.869 --> 00:30:15.609 was utterly devoted to him. He sent him not only 00:30:15.609 --> 00:30:18.250 poetry, but also a series of exquisite mythological 00:30:18.250 --> 00:30:20.890 drawings designed to help Cavalieri learn to 00:30:20.890 --> 00:30:23.309 draw. These included Ganymede wrapped to heaven 00:30:23.309 --> 00:30:25.750 by Jove's eagle and the punishment of Titius. 00:30:26.009 --> 00:30:28.329 Those drawings were highly symbolic, weren't 00:30:28.329 --> 00:30:30.750 they? Ganymede being the beautiful mortal youth 00:30:30.750 --> 00:30:33.990 abducted by Jupiter. Precisely. They are potent 00:30:33.990 --> 00:30:36.910 symbols of spiritual and physical desire, often 00:30:36.910 --> 00:30:40.269 interpreted through a Neoplatonic lens. Michelangelo 00:30:40.269 --> 00:30:42.930 saw Cavalieri as a manifestation of the ideal 00:30:42.930 --> 00:30:46.170 beauty he was constantly seeking. And Cavalieri's 00:30:46.170 --> 00:30:49.069 own response to Michelangelo was equally intense. 00:30:49.410 --> 00:30:51.650 He remained dedicated to him until the artist's 00:30:51.650 --> 00:30:54.460 death. But this relationship and the poetry itself 00:30:54.460 --> 00:30:56.779 is a source of intense historical controversy. 00:30:57.079 --> 00:30:59.619 It is. When Michelangelo's grandnephew published 00:30:59.619 --> 00:31:02.859 the poetry in 1623, he consciously centered the 00:31:02.859 --> 00:31:05.579 text by changing the gender of the pronouns from 00:31:05.579 --> 00:31:08.359 masculine to feminine to obscure the true nature 00:31:08.359 --> 00:31:10.460 of the relationship. He insisted the poem should 00:31:10.460 --> 00:31:12.680 be read allegorically, purely as expressions 00:31:12.680 --> 00:31:15.859 of abstract spiritual neoplatonic love. It was 00:31:15.859 --> 00:31:17.740 clearly done to protect the Bonarotti family 00:31:17.740 --> 00:31:20.640 honor and Michelangelo's legacy within the highly 00:31:20.640 --> 00:31:22.750 conservative counter. Reformation period. What 00:31:22.750 --> 00:31:25.250 is the modern consensus now that the original 00:31:25.250 --> 00:31:28.170 texts have been restored? Since the English critic 00:31:28.170 --> 00:31:30.869 John Addington Simons restored the original male 00:31:30.869 --> 00:31:34.190 pronouns in 1893, it's become widely accepted 00:31:34.190 --> 00:31:36.890 that the poems should be understood at face value. 00:31:37.329 --> 00:31:40.730 They express intense personal desire and indicate 00:31:40.730 --> 00:31:42.970 a preference for young men. But the scholarly 00:31:42.970 --> 00:31:45.609 debate continues over the physical nature of 00:31:45.609 --> 00:31:48.269 the relationship. Well, given Cavalieri's high 00:31:48.269 --> 00:31:50.849 social standing and the intense scrutiny of the 00:31:50.849 --> 00:31:53.890 papal court, a public physical relationship would 00:31:53.890 --> 00:31:56.789 have been difficult, probably not survivable. 00:31:56.910 --> 00:31:59.069 The sources acknowledge that these relationships 00:31:59.069 --> 00:32:01.869 were often necessarily framed within the realities 00:32:01.869 --> 00:32:04.240 of platonic intellectual friendship. Whether 00:32:04.240 --> 00:32:06.319 the relationship was consummated or remained 00:32:06.319 --> 00:32:09.119 purely spiritual, the poetry itself provides 00:32:09.119 --> 00:32:11.759 irrefutable proof of Michelangelo's passionate 00:32:11.759 --> 00:32:14.460 personal desire. And that intensity and vulnerability 00:32:14.460 --> 00:32:17.980 completely shatter the image of the solitary, 00:32:18.240 --> 00:32:20.940 stone -obsessed genius. To balance this, we also 00:32:20.940 --> 00:32:23.500 know that late in life, he nurtured a deep platonic 00:32:23.500 --> 00:32:26.039 friendship with the noble widow and poet Vittoria 00:32:26.039 --> 00:32:28.720 Colonna. This relationship was purely spiritual. 00:32:29.019 --> 00:32:31.859 They exchanged powerful spiritual sonnets and 00:32:31.859 --> 00:32:34.869 devotional drawings. Condivi, who was keen to 00:32:34.869 --> 00:32:37.829 downplay the earlier relationships, really highlighted 00:32:37.829 --> 00:32:40.289 this friendship. And finally, we have to return 00:32:40.289 --> 00:32:43.130 to the feuds, because his professional life was 00:32:43.130 --> 00:32:46.269 defined by intense rivalry, largely fueled by 00:32:46.269 --> 00:32:48.509 his terribility. He was intensely competitive 00:32:48.509 --> 00:32:51.470 and often paranoid, blaming his troubles with 00:32:51.470 --> 00:32:54.250 the tomb of Julius II entirely on the envy of 00:32:54.250 --> 00:32:57.950 his great rivals, Bramante and Raphael. He famously 00:32:57.950 --> 00:33:00.230 claimed that Raphael got all he had in art from 00:33:00.230 --> 00:33:02.759 him. Implying Raphael was just a clever borrower. 00:33:02.920 --> 00:33:05.000 Pretty much. And there's an anecdote of their 00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:06.980 legendary meeting that perfectly encapsulates 00:33:06.980 --> 00:33:09.299 this tension. Tell us. They met on the streets 00:33:09.299 --> 00:33:12.180 of Rome. Raphael was accompanied by a large group 00:33:12.180 --> 00:33:14.799 of assistants and admirers. Michelangelo was 00:33:14.799 --> 00:33:17.460 walking entirely alone. Of course. Michelangelo, 00:33:17.619 --> 00:33:20.279 always prickly, commented that Raphael, with 00:33:20.279 --> 00:33:22.220 such a following, looked like a chief of police. 00:33:23.160 --> 00:33:25.400 Raphael immediately shot back that Michelangelo, 00:33:25.519 --> 00:33:28.259 walking alone, looked like an executioner, a 00:33:28.259 --> 00:33:30.200 figure who traditionally walked in solitude. 00:33:30.559 --> 00:33:32.980 It's a spectacular exchange that just highlights 00:33:32.980 --> 00:33:36.099 the intense, almost combative individuality of 00:33:36.099 --> 00:33:39.180 Michelangelo. So what does this all mean when 00:33:39.180 --> 00:33:41.799 we synthesize the art, the drama, the personal 00:33:41.799 --> 00:33:44.420 anguish, and the myth of Michelangelo Buonarroti? 00:33:44.640 --> 00:33:47.059 It means we have to recognize him as a revolutionary 00:33:47.059 --> 00:33:50.220 who mastered not just one or two, but three separate 00:33:50.220 --> 00:33:54.140 monumental arenas of genius. He succeeded because 00:33:54.140 --> 00:33:57.319 he achieved a perfect synthesis. He married the 00:33:57.319 --> 00:33:59.480 profound classical scholarship he learned at 00:33:59.480 --> 00:34:02.400 the Medici Academy with the practical, muscular, 00:34:02.579 --> 00:34:04.759 artistic movements of contemporary Florence. 00:34:05.019 --> 00:34:07.880 And his impact wasn't just on his own time. He 00:34:07.880 --> 00:34:10.340 defined the next generation of art. The expressive 00:34:10.340 --> 00:34:12.960 physicality of his style, those twisting, dynamic, 00:34:13.199 --> 00:34:15.860 emotionally charged forms, they were the clear 00:34:15.860 --> 00:34:18.119 heralds of the Mannerist art movement. Mannerism 00:34:18.119 --> 00:34:20.199 took his sense of dramatic tension and subjective 00:34:20.199 --> 00:34:23.380 experience and made it the rule, departing definitively 00:34:23.380 --> 00:34:25.480 from the calm idealism of the High Renaissance. 00:34:26.090 --> 00:34:28.210 Even his failures and unfinished projects had 00:34:28.210 --> 00:34:31.670 profound influence. Oh, absolutely. Those struggling, 00:34:31.789 --> 00:34:34.829 unfinished slaves for the tune of Julius II with 00:34:34.829 --> 00:34:37.550 their visible struggle against the stone profoundly 00:34:37.550 --> 00:34:41.309 influenced modern sculptural thought, especially 00:34:41.309 --> 00:34:43.590 the psychological realism of artists like Auguste 00:34:43.590 --> 00:34:46.210 Rodin and Henry Moore. And as a painter, he was 00:34:46.210 --> 00:34:50.030 utterly transformative. Vasari, never one for 00:34:50.030 --> 00:34:52.190 understatement, wrote that the Sistine Chapel 00:34:52.190 --> 00:34:55.690 ceiling was a veritable beacon to our art, restoring 00:34:55.690 --> 00:34:57.889 light to a world that for centuries had been 00:34:57.889 --> 00:35:00.130 plunged into darkness. He argued that painters 00:35:00.130 --> 00:35:02.369 no longer needed to seek new inventions because 00:35:02.369 --> 00:35:05.400 this single work contained every perfection possible. 00:35:05.559 --> 00:35:07.760 And architecturally, his work set the standard 00:35:07.760 --> 00:35:10.440 for centuries, from the dynamic, unsettling tension 00:35:10.440 --> 00:35:13.579 of the Laurentian Library vestibule to the soaring, 00:35:13.579 --> 00:35:16.440 majestic dome of St. Peter's Basilica. He was, 00:35:16.460 --> 00:35:19.199 quite rightly, revered in his own time. the first 00:35:19.199 --> 00:35:21.039 Western artist whose biography was published 00:35:21.039 --> 00:35:23.400 while he was still alive. Yet despite being one 00:35:23.400 --> 00:35:25.760 of the best documented men of the 16th century, 00:35:25.980 --> 00:35:28.239 a man whose legacy was carefully recorded and 00:35:28.239 --> 00:35:30.559 curated, we know that Michelangelo deliberately 00:35:30.559 --> 00:35:33.440 destroyed many of his detailed drawings, designs, 00:35:33.659 --> 00:35:36.179 and preparatory sketches later in his life. He 00:35:36.179 --> 00:35:38.519 wanted to erase the evidence of his process, 00:35:38.719 --> 00:35:41.440 the struggles, the mistakes. This leads to our 00:35:41.440 --> 00:35:43.280 final provocative thought for you to consider. 00:35:43.719 --> 00:35:46.400 We have biographers ensuring his life story was 00:35:46.400 --> 00:35:49.179 meticulously recorded for posterity, yet we know 00:35:49.179 --> 00:35:51.659 he actively tried to destroy the visual evidence 00:35:51.659 --> 00:35:54.719 of his effort and technique. What motivated the 00:35:54.719 --> 00:35:57.019 seemingly contradictory impulse to erase his 00:35:57.019 --> 00:35:59.880 process while ensuring his life story was recorded? 00:36:00.059 --> 00:36:02.099 And how does that destructive act shape the way 00:36:02.099 --> 00:36:04.690 we perceive his terribilita? that unique ability 00:36:04.690 --> 00:36:08.309 to instill awe today? Was the awe only meant 00:36:08.309 --> 00:36:11.449 to be inspired by the finished, seemingly effortless 00:36:11.449 --> 00:36:14.369 miracle concealing the agonizing human effort 00:36:14.369 --> 00:36:16.710 that lay beneath the surface? A lot to chew on 00:36:16.710 --> 00:36:19.170 regarding the divine genius and the man who wrestled 00:36:19.170 --> 00:36:21.630 with the stone and with his own demons. Thank 00:36:21.630 --> 00:36:23.949 you for joining us for this deep dive into Michelangelo.