WEBVTT - How Michelangelo Worked 0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:03.760 Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:13.960 Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:17.239 I'm Katie Lambert and I'm Sarah Downey, and today we 0:00:17.360 --> 0:00:22.360 have our third installment and our Medici super series michel Angelo, 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:26.200 and we can't talk about the Medici family without mentioning 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:28.960 their role as patrons of the arts and Lorenzo the 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:34.400 Magnificent alone worked with Botticelli, Barocchio, Leonardo da Vinci, and obviously, 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:38.599 most famously with the young michel Angelo. But michel Angelo's 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:41.760 a relationship to the Medici family didn't end with Lorenzo. 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:45.320 He goes from a teen living at their palazzo to 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:48.199 a man with a Medici hit on his head. So 0:00:48.320 --> 0:00:51.160 we've got to figure out how this happened and how 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:54.959 did an impoverished boy from a rocky outpost become one 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:58.240 of the greatest artists of history. And it's critical to 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:01.920 understand michel Angelo's importance in his own lifetime before we 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:05.920 can appreciate him historically, though, because it explains a lot. Yeah, 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:10.440 he's this moody, guilty kind of guy. He loves Florence, 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:13.920 that's central about his character. But he's so incredibly famous 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:17.760 while he's alive, that his career is really well documented. 0:01:18.640 --> 0:01:21.080 He was actually the first Western artist to have a 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:24.360 bio published while he was still alive. And he actually 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:27.920 has two rival bios. There's the saries, the lives, and 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:30.160 then there's also, I guess what you would consider more 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:33.880 of a an authorized biography by his assistant. And we 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:35.920 also have a lot of his stuff, his letters and 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:41.440 sketches and poetry. And consequently, a man of this caliber 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:43.959 and somebody who's so famous has a huge effect on 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:49.800 his contemporaries, even his seniors like Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo 0:01:49.880 --> 0:01:52.880 left Florence for Milan, came back twenty years later and 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:55.840 found the art world a completely different place. And we 0:01:55.920 --> 0:01:59.800 have a great quote from Heart's History of Italian Renaissance, 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:02.800 which we pulled from a lot for this podcast, and 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:05.520 he says of michel Angelo that one could accept him 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:09.000 or rebel against him, but one could not ignore him. 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:11.280 So with that quote, we will take you to michel 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:14.920 Angelo's early life. He was born michel Angelo de Lodovico 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:19.640 Buonarotti Simony on March six, fourtevent and pray say a 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:24.359 Florentine outpost and rather barren region and his father was 0:02:24.440 --> 0:02:29.240 Ludovico de Simoni Buonarotti, and he was of a noble family, 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:31.600 or they had been noble for many generations, but they 0:02:31.600 --> 0:02:34.440 had lost that. They were also very poor, and his 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:38.040 father was serving as the governor of the region, and 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:41.120 they returned to Florence only about a month after michel 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:44.799 Angelo was born, when his father's term came up. And 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:47.560 one important fact from this time though, he had a 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:49.880 wet nurse from a village of stone cutters, and he 0:02:50.000 --> 0:02:52.680 liked to play at this connection a lot. The fact 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:56.960 that he had his love of sculpture and stone cutting 0:02:57.200 --> 0:03:01.720 almost instilled from from his and see and his father 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:04.800 and uncle were against him becoming an artist because of 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:08.239 that noble lineage. They thought he should be above physical labor. 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:10.800 But they finally gave up and when he was thirteen, 0:03:10.880 --> 0:03:13.680 which was a bit old to start, they placed him 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:17.239 in Domenico Gerlandio's studio for a term of three years, 0:03:17.360 --> 0:03:20.720 and he's a paid apprentice, which was a big deal, 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:23.560 and he leaves after a year because he is just 0:03:23.800 --> 0:03:27.960 so good. When he's invited by Lorenzo the Magnificent to 0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:31.000 his home where he can work in the Medici gardens 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:33.799 and the art school that's held there, and he does 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:38.920 receive some instruction when he's living with Lorenzo, but most 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:41.520 of the benefit comes from just being around all of 0:03:41.720 --> 0:03:47.040 the amazing artworks that Lorenzo owns the Medici statuary. They 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:52.040 have all this ancient Roman sculpture, ancient coins and cameos, 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:55.840 and a fair amount of interesting modern Renaissance stuff as well. 0:03:56.600 --> 0:03:59.600 He also benefits from living with the Medici and seeing 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:02.720 what life is like for this powerful political family. He 0:04:02.840 --> 0:04:06.520 dines with Lorenzo and with the Medaici boys, and during 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:09.040 his spare time he goes around the city copying works 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:12.680 of Giotto and Massaccio. It's actually in the Brancocci Chapel 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:17.119 that he criticized the drawing of a sculptor and gets 0:04:17.120 --> 0:04:20.200 a broken nose for his trouble, something that he's so 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:23.400 self conscious about for his whole life. And his first 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:26.440 extant work from his teen years is a marble relief 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:29.400 called the Madonna of the Stairs, which is rather crude 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:33.599 in drapery, but great as far as the muscles. Yeah, 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:35.480 what he did with that. He also did the Battle 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:41.440 of Lapiths and Centaurs, and Lorenzo dies in so Michelangelo 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:43.800 is back with his dad in a modest house near 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:46.839 Santa Croce, and during this time in his life is 0:04:46.839 --> 0:04:49.640 when he probably does a crucifixion for a meta chie 0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:53.760 son and also starts dissecting corpses to make it, which 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:55.960 is something he'll do for the rest of his life 0:04:56.000 --> 0:04:59.400 to make his human figures realistic. It's kind of strange 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:02.760 to think of our our famous Renaissance artists having these 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:06.880 da Vinci did bodies donated. Pretty cool, yeah, But in 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:10.160 fourteen ninety four he makes a brief visit to Venice 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:13.800 and then to Bologna, and he probably also hears Savonarola 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:17.200 preached during this time, who we have already podcasted on 0:05:17.760 --> 0:05:21.000 um and as an old man, he still reads Savonarola's 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:23.840 work and remembers his voice, so he obviously has a 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:27.719 big impression on him early on. But let's go back 0:05:27.760 --> 0:05:30.640 to Florence, which at the time was still the center 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:33.760 of art. But art wasn't paying as well as it 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:35.880 used to at this time, so a lot of artists 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:39.440 were moving on from Florence and going other places. And 0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:42.039 in fourteen ninety six michel Angelo went to Rome. He 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:46.320 was twenty one and Pope Alexander the sixth Lucrezia Borge's 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:49.640 father was in charge, and there's obviously a lot of 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:53.840 amazing stuff in Rome for the young michel Angelo to study, 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:58.320 amazing um antiquities. But he does a lot of private 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:01.760 commissions during this time too, like Bacchus for a rich Roman, 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:04.960 which um, it's a it's an interesting statue. You can 0:06:05.000 --> 0:06:09.120 tell Bacchus has been definitely indulging in his drink of choice, 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:13.200 and he does the Doni Madonna, the Brutiges Madonna, just 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:18.320 nice little, nice little works that helped establish his early career. 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:22.760 But his first major commission came in in when he 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:25.640 was twenty three, and it was a pieta, which was 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:29.960 an uncommon subject in Italy at the time. So pieta 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:34.360 subject is the Virgin Mary holding Christ in her lap 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:36.839 right after he's been taken off the off the cross, 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:40.760 and it kind of echoes madonna and child scenes, except 0:06:40.800 --> 0:06:45.560 there's all this tragedy involved in it, and Michelangelo's piatak 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:50.960 kind of defines the scene ultimately huge. Well, it's huge 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:56.440 because you think you have to have a full grown Christ. Obviously, 0:06:56.760 --> 0:07:01.480 the madonna who's holding him has to be enormous. Michelangelis 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:04.760 Pieta is also of note because it's his only signed sculpture. 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:08.080 Va Sorry writes that some Lombards came to see it 0:07:08.120 --> 0:07:10.480 at St. Peter's and they thought it must be made 0:07:10.520 --> 0:07:13.120 by one of their own countrymen. And I guess Michelangelo 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:15.160 got word of this, and so he snuck into St. 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:19.320 Peter's at night and and chiseled in his signature. But 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:21.680 if you go to St. Peter's today to see the Pieta, 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:26.520 unfortunately it's behind bulletproof glass, because in nineteen seventy seven 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:30.960 deranged geologists had to go and attack it. So I'm 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:33.200 not laughing and attacking the statue. I am laughing that 0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:37.320 the attack was by a deranged geologist. Okay. During this time, 0:07:37.400 --> 0:07:40.440 michel Angelo is also working on a public project. Perhaps 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:43.320 you've heard of it. It's the David Statue, and it 0:07:43.360 --> 0:07:45.600 was to be made from a block of marble that 0:07:45.680 --> 0:07:48.560 was from the fourteen sixties and had already been partially 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:51.120 blocked by Augustino di Duccio, who had been working on 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:54.360 a design probably done by Donna Tello, and it was 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:57.520 intended to go on the Cathedral of Florence to match 0:07:57.680 --> 0:08:01.960 and go with Donna Tello's Joshua. But because it's so awesome, 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:04.160 people don't want to put it up so high. The 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:06.640 Republic wants it in front of the Palazzo de Priori, 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:09.200 which is now the Palazza de Vecchio, as a symbol 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:12.600 of the republic. The Medici, remember, have been in exile 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:16.000 since shortly after Lorenzo the Magnificence death. We talked about 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:18.520 that a little bit in our previous podcast. And the 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:22.800 night the statue is installed, pro Medici youths hit it 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:25.600 with rocks. So here we have the dr in geologist, 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:30.600 the pro Medici youths, all these people hating on michel Angelo. So, 0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:33.960 since Florence is a republic again and we don't have 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:36.880 Medici power, we have a guy called Sodorini who's the 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:40.880 gold Felonieri for life, and that's basically the protector of 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:45.360 the Republic, the standard bearer. And he doesn't like how 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:49.800 nude David is, so he commissions a girdle essentially of 0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:55.880 bronze and copper leaves to to go around David's way underpants. Yeah, 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:58.640 exactly has to developed for David, which is which is 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:02.000 pretty lame if you think about it. Some side notes 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:05.720 on the David Statue. During the third expulsion of the 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:09.719 Medici from Florence in seven a bench is throne from 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:13.000 the window of the Palazzo da Priory and it shatters 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:16.200 David's left arm in hand, and a teenage Fusari and 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:20.480 another teenager end up saving the pieces for reattachment. And 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:23.679 the marble of the statue was also soft and suffered 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:25.320 a lot from being in the rain, so in the 0:09:25.360 --> 0:09:28.520 nineteenth century it was moved to the skylit rotunda of 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:33.319 the Academia after David's success. Michelangelo has lots and lots 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:37.280 of big projects. He liked ambitious work. He liked doing 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:39.800 the you know, big big things, but he didn't like 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:43.040 working with assistance, so he didn't get a lot done. 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:45.960 He was very difficult to work with um. For example, 0:09:45.960 --> 0:09:48.559 there was this huge fresco for the Solidel Grand can 0:09:48.559 --> 0:09:51.360 Cilio that he was supposed to do, or twelve marble 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:54.040 apostles for the Florence Cathedral, and he ends up only 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:56.680 doing St. Matthew. But he gets a customer in Rome 0:09:56.760 --> 0:10:01.280 that he can't refuse Pope Julius the Second, So in 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:05.200 fifteen oh five Pope Julius says basically, come to Rome, 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:08.559 make me a tomb, put forty statues on it. It's 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:11.720 a huge commission, and michel Angelo spends about a year 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:15.800 bringing marble from Carrara before the Pope calls off the project. 0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:19.080 He realizes it's going to be too expensive, and Michelangelo, 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:23.840 always suspicious of of other artists, even just onlookers and 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:27.880 his own family, thinks that Bremonti, who's also working at St. Peter's, 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:30.160 might have had a hand in the Pope's decision to 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:33.680 cut off funding, and he is so so angry. He's 0:10:33.760 --> 0:10:36.440 famous for his fits of rage. He storms back to 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:40.800 Florence in fifteen o six and this project, the tomb commission, 0:10:40.840 --> 0:10:43.280 turns out to be a real nightmare for michel Angelo 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:46.800 his whole life. He's very much invested in the project, 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:50.720 but it goes through multiple design changes, lots of halted work, 0:10:50.840 --> 0:10:54.280 stop payment. It's it's always sort of hovering over him 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:57.160 for his for nearly his entire life. But he considered 0:10:57.280 --> 0:11:00.120 himself a sculptor, not a painter like we often think 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:03.160 of him, so that's why this was so important to him. 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:05.800 And we also came across a little fact that we 0:11:05.800 --> 0:11:07.840 couldn't figure out where else to put, so we're just 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:10.040 going to throw it out there right now. We mentioned 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:12.200 he was a little bit strange, and if you want 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:16.040 a fashion tip from michel Angelo, he wore boots made 0:11:16.080 --> 0:11:19.920 from cured dog skin for months at a time, and 0:11:19.960 --> 0:11:23.320 when it came time to remove them, his skin peeled off. 0:11:23.640 --> 0:11:27.360 So we have our raging dog skin booted michel Angelo. 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:31.160 Angry michel Angelo. But the Pope isn't gonna stand michel 0:11:31.200 --> 0:11:33.880 Angelo's fits of rage and he's not gonna let him 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:37.280 hide out in Florence, so he has the Florentine authorities 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:40.280 returned michel Angelo to Rome, but this time he has 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:43.480 another project for him, and it's a bronze colossal of 0:11:43.520 --> 0:11:45.959 the pope that seems like a very egotistical pope with 0:11:46.080 --> 0:11:48.920 his giant to him and now his bronze colossal um. 0:11:48.960 --> 0:11:52.280 Michel Angelo does this, but we have no drawings of it, 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:55.680 no records of it. It's installed in the newly conquered 0:11:55.720 --> 0:12:00.000 Bologna and three years later, anti papal forces push it off, 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:03.280 its pedestal melted, and cast it into a can in 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:06.920 which they named La Julia, which is the feminine version 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:10.520 of the Pope's name, and it's it's meant to be 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:13.880 the cannon firing at the pope when he retreats from town. 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:18.199 In fifteen o eight, michel Angelo had just gotten back 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:21.240 to Florence once again, when the Pope once again says, 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:23.600 come to Rome. There's this thing I want you to do. 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:26.840 It's called the Sistine Chapel, and the Sistine Chapel is 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:30.480 a special place for the popes. It's the chief consecrated 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:33.479 space in the Vatican, and it's used for papal conclaves. 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:35.920 If you want to think back to and Pope John 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:38.440 Paul the second died and I had to pick a 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:41.280 new pope. But it's mostly decorated at the time too. 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:43.679 It's it's been around for a while, and it's got 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:46.680 the Life of Moses, the Life of Christ, historic popes. 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:50.640 Everything is done except the ceiling, and so the Pope 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:54.080 suggests to michel Angelo, how about we include the twelve 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:57.640 apostles on the ceiling, each with their own panel. Michelangelo 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:00.120 is not a fan of this idea. He thinks it's 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:03.720 way too straightforward, it's not gonna be interesting enough, and 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:07.160 instead we end up with Old Testament profits and sibyls 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:10.440 from antiquity, plus all these scenes from Genesis that go 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:13.240 backward in time. When you enter the room, it starts 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:17.760 with Noah, it progresses to God's separation of light and darkness. 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:22.280 And the subjects probably would have been a little theologically 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:26.480 complex for michel Angelo, so it's unlikely that he rejected 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:31.080 the apostle idea and presented this plan instead. He probably 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:34.720 couldn't even read Latin, so it's likely that michel Angelo 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:39.240 had a theological adviser of sorts in Marco Vigierro de 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:44.320 la Rovera, and he's the Pope's cousin and probably helped 0:13:44.400 --> 0:13:46.800 him out, you know, with the planning and choosing which 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:51.440 subjects would be represented. In fift eight, michel Angelo sets 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:55.000 to work on his preliminary sketches before he makes cartoons. 0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:58.120 And because I don't know a lot about Fresco making, 0:13:58.200 --> 0:14:01.040 Sarah's going to explain that part a little bit. Well. Really, 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:05.319 simply the cartoons. You can't freehand on fresco, especially when 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:08.080 it's these huge scenes that are going to be on 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:11.000 top of a ceiling, So you make cartoons which are 0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:14.640 basically life size mock ups for what you're ultimately going 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:17.800 to depict in fresco. You lay the cartoons up against 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:21.680 wet and tonico, and you outline the edges with a stylist, 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:24.320 which is a little metal instrument, so you can see 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:28.040 these little pin pricks sometimes in the plaster. And then 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:32.400 when you're actually applying the color to the to the fresco, 0:14:32.760 --> 0:14:34.800 you have to do it in pretty small stages, so 0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:37.840 you have the wet plaster on, you layer on the color. 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:41.560 Um It's not like an oil painting or something where 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:44.440 you're gradually putting more and more layers of color on 0:14:44.440 --> 0:14:46.360 on top of each other. You have to work quickly. 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:50.560 Michel Angelo isn't perfect at this whole stylus in cartoon 0:14:50.640 --> 0:14:52.600 bit at first, and the first work has to be 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:55.960 redone because it molds. But as he goes along he 0:14:56.000 --> 0:14:58.800 gets a lot more confident and works much faster, and 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:01.880 eventually is able to eliminate some of those prep steps, 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:05.520 like the complete drawings and the stylus pricks, and consequently 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:08.520 the figures become a lot more expressive, and the whole 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:11.480 thing remarkably only takes about four years, less than four 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:15.720 years actually, probably including an interruption of about a year 0:15:15.960 --> 0:15:19.240 when the funds were cut and to do a little 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:21.880 myth busting, I think a lot of people imagine michel 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:26.840 Angelo reclined as he's as he's painting in these frescoes. 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:31.320 That's not the case. He designs special scaffolding which is 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:35.120 suspended by beams, and this allows him to paint standing up, 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:37.960 so he's able to walk around, get his all his 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:40.480 supplies together, and I must really hurt your neck. Well, 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:42.560 and it does hurt his neck. He actually writes about 0:15:43.040 --> 0:15:45.480 about it and includes a little a little sketch of 0:15:45.560 --> 0:15:49.880 him looks very uncomfortable when the scaffolding only came down 0:15:50.040 --> 0:15:53.160 occasionally for him to to review his work and look 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:55.080 up and see how it was looking. The first time 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:57.480 was in fifteen ten, and from then all the figures 0:15:57.480 --> 0:16:00.120 get bigger when assumes he got down, looked up and 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:02.840 realized when things are that small and detailed, you can't 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:05.320 see them on the ground of the I can't see 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:09.400 everything I painted there. So obviously, the most impressive scene, 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:12.320 or the most famous scene, is the creation of Adam. 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:15.800 It has been spoofed in a million ways, everything from 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:20.600 et to George Michael's muscle suit. It's quite a quite 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:25.040 a spectrum there um. But it's it's what we've been 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:28.840 most impressed with. I'd say. The restoration of the Sistine 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:32.280 Chapel ceiling took place from nineteen eighty to nine, and 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:36.680 it removed centuries of lamp candle and incense smoke, a 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:39.400 coat of animal glue, even Greek wine that had been 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:42.640 added to brighten the colors. And for the longest time 0:16:42.680 --> 0:16:45.760 people had thought maybe Michelangelo just worked in very in 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:47.920 a very muted palette. You know, he was a dark, 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:51.360 moody guy kind of guy. But it turns out once 0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:54.560 all of that was removed, he worked in in vivid, brilliant, 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:58.120 beautiful colors. It's supercolors. If you've if you've ever seen 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:02.240 the Sistine chapeler seen real true to life photographs of it. 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:07.320 Just bright, bright colors, sherbet colors on the But in 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:10.960 fifteen thirteen, we're back to that old tomb for Julius, 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:15.280 Michelangelo's both favorite and nightmare project, but this time there's 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:18.879 a new design. He only finishes three figures, Moses and 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:21.480 a couple of slaves, and he ends up keeping these 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:24.440 for himself because the design on scale of the project 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:27.920 changes once again and he keeps them until he's old 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:30.200 before giving them to a family that helped him during 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:34.720 an illness. But Julius dies in fifteen thirteen, and um, 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:36.919 it sounds like the perfect time to make a tomb, 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:40.760 but it's not. The funding drives up, and some other 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:45.480 changes happened to at Julius's death that really affect Michelangelo 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:48.240 and Florence as well. So it's time for us to 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:51.399 catch up with the Medici. We haven't forgotten them. The 0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:54.560 Medici were expelled in fourteen ninety four, as we've said, 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:58.399 but they came back in after austaing Soderini. The city 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:01.000 is being ruled again in the old fashion, behind the 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:06.040 scenes type of Medici way that Lawrence the Magnificent had pioneered, 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:09.240 but this time it's by his son Giuliano, and his 0:18:09.320 --> 0:18:12.880 older brother is the powerful Cardinal Giovanni. But when Julius 0:18:12.880 --> 0:18:16.560 the Second dies, Cardinal Giovanni becomes Pope Leo the Tenth. 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:19.640 So Leo the Tenth and michel Angelo have known each 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:21.960 other since they were boys and michel Angelo was living 0:18:21.960 --> 0:18:25.879 in the Medici palace, and Leo obviously doesn't want michel 0:18:25.920 --> 0:18:29.439 Angelo working on a pope Julius project, and he doesn't 0:18:29.440 --> 0:18:33.080 even want him working on a papacy project. He's almost 0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:35.240 more of a Medici before he's a pope. So he 0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:38.920 brings he brings michel Angelo back to Florence to work 0:18:39.000 --> 0:18:43.400 on Medici approved projects. Things are a little bit sketchy 0:18:43.480 --> 0:18:46.000 and Florence at the time, though. Leo's replaced his brother 0:18:46.040 --> 0:18:49.440 with his nephew Lorenzo as ruler of Florence, and Lawrence 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:51.760 is just not that great. He's mostly a puppet ruler. 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:55.080 He's very repressive and he dies early, but now before 0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:58.399 fathering his one legitimate child, Catherine de Medici, who we 0:18:58.480 --> 0:19:01.320 will talk about in some future podcast. You'll get an 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:04.919 episode for sure. So Leah the Tenth puts his cousin, 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:08.560 Cardinal Giulio de Medici, in charge, and you'll probably remember 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:13.520 him from our Popsy Conspiracy podcast. He's Giuliano de Medici's son, 0:19:13.600 --> 0:19:16.200 who's the guy who's actually killed at the Duomo, his 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:20.960 illegitimate son. So Giulio and michel Angelo work really closely 0:19:21.000 --> 0:19:25.320 together and they have a pretty respectful give and take relationship. 0:19:25.960 --> 0:19:29.159 Um And in fifteen sixteen, michel Angelo has commissioned to 0:19:29.200 --> 0:19:33.600 design a facade for the Medici's churches of San Lorenzo, 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:37.840 and he actually builds a road to the mountains just 0:19:37.920 --> 0:19:40.960 to get marble for this facade and this design of his, 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:46.160 but the contract is annulled in fifty and angry michel Angelo. 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:48.440 I mean, he's got good reason to be angry about 0:19:48.440 --> 0:19:52.240 this stuff, but he's very upset. He ends up instead 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:56.160 working on kind of a smaller scale project for San Lorenzo, 0:19:56.280 --> 0:19:59.639 which is the Medici Chapel, designing tombs for some of 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:03.159 the Medici heirs who have died early. And the tombs 0:20:03.200 --> 0:20:06.000 have these beautiful figures of night and day and dawn 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:10.120 and dusk, and they're actually often mistaken for the tombs 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:14.320 of more illustrious family members. They're they're pretty much nobody's 0:20:14.359 --> 0:20:18.080 in the grand scheme of Medici family members, but they 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:21.800 have these lovely elaborate tunes. But we have a bit 0:20:21.880 --> 0:20:25.440 of a Medici break and interlude in power when Leo 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:29.400 the tenth died in Fife and a Dutch pope took 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:33.679 over Adrian the sixth, who's very into reform and cleaning 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:37.840 up Medici messes in general, and consequently he doesn't last 0:20:37.880 --> 0:20:40.879 too long. He was probably poisoned, and he was succeeded 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:44.800 by Cardinal Giulio de Medici, who became Clement the seventh, 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:48.520 and Clement kept his day job ruling Florence as well 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:50.879 as taking over the papacy. Yeah, just because he's pope 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:53.960 doesn't mean he's about to leave everything at home behind. Well, 0:20:53.960 --> 0:20:55.760 and this is when the people of the city realize 0:20:55.800 --> 0:20:58.840 they're owned by the papacy, and they're not happy. Yeah, 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:02.719 they have this great um history of being a republic, 0:21:02.800 --> 0:21:06.040 and now they realize what their true position is. So 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:10.439 by fifteen, Clement has gotten himself into too much trouble 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:14.040 with the Holy Roman Emperor Charles the fifth, and this 0:21:14.160 --> 0:21:18.080 results in a violent sacking of Rome in fifty seven, 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:21.919 which ends the High Renaissance, this great period of of 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:26.440 art that we we think of, you know, Michelangelo's peak, 0:21:26.800 --> 0:21:30.320 it's over. This results in the Violet Sacking of Rome, 0:21:30.440 --> 0:21:34.640 which happens in fifteen and ends the High Renaissance, and 0:21:34.760 --> 0:21:37.960 Clement is forced to flee Rome and a lot of 0:21:37.960 --> 0:21:40.840 people think, you know what, maybe this is the judgment 0:21:40.880 --> 0:21:46.439 of God on Medici. Rome Laurence definitely think so, and 0:21:46.480 --> 0:21:49.760 they take the opportunity to throw off the Medici and 0:21:49.880 --> 0:21:54.480 reinstate the Republic. But while the city is besieged, Michelangelo 0:21:54.560 --> 0:21:58.840 designed fortifications. He really understood defensive structure as well, which 0:21:58.880 --> 0:22:01.359 is interesting again to see how his talents could go 0:22:01.400 --> 0:22:04.560 across so many different areas. How I mean, he's a 0:22:04.600 --> 0:22:08.320 renaissance man to put it in a cliche, but yeah, 0:22:08.320 --> 0:22:13.040 that somebody can do um great fresco work and you know, 0:22:13.520 --> 0:22:17.840 gorgeous sculpture, sculpture and then designed fortifications. It's pretty crazy. 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:21.280 But Florence is captured again in fifteen thirty and the 0:22:21.400 --> 0:22:26.240 new Medicie government is pretty strict, and Michelangelo is actually 0:22:26.359 --> 0:22:30.200 ordered to be assassinated for helping the Republic, for helping 0:22:30.200 --> 0:22:32.919 with those fortifications and all that, and the Canon of 0:22:32.960 --> 0:22:35.280 San Lorenzo. And this is how crazy it is. It's 0:22:35.320 --> 0:22:38.920 the Medici church. The Canon of San Lorenzo hides him 0:22:39.000 --> 0:22:42.359 until the Pope, the Medici pope issues in order to 0:22:42.400 --> 0:22:44.240 spare his life so he can get back to work 0:22:44.240 --> 0:22:49.040 on the Medici chapel. It's just also twisted and tied up. 0:22:49.560 --> 0:22:52.640 And the Medici ruler at the time, Alessandro, who's the 0:22:52.680 --> 0:22:56.240 first hereditary Duke of Florence. They've they've ditched that. Oh, 0:22:56.280 --> 0:23:01.120 we're just behind the scenes running the republic thing for us. So, um, 0:23:01.119 --> 0:23:04.400 he's a pretty cruel guy. So when Clement dies and 0:23:04.480 --> 0:23:08.240 michel Angelo doesn't have that protection of the Medici Pope anymore, 0:23:08.600 --> 0:23:11.639 he gets out of Florence. He's worried for his life. 0:23:12.200 --> 0:23:14.760 So he leaves Florence for Rome for the last time 0:23:14.800 --> 0:23:18.360 in fifteen thirty four, hoping to return someday. But this 0:23:18.480 --> 0:23:22.200 is the point in his life where he starts contemplating 0:23:22.280 --> 0:23:24.520