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Let no one be surprised that I do now
describe the life of Michelangelo,
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given that he is living still...
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because his immortal works
shall never die,
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his fame shall last for as long
as the world exists...
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His name shall live on in the mouths
of men and the quills of writers:
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despite the envy,
despite even death itself.
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I have had my whole life to understand...
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that stone cannot be bent
to the will of man,
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but...
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it must be denuded of all
that oppresses it.
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This marble resists,
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it rebels.
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Often, it rejects you.
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At times, it's indulgent.
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Just like this life.
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MICHELANGELO
ENDLESS
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Giorgio Vasari, born in Arezzo
in the year 1511
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painter, architect, writer on art.
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I am first of all, the first to have gone
beyond narrating simply
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what happened in the Lives of the most
excellent painters, sculptors
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and architects in Italy, from Cimabue
to my own day.
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I have claimed the right to judge,
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choosing the best over the merely good,
and the excellent over the best.
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I have noted down the approaches,
attitudes, manners...
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the lines and imaginings of these artists.
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I have investigated the causes and roots
of evolution in all of the arts.
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The greatest of the infinite felicities
for which I praise God,
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is the fortune of getting to know
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the great Michelangelo Buonarroti...
a Florentine.
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Of being a familiar and a friend.
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This is why I have written so many things
about him: all of them true.
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He was born on 6th of March,
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in the year 1475.
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From his earliest years, he would sketch
on paper, on the walls...
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Noting this, his father Ludovico decided
to send him to study
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at the workshop of master
Domenico Ghirlandaio,
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so that he could learn the admirable
and valuable art of painting.
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'Ere long, Ghirlandaio became aware
of this talent,
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out of the ordinary despite
his tender years, one day exclaiming,
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"This boy knows more than me".
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And Michelangelo was just thirteen.
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And so Ghirlandaio entrusted him
to the cares of Bertoldo,
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a disciple of the great Donatello,
at the Gardens of San Marco,
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where Lorenzo de' Medici
had set up a school
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for young painters and sculptors
of talent.
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I yearned for art more heroic
than painting.
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I liked getting my hands dirty.
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When I was a young 'un, I was sent to
wet-nurse at a family of stone-cutters.
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My nourishment: marble powder
mixed in with the milk.
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And when Lorenzo the Magnificent
called me to him
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and put me to the test with this stone,
I was able to show him my mettle.
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What did he say, the Magnifico?
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"You should know by now that oldsters
ne'er have all their teeth,
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there's always one or two gone!"
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I didn't think twice to make good
on his advice:
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that faun became old and toothless.
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Perhaps they appreciated my courage,
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before that sculpted head ever arrived
to be seen at Palazzo Medici,
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where I met the greatest thinkers
of my time,
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who gave me faith and guidance
in my works to come.
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I immediately set to work on a Madonna
with young child,
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imitating a technique of Donatello's.
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Engraved using Donatello's
"stiacciato" technique,
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the Madonna of the Stairs,
today at Casa Buonarroti in Florence,
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was Michelangelo's first work
to earn him notoriety.
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A very low relief, not much bigger
than a newspaper page,
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in which his scalpel barely grazes
the surface of the stone
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to create almost imperceptible volumes
and a wondrous sensation of space.
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Absorbed, imperturbable as a goddess
from the classical age,
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the Virgin Mary is wrapped in soft,
flowing drapery.
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Portrayed from behind, the Infant seems
totally abandoned to his mother's embrace,
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albeit with the physique
of a Hercules at rest.
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This bold perspective view of the symbolic
stairway cohabits with the presence
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of a simple marble cube on which
the Sacred Group sits:
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this perfect three-dimensional solid is
an extremely early sign of the passion
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for pure materials apparent in all
Michelangelo's art.
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Then one day, the chance to present
il Magnifico all of my appreciation.
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It was when Angelo Poliziano,
who thought of me highly,
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challenged me to try my hand
with Centaurs in battle.
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I was to gift it to Lorenzo de Medici,
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showing my fellows who I was,
the most skilful of all.
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A violent battle, bodies and limbs
entwined in a clash among nude figures,
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filling every corner of a scene
without the least hint of chaos...
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Michelangelo's Battle of the Centaurs,
housed today at Casa Buonarroti.
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In the centre, one figure looms
above all others,
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standing apart with the authority
of a proudly-raised right arm.
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Fifty years later, Michelangelo
would reprise this gesture
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for the Christ of his Last Judgement.
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I was no good at keeping my mouth shut.
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All too often I blurted out what
I thought of my fellow-students' art.
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I already knew it wasn't of my standard.
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Whether it was for my teasing words,
my presumption perhaps even jealousy
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that the Magnifico thought so well of me,
that young Torrigiano,
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a pupil like myself at Bertoldo's school,
punched me square in the face.
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This muzzle, this deformed nose
that he gave me,
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remains his best-known work.
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After three days
of tempestuous weather, lightning,
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a thunderous omen,
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il Magnifico, protector, benefactor,
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ideal father figure, expired.
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Michelangelo, now without his patron,
felt he was lost.
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He sought help and protection
from the Prior
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at the convent of Santo Spirito, which
was also a hospital. And there...
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the young Michelangelo started skinning
cadavers to study human anatomy:
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ligaments, bone structure,
muscles, the veins.
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Long nights spent in dim light allowed
him to perfect his line,
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typical of his later years...
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At just twenty, I had the ultimate
mystery of death in my hands.
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At just twenty.
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After - and for the rest of my life -
I believed I could beat death with art.
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I was wrong...
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I owe even more to a Cardinal,
Monsignor Raffaele Riario,
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who after buying one of my Cupids
I made to look like it was ancient,
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invited me to his home.
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When I saw Rome that first time,
I realized why they call it eternal.
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What magnificence, what ancient marble!
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His challenge:
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"Can you make something, my boy,
to make something of quite such beauty?"
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"Give me the time and I'll show you
what I can do."
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And with a block of marble bought
for little money in the streets of Rome,
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I made Bacchus.
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The Pagan god of joy and happiness,
conserved at the Bargello Museum,
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was Michelangelo's great leap forward,
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his first time ever making
a large-scale work.
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A young nude, his body soft and sensual,
drunk on wine and pleasure,
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his gaze lost in the distance,
barely able to keep hold of his goblet...
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Meanwhile, a small satyr,
lost in Dionysian ecstasy,
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plunges his smiling face into a bunch of
grapes purloined from the inattentive god.
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When I showed it to Cardinal Riario,
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he was unable to comprehend the vitality
I had managed to infuse into the stone,
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or that this Bacchus would have
lived longer
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than any other body that made
of human flesh and blood.
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I found myself in Rome, alone,
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with no clients and no money
to send home to my father,
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who hoped, thanks to my work
to pull the family
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out of the poverty of those years
of great difficulty.
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It was only thanks to Jacopo Galli,
a dear true and lifelong friend
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that I did not lose confidence,
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that I did not decide to slink back
to Florence, a loser.
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Jacopo had good contacts at court
with the Pope,
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with the delegation
of Charles VIII, King of France.
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"And I, Iacobo Gallo, promise
the Most Reverend Monsignor
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that the said Michelangelo shall
undertake the work infra one year,
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and it shall be the most gorgeous work
in marble there is today in Rome".
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When I read the contract which Jacopo,
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from faith in and love for me signed
with the Cardinal,
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I was moved... and afraid because...
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the time was tight
and my ambition immense.
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No longer did I have to make do
with leftover blocks of marble.
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As soon as I was commissioned
to make a Pietà,
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I left for Carrara. When I got there...
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What a spectacle, those walls,
glinting in the light of the sun!
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I had never seen this much white in stone.
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The most beautiful marble in the world,
since time immemorial and forever.
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I took days to choose
the purest materials.
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Made by God and just for me it seemed,
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for my hands to turn into eternal works.
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On the road on the way back to Rome,
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my mind filled with those great words
of Dante's,
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when in Paradise he turns to the Madonna:
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"Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son,
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Humble and high beyond all creatures".
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It all become clear to me...
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And I set to making my Pietà.
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Before this work, no sculptor
ever imbued marble
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with more grace and refinement
than what Michelangelo achieved,
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at the tender age of twenty-four;
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the full value and power of art
is evident in this Pietà.
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The beauteous details... the divine
clothes in which the virgin is draped...
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beyond them, Christ, dead and naked.
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Such expertise in the muscles, veins,
the tendons taut over the bones,
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his wrists, the joints between the body,
arms and legs.
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Although some say that he fashioned
Our Lady too young,
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they fail to consider
that uncontaminated virgins
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maintain and conserve
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a lightness in their lineaments for
a long time, free of all blemish.
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People marvel that the hand of a man
could create in such a short time
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a thing so admirable and divine.
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Simply, a miracle that a rock,
initially so totally formless,
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can have been crafted to this perfection,
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beyond what nature can achieve
in bodily flesh.
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So great was Michelangelo's love for
this work that he carved his name
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above the girdle around Our Lady's
breast. Here alone, and nevermore.
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Why did I sign it?
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Because of the rumour around
that my Pietà was the work
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of a sculptor from Lombardy,
a certain Cristoforo Solari.
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All of that exertion! How could I allow
another man to benefit?
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Then, after, I never had to sign
a thing again.
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I could have returned to my father,
with honour and dignity.
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My friends called me to Florence
to add lustre
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to the Republic of Gonfaloniere
Pier Soderini.
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Such nourishment for my ambition!
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Michelangelo was the first to think
that sculpture is an art achieved
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by removing all material
that is superfluous.
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One where the Maker reduces it to
the form that it took in his mind's eye.
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He found it in the workshops of the
Opera del Duomo, a block of marble
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that was big enough, already worked
by two artists who had thinned it,
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hacked at it, then left it abandoned.
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At Santa Maria del Fiore, this is how
Michelangelo slaved away for three years,
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hidden from view, by day and by night,
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trying to resuscitate someone
who was believed to be dead.
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And it came to pass that the work really
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did suck the breath from all of
the statues ancient and modern,
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Greek, Latin, whatever they were.
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He who beholds it need not concern
themselves with seeing
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00:23:08,560 --> 00:23:11,280
any other works of sculpture
made in this day
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or in the time of any other creator.
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The most incredible thing about
this gigantic work is,
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put simply, the challenge.
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A heroic and athletic young man
with a lean physique
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immortalized in the moment before hurling
a rock at the cruel philistine giant
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who had been terrorizing
the people of Israel.
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His legs ready to spring, muscles tense,
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veins in relief,
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a proud expression on his face,
they all highlight this vital moment:
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the peak of concentration
that precedes action.
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Pier Soderini fell in love with this
statue, which rises more than 5 metres,
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before it was even finished.
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He appointed a committee of the greatest
artists of the day,
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including Leonardo and Botticelli,
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to find the ideal spot for such
an extraordinary work.
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Moving it from Florence Cathedral
to Piazza della Signoria
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was a heroic undertaking:
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00:25:55,160 --> 00:26:00,040
swinging from a rudimentary crane,
secured with ropes and pulleys,
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00:26:00,120 --> 00:26:06,400
it took more than forty men four days
to haul it to its final destination,
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right outside Palazzo Vecchio.
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In the late 1800s, David was moved once
again, to the Galleria dell'Accademia.
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It remains there to this day,
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the eternal symbol
of the City of Florence.
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David with his catapult,
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me a bow drill.
232
00:26:49,320 --> 00:26:52,280
With a simple catapult,
David defeated Goliath.
233
00:26:53,280 --> 00:26:57,320
I felt just like David,
powerful and proud.
234
00:26:58,160 --> 00:26:59,960
I had risen to my challenge:
235
00:27:01,120 --> 00:27:05,640
with my bare hands and a bow drill,
236
00:27:08,320 --> 00:27:10,840
I extracted eternal life
from living marble.
237
00:27:14,280 --> 00:27:15,720
To think, my David...
238
00:27:17,320 --> 00:27:19,880
took the spot occupied
by Donatello's Judith!
239
00:27:59,720 --> 00:28:03,840
Do you now see why they've always
called him the "giant"?
240
00:28:23,760 --> 00:28:27,920
Messer Agnolo Doni, a cloth merchant
of great wealth,
241
00:28:28,360 --> 00:28:31,560
was very keen to own a work
of Michelangelo's,
242
00:28:31,640 --> 00:28:34,680
so he commissioned a tondo on panel,
243
00:28:34,760 --> 00:28:39,960
in which Our Lady, kneeling down,
holds the Infant out to Joseph
244
00:28:40,040 --> 00:28:44,640
who with great love, tenderness and
reverence takes him into his arms.
245
00:28:45,240 --> 00:28:48,600
Once the work was finished, Michelangelo
asked him seventy ducats.
246
00:28:51,760 --> 00:28:54,680
Agnolo Doni, a man of some savvy,
247
00:28:54,760 --> 00:28:59,320
thought the cost
too high for a simple painting...
248
00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:06,720
so he offered to pay forty ducats for it.
249
00:29:09,920 --> 00:29:13,360
Instead, Michelangelo claimed
a hundred ducats.
250
00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:18,160
Well, Agnolo Doni, who liked the work,
251
00:29:18,800 --> 00:29:22,680
said he'd give him the seventy
that he'd initially asked for.
252
00:29:24,360 --> 00:29:27,320
Michelangelo was not at all happy.
253
00:29:27,400 --> 00:29:32,480
Indeed, believing that Agnolo Doni
lacked faith in his art,
254
00:29:32,560 --> 00:29:34,280
he went and doubled the price.
255
00:29:34,600 --> 00:29:38,080
A hundred and forty ducats,
or the whole deal was cancelled.
256
00:29:47,920 --> 00:29:52,320
In the end, desiring that tondo
at all costs, Agnolo Doni
257
00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:56,120
was forced to cough up the price
he was asking.
258
00:30:24,960 --> 00:30:28,160
The Doni Tondo,
housed at the Uffizi Gallery,
259
00:30:28,240 --> 00:30:32,240
is the only work we know for certain
Michelangelo painted on wooden panel.
260
00:30:34,840 --> 00:30:38,120
The Holy Family is an ancient,
recurrent motif.
261
00:30:38,560 --> 00:30:41,760
Here, Michelangelo crafted it
as if he were sculpting.
262
00:30:41,840 --> 00:30:44,760
He used clear, shimmering, intense colours
263
00:30:44,840 --> 00:30:47,800
to create an effect that leaves us
slightly uneasy,
264
00:30:48,160 --> 00:30:51,000
a far cry from the traditional
tranquillity of such scenes.
265
00:30:53,840 --> 00:30:59,560
Michelangelo was well-schooled in the
symbols so important to Florentine nobles.
266
00:31:00,360 --> 00:31:03,400
In this composition, he seems
to have drawn inspiration
267
00:31:03,480 --> 00:31:06,120
from Saint Paul's epistle
to the Ephesians.
268
00:31:07,440 --> 00:31:12,600
The low yet impassable wall therefore
represents original sin,
269
00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:16,200
separating the Christ Child
from the small Baptist
270
00:31:16,280 --> 00:31:20,440
and young nude figures who are pulling
their garments off.
271
00:31:20,920 --> 00:31:26,760
As Christians, they can be free at last
from sin, stripping away their sins,
272
00:31:26,840 --> 00:31:29,040
they become new men.
273
00:31:36,080 --> 00:31:40,800
The wondrous yet unfinished Pitti Tondo,
today at the Bargello Museum,
274
00:31:41,960 --> 00:31:44,240
depicts another Holy Family.
275
00:31:46,960 --> 00:31:50,720
Here, Michelangelo chose a classical
composition in which,
276
00:31:50,800 --> 00:31:55,880
impassive as a Hellenic Queen, the Virgin
is distracted from her reading
277
00:31:56,480 --> 00:31:58,720
by the Infant beside her.
278
00:32:03,840 --> 00:32:05,280
I have always thought,
279
00:32:06,600 --> 00:32:10,440
the closer a painting resembles a relief,
the more successful it becomes.
280
00:32:12,840 --> 00:32:15,600
A brief period of peace, calm,
and easing off,
281
00:32:16,480 --> 00:32:18,840
something I no longer had in my life.
282
00:32:21,160 --> 00:32:23,000
But ambition never stops gnawing,
283
00:32:23,720 --> 00:32:26,120
it brooks no peace or happiness at all.
284
00:32:28,400 --> 00:32:32,280
Gonfaloniere Pier Soderini asked me
to paint frescoes along one wall
285
00:32:32,360 --> 00:32:35,960
of the Sala del Maggior Consiglio,
at Palazzo dei Signori.
286
00:32:38,040 --> 00:32:41,240
On the other wall, none other
than Leonardo Da Vinci.
287
00:32:42,960 --> 00:32:44,760
How could I resist the challenge...?
288
00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:55,760
I began by working on the cartoons
in complete secret.
289
00:32:55,840 --> 00:33:00,200
I drew the preparatory cartoon
for my Battle of Cascina,
290
00:33:01,240 --> 00:33:04,360
the same size as the scene
I wanted to depict.
291
00:33:24,960 --> 00:33:27,480
When Michelangelo's drawing
became public knowledge,
292
00:33:27,560 --> 00:33:29,200
it attracted immense admiration.
293
00:33:29,800 --> 00:33:31,840
Artists flocked to see it from
all over Europe,
294
00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:34,640
a practice usually reserved
for the casts of statues.
295
00:33:34,720 --> 00:33:39,000
They came to touch it, copy it and,
in the end, pilfer pieces of it
296
00:33:39,080 --> 00:33:40,760
as if it were a holy relic.
297
00:33:42,080 --> 00:33:46,200
Before a few decades were out,
there was nothing left of the cartoon...
298
00:33:46,280 --> 00:33:47,560
And the legend was born.
299
00:33:53,520 --> 00:33:58,200
However, a copy of the central portion,
made by Aristotile da Sangallo,
300
00:33:58,280 --> 00:34:02,600
has survived, preserving
at least a recollection.
301
00:34:07,040 --> 00:34:12,440
The tangle of naked bodies, frozen in
the moment just before battle is joined,
302
00:34:13,080 --> 00:34:17,240
is merely a pretext for the artist to
show off what he is really interested in:
303
00:34:18,600 --> 00:34:20,760
the heroics of the ideal body.
304
00:34:34,880 --> 00:34:36,920
I never did finish that fresco.
305
00:34:38,440 --> 00:34:41,920
My one consolation, that Leonardo
had to give up too.
306
00:34:43,040 --> 00:34:46,600
His usual malaise of trying out
new techniques,
307
00:34:47,360 --> 00:34:50,600
he wound up making a huge mess up
of wax and oils,
308
00:34:51,240 --> 00:34:53,160
the whole thing gone to pot.
309
00:34:54,280 --> 00:34:57,520
By now, my name was being
mentioned in palaces
310
00:34:57,600 --> 00:35:00,320
across Europe with reverence and respect.
311
00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:04,280
Even Pope Julius II wanted me
to make him something,
312
00:35:04,360 --> 00:35:05,920
to aggrandize himself.
313
00:35:08,760 --> 00:35:13,800
Such was the renown of Michelangelo
after his Pietà, the giant of Florence
314
00:35:13,880 --> 00:35:16,360
and the cartoon for the Battle of Cascina,
315
00:35:16,440 --> 00:35:18,600
that Julius II, now the pontiff,
316
00:35:18,680 --> 00:35:24,320
commissioned him to make his burial
monument, which in beauty,
317
00:35:24,400 --> 00:35:29,960
creativity and hauteur exceeded any other
ancient imperial burial.
318
00:36:05,800 --> 00:36:08,200
I spent eight months in Carrara,
319
00:36:08,280 --> 00:36:10,360
excavating that marble from the mountain.
320
00:36:14,440 --> 00:36:18,400
Cutting the stone,
choosing the crucial point,
321
00:36:18,960 --> 00:36:22,280
eliminating veins that made
the marble graceless...
322
00:36:23,440 --> 00:36:28,520
I almost went mad, not being able
to exercise my hands with a chisel.
323
00:36:28,600 --> 00:36:32,960
One day I found myself at the top
of the mountain, thinking,
324
00:36:33,040 --> 00:36:36,800
"I'll sculpt this, this whole thing,
325
00:36:42,480 --> 00:36:46,680
so that they'll be able to know what
I'm capable of from the coast!"
326
00:37:33,120 --> 00:37:36,800
Julius II's tomb was, for Michelangelo,
conceived as
327
00:37:36,880 --> 00:37:39,680
a veritable "mountain of marble",
328
00:37:40,320 --> 00:37:44,840
a magnificent free-standing
three-dimensional structure
329
00:37:44,920 --> 00:37:48,840
surrounded by a forest
of larger-than-life statues.
330
00:37:50,720 --> 00:37:56,440
What, in his mind's eyes, should
have been his finest artistic triumph
331
00:37:56,520 --> 00:38:02,400
ended up becoming the "tomb tragedy".
Started in 1505,
332
00:38:02,480 --> 00:38:05,360
it would not see the light of day
until forty years later,
333
00:38:05,440 --> 00:38:09,800
in a vastly reduced version compared
to the initial plan.
334
00:38:14,480 --> 00:38:18,840
Pursuing this obsession with almost
superhuman energy, the artist
335
00:38:18,920 --> 00:38:23,320
left us the greatest example of what
modern critics refer to as
336
00:38:23,400 --> 00:38:25,920
Michelangelo's "un-finished works".
337
00:38:33,080 --> 00:38:36,080
There is no other way to define
the Prisoners,
338
00:38:36,160 --> 00:38:40,240
which jut out of the marble,
exposed and raw...
339
00:38:43,520 --> 00:38:47,680
The stone itself imprisons
the chained-up slaves,
340
00:38:48,400 --> 00:38:52,040
immortalized in the twists
of classical statuary.
341
00:40:27,920 --> 00:40:32,280
Michelangelo's Moses, made to decorate
Julius II's tomb,
342
00:40:32,800 --> 00:40:34,480
is the true masterpiece of this work.
343
00:40:36,520 --> 00:40:42,400
The ancient patriarch's face is an ideal
portrait of Pope Julius II,
344
00:40:42,480 --> 00:40:44,440
who was known for his "terribleness".
345
00:40:44,680 --> 00:40:48,600
He is portrayed here in a pose that is
both vigilant and pensive.
346
00:40:50,160 --> 00:40:55,480
Sculpted at twice natural size, almost
thirty years elapsed before Moses
347
00:40:55,560 --> 00:40:59,520
was finally placed in the Basilica
of San Pietro in Vincoli.
348
00:41:02,360 --> 00:41:05,280
It is said that to make the most
of the statue's face,
349
00:41:05,360 --> 00:41:07,720
vibrant with life and energy,
350
00:41:07,800 --> 00:41:10,840
Michelangelo oriented the head towards
the natural light
351
00:41:10,920 --> 00:41:13,880
that enters through a small window
in the basilica.
352
00:41:15,480 --> 00:41:19,520
A prodigious touch that puts the seal
on an immense work.
353
00:41:30,760 --> 00:41:34,120
That Moses seemed so... so well-crafted
354
00:41:34,200 --> 00:41:37,360
that it was almost strange he was bereft
of his own intellect.
355
00:41:39,520 --> 00:41:43,520
When I believed I'd found the inspiration
I'd sought my entire life...
356
00:41:45,760 --> 00:41:47,600
What a huge blow to me...
357
00:41:49,520 --> 00:41:50,880
Julius II
358
00:41:52,960 --> 00:41:54,880
snatched the chisel from my hand.
359
00:42:01,600 --> 00:42:06,200
The blame lies with Bramante,
a great old friend of Raphael's,
360
00:42:06,600 --> 00:42:09,440
who, having seen the Pope far
too enamoured
361
00:42:09,520 --> 00:42:12,120
of Michelangelo's expertise with marble,
362
00:42:12,200 --> 00:42:15,720
convinced Julius II that it was
tempting fate,
363
00:42:15,800 --> 00:42:18,800
erecting a tomb while he was still alive.
364
00:42:19,320 --> 00:42:23,600
He persuaded him therefore to suspend
this magnificent project.
365
00:42:26,240 --> 00:42:30,680
And given that Michelangelo was
no expert in painting frescoes,
366
00:42:31,200 --> 00:42:35,600
wishing to make things more difficult
still, he invited the Pope
367
00:42:35,680 --> 00:42:39,920
to commission him to decorate
the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
368
00:42:44,640 --> 00:42:48,680
Pope Julius II had commissioned
from Raphael School of Athens.
369
00:42:49,680 --> 00:42:51,440
For his private apartment.
370
00:42:57,640 --> 00:43:03,080
Raffaello, he had... depicted me
as Heraclitus,
371
00:43:05,360 --> 00:43:08,960
the philosopher with thoughts deep
as a Delian diver.
372
00:43:21,640 --> 00:43:25,440
I was commissioned to make
a truly vast fresco.
373
00:43:28,840 --> 00:43:33,080
Raffaello, provoking me.
I was forced to respond,
374
00:43:33,680 --> 00:43:36,800
I had to compete with him in his own art,
compete and win.
375
00:43:38,200 --> 00:43:42,480
I was to give those painted figures all
that marble had taught me.
376
00:43:42,560 --> 00:43:45,600
I was to fill that ceiling with bodies
and tendons and muscles,
377
00:43:45,680 --> 00:43:50,440
of a size that the whole world
would call a miracle.
378
00:43:52,720 --> 00:43:55,000
And I began by blotting out...
379
00:43:56,640 --> 00:44:00,200
that blue sky and its gilded stars.
380
00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:07,600
Then, I took down the scaffolding
Bramante had built,
381
00:44:07,680 --> 00:44:09,320
which went into the ceiling.
382
00:44:09,400 --> 00:44:12,520
I had another one built to my own design.
383
00:44:13,160 --> 00:44:16,920
I brought some friends down from
Florence, who alas made a mess up
384
00:44:17,000 --> 00:44:20,840
with the paints and were unable
to translate my fantasies.
385
00:44:21,640 --> 00:44:27,800
I sent them away, plunged into
depression, but I had to keep going...
386
00:44:27,880 --> 00:44:32,160
I had to triumph over Raphael...
over myself.
387
00:44:33,800 --> 00:44:37,640
And so, I did it all. I, alone.
388
00:45:16,360 --> 00:45:21,160
I found no satisfaction in what
I was doing. I couldn't see the end.
389
00:45:23,520 --> 00:45:27,040
It is so difficult to detach oneself
from one's own work...
390
00:45:33,120 --> 00:45:39,560
Jealous and preoccupied, I let no one see
the results of my toils.
391
00:45:40,440 --> 00:45:41,800
Not even the Pope.
392
00:46:06,520 --> 00:46:09,120
I remain in far-off fantasies,
393
00:46:09,200 --> 00:46:14,040
my work is not going how it deserves,
it seems to me.
394
00:46:16,120 --> 00:46:22,720
Ah, the difficulty of this work, one that
is still not my profession.
395
00:46:24,200 --> 00:46:27,520
And despite lavishing so much time,
no fruits do I see.
396
00:46:31,000 --> 00:46:32,440
May god help me.
397
00:46:43,440 --> 00:46:50,040
It is 1508. For the first time
in history, a Pope decides to give
398
00:46:50,120 --> 00:46:55,560
an artist "carte blanche" to decorate
the ceiling of a papal chapel.
399
00:46:57,600 --> 00:47:02,240
At 33 years of age, Michelangelo
is in the prime of his artistic powers.
400
00:47:02,560 --> 00:47:07,720
He brooks no form of simplification as
he prepares to take on this titanic task.
401
00:47:09,480 --> 00:47:14,320
A thousand square metres more or less,
practically every available space
402
00:47:14,400 --> 00:47:16,680
covered in a riot of human bodies:
403
00:47:19,000 --> 00:47:24,400
frowning, resigned, tense,
404
00:47:25,240 --> 00:47:26,640
frenetic...
405
00:47:30,840 --> 00:47:36,000
Framed within a visionary architecture
in which Michelangelo wilfully ignores
406
00:47:36,080 --> 00:47:41,760
all Renaissance rules of perspective,
proportion and verisimilitude.
407
00:47:43,880 --> 00:47:48,520
Rather than concealing pillars,
arches and cornices,
408
00:47:49,480 --> 00:47:52,480
he uses them to amplify the curvature
of the ceiling.
409
00:47:53,800 --> 00:47:57,920
The paints seem to have been mixed
not with lime but with light.
410
00:47:59,520 --> 00:48:04,320
He wielded his brushstrokes on
the plaster like a chisel on marble.
411
00:48:11,720 --> 00:48:16,120
Prophets and Sibyls dominate
the ceiling's surface,
412
00:48:16,200 --> 00:48:17,960
larger than all of the other characters.
413
00:48:18,960 --> 00:48:22,440
They seem to flow out
of the architectural context,
414
00:48:22,520 --> 00:48:27,960
clinging precariously to their thrones,
hanging perilously over the void.
415
00:48:30,160 --> 00:48:34,000
They announce the coming of Christ
with muscular movements
416
00:48:34,080 --> 00:48:35,600
and powerfully-twisting bodies.
417
00:48:38,880 --> 00:48:41,880
Their faces and expressions are severe,
418
00:48:43,040 --> 00:48:44,320
pensive...
419
00:48:46,520 --> 00:48:47,760
surprised.
420
00:48:52,160 --> 00:48:56,720
What they have announced,
inspired by the Lord,
421
00:48:58,280 --> 00:49:03,240
is coming to pass in the scenes
painted around them.
422
00:49:24,560 --> 00:49:29,000
The nine scenes in the central panels
tell the stories
423
00:49:29,080 --> 00:49:32,480
of the Book of Genesis
in chronological order:
424
00:49:33,240 --> 00:49:37,720
the Origins of the Universe, of Mankind
and of Sin.
425
00:49:50,760 --> 00:49:55,480
God sunders the light from the darkness,
marking the start of the world.
426
00:49:59,080 --> 00:50:02,720
He creates the stars and the planets,
suspended in space.
427
00:50:05,080 --> 00:50:08,800
The supreme architect, he prepares matter
428
00:50:09,400 --> 00:50:11,680
by dividing land from water.
429
00:50:25,680 --> 00:50:31,920
In the Creation of Eve, the woman emerges
from one of Adam's ribs as he sleeps.
430
00:50:32,440 --> 00:50:36,240
God beckons her, inviting her to rise.
431
00:50:40,160 --> 00:50:45,280
In the Original Sin, a fig tree forever
changes the fate of humankind.
432
00:50:46,200 --> 00:50:50,880
Entwined in its branches, the two-faced
snake, the devil of temptation,
433
00:50:50,960 --> 00:50:54,680
while Archangel Michael,
holding his sword of justice,
434
00:50:54,760 --> 00:50:57,800
runs Adam and Eve out of Earthly Paradise.
435
00:50:58,760 --> 00:51:02,920
Guilt takes form in the shocking
transfiguration of the first woman
436
00:51:03,000 --> 00:51:07,560
and the first man, becoming grotesque
caricatures deformed by sin.
437
00:51:09,400 --> 00:51:13,600
In the Flood, groups of the naked flee
the thunderous waters
438
00:51:13,680 --> 00:51:15,360
and the wrath of God.
439
00:51:16,400 --> 00:51:20,000
Terrified yet resigned to what will come,
440
00:51:20,400 --> 00:51:24,040
they strive to save themselves
and their loved ones.
441
00:51:59,640 --> 00:52:04,560
However, the ceiling's most extraordinary
fresco of all is the Creation of Adam.
442
00:52:05,280 --> 00:52:08,360
As an image, it is both primordial
and incredibly powerful.
443
00:52:11,840 --> 00:52:17,960
With vigour and elegance, the Creator
leans out into the infinity of space
444
00:52:18,040 --> 00:52:20,800
to bestow life upon the first man.
445
00:52:22,280 --> 00:52:27,120
Adam's beautiful body,
"in the image of and resembling God",
446
00:52:27,200 --> 00:52:30,320
is a concentration of all the gifts
of creation.
447
00:52:34,520 --> 00:52:36,240
The spark of Life
448
00:52:36,560 --> 00:52:40,400
that is about to crackle from the hand
of God to Adam's finger...
449
00:52:41,640 --> 00:52:46,680
Hands outstretched towards one another
without ever truly managing to touch...
450
00:52:48,000 --> 00:52:52,120
Analogous to the extreme tension
man feels as he tries to reach God.
451
00:52:53,160 --> 00:52:59,760
It is as if, in that infinitesimal space
between the two index fingers,
452
00:53:00,640 --> 00:53:02,480
Michelangelo attempts to define his art:
453
00:53:04,400 --> 00:53:08,600
that unbridgeable gap between
the human and the divine.
454
00:53:27,440 --> 00:53:30,680
There was a commission during that period
that would not let me be.
455
00:53:33,480 --> 00:53:34,880
An entombment.
456
00:53:35,960 --> 00:53:37,720
Like that of Julius II.
457
00:53:40,320 --> 00:53:42,440
It all brought me back to death,
458
00:53:44,320 --> 00:53:46,560
that enemy to fear and to challenge.
459
00:53:47,560 --> 00:53:48,560
But also,
460
00:53:53,440 --> 00:53:56,160
finally the end of our toil in this world.
461
00:54:24,560 --> 00:54:28,520
Leo X was elected Pope in 1513.
462
00:54:28,600 --> 00:54:32,640
The son of Lorenzo the Magnificent,
he commissioned Michelangelo
463
00:54:32,720 --> 00:54:35,760
to erect a temple in the Basilica
of San Lorenzo
464
00:54:35,840 --> 00:54:39,520
to bestow eternity upon the Medici family.
465
00:54:43,840 --> 00:54:48,000
Michelangelo created a place
of great spirituality
466
00:54:48,560 --> 00:54:53,600
in which - by a quirk of fate -
the one thing he failed to complete
467
00:54:53,680 --> 00:54:57,640
was the sarcophagus of his patron,
Lorenzo the Magnificent.
468
00:55:03,640 --> 00:55:08,560
Sculptures representing the four phases
of the day recline on the sarcophagi,
469
00:55:09,080 --> 00:55:11,680
transformed into beds, crowned by statues
470
00:55:12,040 --> 00:55:16,240
of Dukes Giuliano di Nemours
and Lorenzo di Urbino.
471
00:55:19,720 --> 00:55:23,960
They allude to the passage of time
on this Earthly coil.
472
00:55:24,560 --> 00:55:28,960
They also refer to an age of eternity
and salvation.
473
00:55:32,560 --> 00:55:37,520
Night sleeps deeply,
beyond consciousness or memory;
474
00:55:38,960 --> 00:55:45,960
Day shows off his powerful anatomy
in a twisting motion.
475
00:55:55,960 --> 00:55:59,520
Dusk appears resigned to eternal torpor.
476
00:56:00,920 --> 00:56:05,040
Dawn raises herself on a bed of feathers,
477
00:56:05,120 --> 00:56:09,760
twisting in grief at the death
of the young Medicis.
478
00:56:31,640 --> 00:56:37,320
"Midway along this path of our life
I found myself in a dark forest
479
00:56:38,400 --> 00:56:41,600
The pathway now astray".
480
00:57:14,440 --> 00:57:17,640
Florence was being ripped apart
by in-fighting.
481
00:57:18,400 --> 00:57:21,160
Faced with the choice of siding
with the Medici or the Repubblica,
482
00:57:21,240 --> 00:57:23,080
Michelangelo chose the Republic.
483
00:57:28,560 --> 00:57:34,000
In the summer of 1530, to avoid arrest
and the risk of being put to death,
484
00:57:34,720 --> 00:57:38,200
Michelangelo was forced into hiding,
in fact, beneath the tomb
485
00:57:38,280 --> 00:57:41,960
commissioned by the very man who now
wanted to punish him
486
00:57:42,040 --> 00:57:43,360
for his political leanings,
487
00:57:45,560 --> 00:57:49,720
in a secret chamber beneath
the Basilica of San Lorenzo.
488
00:57:59,920 --> 00:58:04,080
In that dramatic moment, Michelangelo
sketched away neurotically
489
00:58:04,160 --> 00:58:07,720
with a stick of charcoal:
figures floating in mid-air,
490
00:58:08,440 --> 00:58:11,200
including the head of the legendary
Laocoön,
491
00:58:11,800 --> 00:58:14,400
something that had inspired him greatly
in the past.
492
00:58:32,360 --> 00:58:36,040
These quick sketches, hastily made,
493
00:58:38,920 --> 00:58:42,600
indicate that perhaps he only spent
a short time in this refuge.
494
00:58:50,720 --> 00:58:55,600
The graffiti was discovered in 1975,
495
00:58:55,680 --> 00:58:59,800
in a room that had been used
to store firewood.
496
00:59:00,560 --> 00:59:05,200
Laid centuries earlier, the plaster
preserved these precious drawings,
497
00:59:05,880 --> 00:59:09,520
which rank among the most fascinating
modern-day discoveries
498
00:59:09,600 --> 00:59:11,160
of this master's works.
499
00:59:46,360 --> 00:59:50,280
"And so once more to see
the light of the stars."
500
01:00:08,080 --> 01:00:12,080
Aged early by all the hard toil
in my life.
501
01:00:13,840 --> 01:00:15,320
Unhappy always,
502
01:00:16,040 --> 01:00:20,040
for all the things I was unable to finish
the way I saw them in my mind.
503
01:00:21,080 --> 01:00:22,280
Suffering...
504
01:00:23,480 --> 01:00:27,600
for the money I didn't spend and that
never seemed to be enough.
505
01:00:29,320 --> 01:00:32,920
I became sure the moment had come
to meet with my Maker...
506
01:00:33,920 --> 01:00:34,920
then he...
507
01:00:38,160 --> 01:00:39,560
blessed me with love.
508
01:00:43,800 --> 01:00:47,080
"How can it be that me is
no longer my own?
509
01:00:48,560 --> 01:00:51,640
O God, God, God,
510
01:00:52,920 --> 01:00:56,520
what is this Love that goes
from eye to heart,
511
01:00:57,480 --> 01:01:02,600
filling the tightest space until it grows
and floods out?"
512
01:01:05,160 --> 01:01:08,880
God gave me love in the form
of a gentleman and a Madonna.
513
01:01:09,440 --> 01:01:14,040
He, as handsome as David; the other,
as noble and pure as the Virgin.
514
01:01:15,880 --> 01:01:17,720
Tommaso filled my eyes;
515
01:01:19,560 --> 01:01:21,120
Vittoria, my very soul.
516
01:01:31,440 --> 01:01:35,760
Infinitely more than all, he loved
Messer Tommaso de' Cavalieri,
517
01:01:36,240 --> 01:01:39,400
a gentleman of Rome, who though young
loved the arts.
518
01:01:40,200 --> 01:01:43,640
And Michelangelo gave him
beauteous drawings
519
01:01:43,720 --> 01:01:47,320
of divine heads in black and red pencil...
520
01:01:47,400 --> 01:01:50,680
He drew him a Ganymede carried off
to the heavens,
521
01:01:50,760 --> 01:01:54,320
Tityus whose heart is being eaten
by a vulture,
522
01:01:54,560 --> 01:01:58,800
the chariot of the sun plummeting
with Phaeton into the Po...
523
01:01:59,320 --> 01:02:04,320
He portrayed Messer Tommaso
in a life-sized cartoon,
524
01:02:04,400 --> 01:02:06,840
his sole portrait from life,
525
01:02:07,320 --> 01:02:12,240
because he loathed everything that was
alive unless it was of infinite beauty.
526
01:02:18,520 --> 01:02:20,320
A man and a woman,
527
01:02:21,600 --> 01:02:22,600
pardon,
528
01:02:23,960 --> 01:02:27,480
a god through her mouth speaks,
529
01:02:28,320 --> 01:02:31,640
oh god, to listen to her I made myself
such that...
530
01:02:33,160 --> 01:02:35,440
never more mine she'll be.
531
01:02:54,760 --> 01:03:00,480
From my love of Vittoria came drawings
of a Crucifixion and a Pietà.
532
01:03:03,280 --> 01:03:08,080
Our friendship so tender changed me
profoundly.
533
01:03:11,280 --> 01:03:15,600
I learned that he who has known no evil
534
01:03:16,800 --> 01:03:18,680
cannot know goodness.
535
01:03:20,720 --> 01:03:24,000
I found comfort in her circle
of spiritualists.
536
01:03:24,640 --> 01:03:28,360
I was dazzled by their promise
of redemption.
537
01:03:28,600 --> 01:03:31,960
They had this idea of a church renewed,
538
01:03:33,520 --> 01:03:37,040
in which the spirit becomes illuminated
by divine grace
539
01:03:39,280 --> 01:03:41,440
only if one strives to listen.
540
01:03:42,600 --> 01:03:45,440
If I succeeded in that effort,
541
01:03:46,760 --> 01:03:50,200
God alone could have judged me...
542
01:03:52,080 --> 01:03:53,400
could have found me...
543
01:03:55,320 --> 01:03:56,400
guilty...
544
01:03:58,280 --> 01:03:59,320
or innocent.
545
01:04:06,040 --> 01:04:10,080
Around that time, the Pope decided
to invite him to paint
546
01:04:10,160 --> 01:04:12,720
the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel.
547
01:04:13,720 --> 01:04:17,720
He wanted Michelangelo to portray
the Last Judgement,
548
01:04:18,400 --> 01:04:22,400
to imbue that story of everything
with all that
549
01:04:22,480 --> 01:04:25,520
the art of drawing could bring to it.
550
01:04:40,040 --> 01:04:45,640
And so it was that Pietro Perugino's
Assumption of the Madonna for Pope Sixtus
551
01:04:45,720 --> 01:04:50,960
was sacrificed to make way for art
by the divine Michelangelo.
552
01:04:56,680 --> 01:05:00,520
No sooner did I start in on the cartoons,
Clement VII died.
553
01:05:03,080 --> 01:05:04,680
As did my father.
554
01:05:11,240 --> 01:05:16,240
The new Pope, Paul III, elevated me
to supreme architect,
555
01:05:16,320 --> 01:05:19,920
painter and sculptor
to the apostolic palaces.
556
01:05:21,320 --> 01:05:22,440
I returned to Rome,
557
01:05:22,960 --> 01:05:25,040
to stay for the rest of my days.
558
01:05:27,040 --> 01:05:32,320
Five years alone again,
aloft, near the gods.
559
01:05:36,240 --> 01:05:40,080
I got rid of all of the paintings
on the wall, including my own,
560
01:05:40,160 --> 01:05:44,280
I walled in two windows and added
a slope to the wall
561
01:05:44,800 --> 01:05:49,280
to make it look like the Judgement
was truly pending
562
01:05:49,360 --> 01:05:52,480
on any who dared to look up to the skies.
563
01:05:55,720 --> 01:05:59,200
The whole thing was to revolve around
a Jesus of great beauty,
564
01:05:59,800 --> 01:06:04,000
immersed in the lapis lazuli blue
Giotto loved so well.
565
01:06:07,560 --> 01:06:10,120
"Through me is the way to the city of woe;
566
01:06:11,000 --> 01:06:13,360
Through me is the way to eternal pain;
567
01:06:14,280 --> 01:06:16,720
Through me is the way among people lost.
568
01:06:17,560 --> 01:06:20,080
Before me there were no created things,
569
01:06:20,160 --> 01:06:23,920
Only eternal, and I eternal last.
570
01:06:28,280 --> 01:06:31,800
All hope abandon, ye who enter in!"
571
01:07:00,560 --> 01:07:04,840
The Last Judgement is a warning
to the world,
572
01:07:06,360 --> 01:07:09,840
at a time of tragedy when no certainties
seemed to survive:
573
01:07:10,880 --> 01:07:14,400
the Church, having just recovered
after the Sack of Rome,
574
01:07:15,040 --> 01:07:18,040
trembles under the blows
of the Protestant Reformation.
575
01:07:23,560 --> 01:07:27,000
Against this backdrop,
now in his sixties, Michelangelo
576
01:07:27,640 --> 01:07:32,840
created an immense, mind-blowing
and revolutionary work.
577
01:07:34,960 --> 01:07:39,600
The scene has no boundaries,
bathed in lapis lazuli blue light,
578
01:07:39,680 --> 01:07:42,400
suspended in time and space.
579
01:07:43,600 --> 01:07:48,680
It is dominated by the imperious figure
of Christ the Judge: a beautiful wrestler
580
01:07:48,760 --> 01:07:52,280
who has been given the task of judging
the living and the dead
581
01:07:52,360 --> 01:07:54,960
with steadfastness and justice.
582
01:07:57,640 --> 01:08:00,280
Once he lowers that muscle-bound arm,
583
01:08:00,920 --> 01:08:04,760
the fate that his father bestowed on him
shall be complete.
584
01:08:23,440 --> 01:08:28,400
By his side, the Madonna turns away,
not wanting to witness
585
01:08:28,480 --> 01:08:32,120
the frightful spectacle of the punishment
of the reprobates.
586
01:08:35,080 --> 01:08:38,480
The whole monumental composition revolves
around the figure of Christ.
587
01:08:39,080 --> 01:08:44,560
It is populated by hundreds of figures,
who defy the laws of gravity.
588
01:08:46,280 --> 01:08:50,800
Michelangelo's depiction of the male body
is a declaration of love to God.
589
01:08:52,040 --> 01:08:55,560
Human beauty is, here, a reflection
of heavenly beauty.
590
01:09:01,800 --> 01:09:08,560
The Elect awaken from the sleep of death,
some still in skeletal form.
591
01:09:08,640 --> 01:09:13,360
Scooped up by wingless angels, they make
their ascent to Heaven.
592
01:09:28,880 --> 01:09:33,800
Sinners' bodies tumble down towards Hell,
593
01:09:35,440 --> 01:09:37,720
as described by the beloved Dante:
594
01:09:41,880 --> 01:09:47,840
a cave reddened by flame, in which devils
wait their chance to grab the damned.
595
01:09:54,280 --> 01:09:59,800
Charon, his eyes a-fire,
ferries lost souls like animals
596
01:09:59,880 --> 01:10:04,080
to the slaughter across a river reduced
to a marshy stream.
597
01:10:12,000 --> 01:10:16,200
Minos judges souls, girdled by a snake:
598
01:10:18,360 --> 01:10:22,880
his face is a grotesque portrait
of Biagio da Cesena,
599
01:10:22,960 --> 01:10:24,920
the Pope's Master of Ceremonies.
600
01:10:25,440 --> 01:10:29,080
The Maestro got his revenge on him
for considering the nudity
601
01:10:29,160 --> 01:10:31,640
of the suffering bodies
to be inappropriate.
602
01:10:49,800 --> 01:10:53,960
The blessed hear the clarion call
of the seven trumpets
603
01:10:54,040 --> 01:10:56,480
of judgement as sweet music;
604
01:11:00,600 --> 01:11:04,520
the poor souls being pushed forcedly
by the devils towards the Underworld
605
01:11:06,240 --> 01:11:10,320
plug their ears to avoid going deaf.
606
01:11:44,040 --> 01:11:50,040
One and all, reprobates and blessed,
struggle desperately
607
01:11:51,000 --> 01:11:52,960
either to escape the underworld
608
01:11:54,680 --> 01:11:56,640
or to grab their spot in heaven.
609
01:12:16,640 --> 01:12:19,080
Saint Peter hands back the keys,
610
01:12:19,880 --> 01:12:22,360
now just a pointless burden.
611
01:12:29,960 --> 01:12:33,080
Saint Bartholomew displays
his flayed skin,
612
01:12:33,160 --> 01:12:35,440
sporting the lifeless face
of Michelangelo.
613
01:12:36,080 --> 01:12:42,040
who hopes to atone for his own sins by
presenting himself to God annihilated,
614
01:12:42,480 --> 01:12:44,480
in lifeless form.
615
01:13:05,480 --> 01:13:07,520
"A flash of vermilion light
616
01:13:08,760 --> 01:13:11,880
Overcomes all feeling in me;
617
01:13:14,240 --> 01:13:16,640
And I dropped like a man falling into
deep sleep."
618
01:13:20,120 --> 01:13:23,120
"Men do not care what blood
it costs to sow."
619
01:13:41,360 --> 01:13:44,680
When it was publicly unveiled,
the Last Judgement
620
01:13:44,760 --> 01:13:47,880
aroused both admiration and shock.
621
01:13:49,480 --> 01:13:52,120
It came close to being destroyed
immediately,
622
01:13:52,200 --> 01:13:54,840
for being indecorous and unseemly.
623
01:13:58,200 --> 01:14:00,440
A few years after Michelangelo died,
624
01:14:01,240 --> 01:14:04,360
the decision was taken to alter just
the most scandalous figures.
625
01:14:05,240 --> 01:14:08,320
Daniele da Volterra, who was given
this thankless task,
626
01:14:08,400 --> 01:14:10,880
was from then on nicknamed "Braghettone".
627
01:14:13,360 --> 01:14:16,840
Fortunately, Marcello Venusti had made
a copy of the Last Judgement
628
01:14:16,920 --> 01:14:20,640
soon after it was painted,
before the enforced trousering:
629
01:14:22,200 --> 01:14:25,000
a small painting, today in Naples,
630
01:14:25,760 --> 01:14:29,160
preserves the Maestro's original creation.
631
01:14:32,400 --> 01:14:34,120
Revealed or covered up,
632
01:14:35,800 --> 01:14:39,280
those bodies revolutionized and stunned
his contemporaries,
633
01:14:39,360 --> 01:14:42,080
thanks to the incredible freedom
of Michelangelo's approach
634
01:14:42,160 --> 01:14:44,000
to an ancient and sacred theme...
635
01:14:45,680 --> 01:14:49,360
One that, in his hands, becomes modern,
636
01:14:50,640 --> 01:14:51,640
angst-ridden
637
01:14:53,080 --> 01:14:54,080
and eternal.
638
01:15:01,600 --> 01:15:05,640
Blessed and mightily fortunate
was Paul III,
639
01:15:06,320 --> 01:15:11,160
because God conceded to his protection
true judgement,
640
01:15:11,840 --> 01:15:13,960
true damnation and resurrection.
641
01:15:15,440 --> 01:15:19,800
Michelangelo infused such power in
his painting that "the dead were dead,
642
01:15:20,040 --> 01:15:22,040
and the living seemed living".
643
01:15:23,480 --> 01:15:26,480
It took him almost eight years
to complete his Judgement,
644
01:15:26,880 --> 01:15:30,240
finally unveiled on Christmas Day 1541,
645
01:15:30,320 --> 01:15:33,240
to wonder and amazement among
all beholders.
646
01:15:34,440 --> 01:15:40,040
But even though fresco painting
is no job for the old,
647
01:15:40,800 --> 01:15:45,920
his toils in the Vatican palazzos
showed no sign of ending.
648
01:16:00,040 --> 01:16:04,840
Pope Paul III could not imagine
dispensing with Michelangelo's services.
649
01:16:07,480 --> 01:16:11,800
He commissioned the ageing maestro,
now in his seventies, to paint
650
01:16:11,880 --> 01:16:17,600
new cycle of frescoes for his private
chapel in the Apostolic Palace.
651
01:16:25,120 --> 01:16:29,920
Michelangelo painted for almost
ten years, taking long breaks
652
01:16:30,000 --> 01:16:34,720
because of poor health
and failing eyesight.
653
01:16:36,200 --> 01:16:38,720
Once again, he wins the challenge
against himself;
654
01:16:40,040 --> 01:16:43,200
this would be his final pictorial work.
655
01:16:49,000 --> 01:16:54,360
Like Saul, Michelangelo would obey
the law of the Lord.
656
01:16:58,320 --> 01:17:03,120
And, like Saint Peter,
before God and man he was ready
657
01:17:03,680 --> 01:17:05,920
to accept what was to come.
658
01:17:08,640 --> 01:17:13,040
And after having served the popes,
the time came to serve just God.
659
01:17:14,240 --> 01:17:15,920
And so I became God's hand.
660
01:17:21,560 --> 01:17:25,000
After being named architect of
Saint Peter's Basilica, Michelangelo
661
01:17:25,080 --> 01:17:27,960
dedicated himself to this job
until the end of his days.
662
01:17:28,320 --> 01:17:34,480
In a stroke of genius, he designed
the final form of the dome,
663
01:17:35,880 --> 01:17:38,560
filling it with all available light.
664
01:17:42,720 --> 01:17:49,600
Work on Michelangelo's design, one of
the most revolutionary ever conceived
665
01:17:49,680 --> 01:17:55,120
was only completed posthumously,
at the end of the sixteenth century.
666
01:18:06,160 --> 01:18:09,200
I was striving so hard to complete
the job at Saint Peter's,
667
01:18:10,120 --> 01:18:12,960
for the Church as a whole
and for our Lord...
668
01:18:16,960 --> 01:18:20,480
making sure there was no trickery
or pilfering.
669
01:18:24,360 --> 01:18:27,360
My one comfort came from sculpting,
670
01:18:29,360 --> 01:18:30,360
in my home,
671
01:18:31,880 --> 01:18:34,040
without any projects in particular.
672
01:18:35,160 --> 01:18:38,080
They were Pietàs,
673
01:18:38,960 --> 01:18:41,080
like the first I ever sculpted.
674
01:18:41,720 --> 01:18:45,640
Sometimes by night I would take
just a peek, astounded
675
01:18:46,560 --> 01:18:50,200
that they were so... light-filled,
finished and...
676
01:18:58,280 --> 01:19:01,600
And yet I was just hacking,
677
01:19:03,880 --> 01:19:05,840
breaking things, mutilating...
678
01:19:06,360 --> 01:19:09,200
I sheared away marble,
despairing that the stone...
679
01:19:10,840 --> 01:19:14,880
was somehow becoming suddenly mute.
680
01:19:20,240 --> 01:19:22,600
I no longer succeeded in stripping away,
681
01:19:24,000 --> 01:19:25,480
I couldn't add,
682
01:19:26,960 --> 01:19:28,800
I was unable to finish things.
683
01:19:32,160 --> 01:19:34,320
With this sulphurous heart,
684
01:19:36,280 --> 01:19:38,280
with this flesh of tow,
685
01:19:39,840 --> 01:19:41,600
no peace could there be for me.
686
01:19:46,440 --> 01:19:48,320
How can a miserable man...
687
01:19:49,760 --> 01:19:52,960
ever succeed in equalling the perfection
of divine design?
688
01:20:29,240 --> 01:20:33,960
The Rondanini Pietà, today housed
at the Castello Sforzesco,
689
01:20:34,040 --> 01:20:37,680
was Michelangelo's last poignant work
of sculpture.
690
01:20:38,560 --> 01:20:41,400
This marble piece looks like it has been
wounded and mutilated
691
01:20:41,480 --> 01:20:43,800
through repeated blows by the Maestro,
692
01:20:43,880 --> 01:20:49,640
who in a veritable destructive rage
profoundly transformed his initial idea
693
01:20:49,720 --> 01:20:52,960
to produce a totally different
composition:
694
01:20:54,240 --> 01:20:57,120
unfinished, modern in the extreme,
695
01:20:57,880 --> 01:21:02,560
bearing witness to a creative raptus
that has enthralled critics
696
01:21:02,640 --> 01:21:04,400
and contemporary artists alike.
697
01:21:06,640 --> 01:21:11,080
Whereas from the rear the form
of the original block of stone
698
01:21:11,160 --> 01:21:13,480
is evident in all of its raw materiality,
699
01:21:15,440 --> 01:21:19,200
from the front we make out the figures
of Christ and Mary.
700
01:21:19,760 --> 01:21:23,200
However, the demarcation between
the person doing the holding
701
01:21:23,280 --> 01:21:26,160
and the person being held is completely
wiped out.
702
01:21:29,600 --> 01:21:32,520
The group is supple and spiritual,
703
01:21:33,440 --> 01:21:38,360
the two bodies tending to melt
and flow into one another,
704
01:21:38,840 --> 01:21:42,600
as if the mother wanted to call her
son back into the womb,
705
01:21:43,040 --> 01:21:46,080
to find peace and solace there.
706
01:21:48,360 --> 01:21:52,760
Before dying, Michelangelo pared things
back to the essential,
707
01:21:53,240 --> 01:21:57,000
sculpting an intimate, tormented prayer
708
01:21:57,880 --> 01:22:01,920
in the final piece of marble
he was to challenge.
709
01:22:06,800 --> 01:22:10,480
Ah, happy, truly happy is our age,
710
01:22:11,120 --> 01:22:15,640
we have been able to cast so much light
to brighten up the shadows.
711
01:22:16,840 --> 01:22:21,120
Michelangelo pulled the blindfold
from the eyes of our minds,
712
01:22:21,200 --> 01:22:27,560
he cast aside the veil of falsity that
darkened the halls of the intellect.
713
01:22:29,600 --> 01:22:31,920
Praise be to the Heavens,
714
01:22:32,880 --> 01:22:37,080
and let us strive to imitate
Michelangelo in all things.
715
01:22:44,560 --> 01:22:47,720
But why do I jump from place to place,
a-leaping?
716
01:22:48,520 --> 01:22:50,160
All I have to say is:
717
01:22:50,600 --> 01:22:55,520
wherever he laid his divine hand,
he resurrected things,
718
01:22:56,160 --> 01:22:58,840
infusing them with life eternal.
719
01:23:32,960 --> 01:23:34,760
Confound these hands,
720
01:23:42,160 --> 01:23:44,040
confound the passage of time.
721
01:23:47,520 --> 01:23:49,160
Confound my loneliness,
722
01:23:54,880 --> 01:23:58,080
and confound you, marble.
723
01:24:00,240 --> 01:24:03,120
May nothing remain of the things
I have made, because...
724
01:24:05,160 --> 01:24:07,560
what I have made has not been enough.
725
01:24:10,760 --> 01:24:15,080
Confound me, because I wanted
to be like God,
726
01:24:17,880 --> 01:24:21,160
to try and make life
727
01:24:26,160 --> 01:24:28,720
rather than fully living my own.
728
01:24:34,280 --> 01:24:35,760
Confound this...
729
01:24:40,080 --> 01:24:41,080
It's over...
730
01:24:45,640 --> 01:24:46,840
It's over!
731
01:24:50,840 --> 01:24:51,920
So what's left?
732
01:24:54,520 --> 01:24:55,880
Come on, tell me!
733
01:24:59,360 --> 01:25:03,040
Can you tell me what it was for,
this immense hard labour?
734
01:25:10,720 --> 01:25:11,720
But why?
735
01:25:14,800 --> 01:25:16,240
Why won't you speak?
736
01:26:28,200 --> 01:26:33,120
All his statues are so constrained
by agony
737
01:26:33,200 --> 01:26:37,240
that they seem to wish
to break themselves.
738
01:26:40,000 --> 01:26:44,000
When Michelangelo was old
he actually broke them.
739
01:26:44,080 --> 01:26:48,880
Art did not content him.
He wanted infinity.
740
01:26:52,960 --> 01:26:59,760
MICHELANGELO
ENDLESS