Michelangelo was a sculptor, not a painter, when on 10th May, 1508, he embarked upon the biggest gig of his career: painting the roof of the Sistine chapel in the Vatican. 

Outwardly reluctant, and doubtful he could complete the project, he nonetheless took the opportunity to suggest that rather than portraying the twelve apostles requested by the Pope, he should instead depict 300 different characters. 

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how he set about this Herculean task (no, he didn’t paint lying down); reveal how he channeled his frustrations into black humour; and discover the artful way in which he treated his harshest critics… 

Further Reading:

• ‘Book Extract: Michelangelo And The Sistine Chapel by Andrew Graham-Dixon’ (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2008): https://www.andrewgrahamdixon.com/extract/michelangelo-and-the-sistine-chapel.html#

• ‘​​"The Last Judgement" Michelangelo - The Sistine Chapel Masterpiece’ (Art In Context, 2021): https://artincontext.org/the-last-judgement-michelangelo/

• ‘Art, Explained: Deconstructing Michelangelo's process from a Sistine Chapel study’ (The Met, 2013): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICQCUTiC0mI

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Alexa Weissman.

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2022.

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