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00:00:00All of life,
00:00:28Michelangelo said, teaches us that a work of art lives forever.
00:00:35For as the artist's time is measured,
00:00:39the Creator will go, but his work survives.
00:00:44That is why, to escape death,
00:00:47I attempt to bind my life to my work.
00:00:51This is the story of his life,
00:00:58and of the work that made him immortal.
00:01:07On the low rolling slopes of the Florentine countryside
00:01:11is the small peaceful hamlet of Caprese.
00:01:16Here, Michelangelo Buonarroti was born on the 6th of March, 1475.
00:01:26The infant was sent to the family farm in Tuscany.
00:01:33It was a region of fertile fields,
00:01:36hillsides rich with marble.
00:01:41And in the stonecutter's household where he was raised,
00:01:47the dominant sound was the ring of the hammer and chisel.
00:01:56At the foot of these quarries lay Florence,
00:01:59where the air was filled with the confident laughter
00:02:01that had shaken down the gloomy vaults of the Middle Ages.
00:02:05Man was proud, self-sufficient,
00:02:08and the powerful Medicis rode the crest
00:02:11of this surging spirit of rebirth.
00:02:16Under Lorenzo, Florence was becoming
00:02:18the queen city of the Renaissance.
00:02:27But the Pazzi's, a rival family of nobles,
00:02:30were determined to set their own seal upon the city
00:02:33and with highly placed friends in the papal court,
00:02:37they plotted to destroy Lorenzo and his brother, Giuliano.
00:02:44The plot was simple and daring.
00:02:51Sunday morning.
00:02:55The Medici brothers arrive at the cathedral for solemn mass.
00:02:58Cautious and wary by nature,
00:03:03they have no fear in the house of God.
00:03:09This is the haven of purity, piety,
00:03:13the weak and the meek.
00:03:16The church is the refuge of...
00:03:21Assassins!
00:03:22Giuliano is struck down.
00:03:28Lorenzo is wounded.
00:03:31With a drawn sword,
00:03:32he fights his way back to the sacristy,
00:03:35seeking shelter behind its stout doors.
00:03:38The city hall is under attack.
00:03:41Other Pazzi forces are inciting the masses to revolt,
00:03:45but the infamy of their deeds spreads through Florence.
00:03:54The outraged people turn against the conspirators.
00:04:06Conspiracy is smashed,
00:04:07and its leaders swiftly punished.
00:04:10The remnants of the Pazzi band were driven from the city,
00:04:26and the plot to unseat the Medicis left Florence more securely than ever before
00:04:31in the iron grasp of Lorenzo.
00:04:33A brilliant leader of men,
00:04:36a poet, scholar, artist and thinker,
00:04:39he was the Renaissance Prince.
00:04:42He surrounded himself with the most gifted men of his time,
00:04:45and ushered in the golden age of Florence.
00:04:52To this city of splendor,
00:04:54young Michelangelo was brought by his father,
00:04:57who had plans for him.
00:04:59You're 13 years old,
00:05:02and as ignorant as a stone cutter.
00:05:04You must go to school and study the classics,
00:05:07the humanities,
00:05:09discipline and manners,
00:05:11to requisites for a young gentleman.
00:05:15The lad was not interested in becoming a gentleman.
00:05:17The streets of the city enchanted him.
00:05:24The rich stores of art in the churches dazzled him.
00:05:30On all sides were the works of the great masters of Italy.
00:05:34The boy was filled with awe.
00:05:38How wonderful it must be to do something like this.
00:05:45Reluctantly, the father apprenticed him to the celebrated painter, Domenico Gelandaio.
00:05:59Working with his master on the birth of the Virgin,
00:06:05Michelangelo learned the art of fresco,
00:06:10which was to serve him well later on.
00:06:13In the fashion of his time,
00:06:15Gelandaio placed his religious themes in middle-class Florentine homes,
00:06:20and clothed his figures with the lavish costumes of his own period.
00:06:24But Michelangelo also studied other masters.
00:06:31Giotto, though seemingly old-fashioned to the boy,
00:06:36held him with his dramatic force.
00:06:41Masaccio, more modern,
00:06:44gave his figures natural movement and weight in space.
00:06:54Michelangelo works.
00:06:57He studies, copying, sketching.
00:07:00He learns.
00:07:02He grows confident, even arrogant.
00:07:05He criticizes a fellow apprentice.
00:07:08Insults follow.
00:07:10And then a fist fight.
00:07:14Michelangelo's nose is broken.
00:07:17He who is so sensitive to physical beauty
00:07:19is himself marked with ugliness for life.
00:07:26But his confidence was unshaken.
00:07:29And with good reason.
00:07:34He was invited to study at Lorenzo's Academy of Sculpture.
00:07:37His work soon attracted his patron's practiced eye.
00:07:41And the young man was taken into the Medici household,
00:07:44where all the blessings of princely favor were heaped upon him.
00:07:48I remember that day Lorenzo conducted me through his palace.
00:07:51First, he showed me his treasures of beauty and fine craftsmanship.
00:08:07Then the Primera by Botticelli.
00:08:10And the Gozzoli frescoes, all the gaiety and richness of Florence crowded into the walls of that room.
00:08:24Il Magnifico proudly identified himself on horseback and the other members of that illustrious family.
00:08:31Gozzoli signed his fresco with a portrait of himself amongst a group of citizenry.
00:08:41In my youth, I was dazzled by the magnificence of that palace.
00:08:46Lorenzo's exquisite taste was reflected in every salon, every courtyard.
00:08:51On the sculpture of Donatello, we lingered.
00:08:58His David was considered the first great nude since the days of ancient Rome.
00:09:06And we paused on the work of Irocchio.
00:09:08Lorenzo requested something new.
00:09:22And I was determined to repay his kind patronage.
00:09:27At seventeen, he completed his first major work.
00:09:31The Battle of the Centaurs.
00:09:38The Battle of the Centaurs.
00:10:03Even at this early age, such forceful expression of explosive emotions,
00:10:12the fierce spirit of a youth maturing in the proud glow of the Renaissance,
00:10:17he was, in truth, a disciple of Lorenzo the Magnificent.
00:10:22But the proud world, which the Renaissance glorified, suddenly collapsed at its center.
00:10:37Lorenzo died.
00:10:41The Medici name lost its magic.
00:10:45His enemies at church rose swiftly to the attack,
00:10:48denouncing the arrogance and vanity which Lorenzo symbolized.
00:10:52Venitenta! Venitenta!
00:10:55Kimid and insecure Michelangelo was frightened by the turmoil in Florence.
00:11:00A sense of impending disaster made him flee to Bologna.
00:11:05He arrived in that strange city without money or references.
00:11:10But some fame had preceded him, and he soon secured a commission.
00:11:16He carved an angel, gravely watching over the remains of Saint Dominic.
00:11:22The beauty of the statue was admired.
00:11:26But the Bolognese sculptors were openly jealous of their arrival.
00:11:31So Michelangelo moved on to Rome.
00:11:34Rome was rediscovering its great past.
00:11:40Rome was rediscovering its great past.
00:11:53Remnants of the et Verdict.
00:11:54.
00:11:59.
00:12:03.
00:12:06.
00:12:11.
00:12:12Remnants of antiquity were being unearthed, examined, and pieced together to recreate
00:12:27a picture of the empire.
00:12:31For the young Michelangelo, the imperial majesty of ancient Rome was everywhere in evidence.
00:12:42He marveled at the heroic proportions of the Forum, created by Augustus, founder of the
00:12:53Roman Empire.
00:12:59A lofty triumphal arch is built in honor of demigods, one to Emperor Constantine, another
00:13:08to Emperor Titus, the Colosseum, which the Romans erected for their barbarous spectacles.
00:13:27Casto Sant'Angelo, tomb of the Emperor Adrian.
00:13:46Casto Sant'Angelo, tomb of the Emperor Adrian.
00:13:58And just as the Florentine frescoes had excited his imagination, so these vivid remains of
00:14:03pagan glory opened new vistas to him.
00:14:10The End
00:14:12The End
00:14:15The End
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00:14:18The End
00:14:20The End
00:14:41The impact of the Roman past was reflected in the first work he did in Rome.
00:14:47The Greek god of wine, Bacchus.
00:14:57To Renaissance realism, he added the pagan idea of man rooted in nature.
00:15:04A roguish drunk with engaging charm, but the body ripe as the grapes at harvest time.
00:15:12The End
00:15:13The End
00:15:14The End
00:15:15The End
00:15:16The End
00:15:17The End
00:15:19The End
00:15:22The End
00:16:24He accused the Renaissance realists of undermining Christian faith.
00:16:31People began to listen to the monk.
00:16:34His name?
00:16:36Savonarola.
00:16:37Penitenza!
00:16:38Penitenza!
00:16:39Penitenza!
00:16:40Se no hay Dio en la sua rabia, vi abbasse senza mercade.
00:16:43Get down without mercy!
00:16:45Florence!
00:16:46Oh, Florence!
00:16:48This is the last warning the Lord sends to you.
00:16:52Sweep out your house with a groove of iron and fire, or you will hasten to perdition.
00:16:58Florence trembles.
00:17:01People weep with shame and fear.
00:17:04A wave of religious terror sweeps through the city.
00:17:07Its people are caught in the grip of consuming repentance.
00:17:11They respond fervently.
00:17:13Books and paintings.
00:17:15Jewels and luxuries.
00:17:19Into the purifying flames.
00:17:21All the symbols of worldly pleasure.
00:17:24The frenzy mounts.
00:17:26Sweeping Savonarola along with it.
00:17:28You too, princes of the church, do penance.
00:17:32Rome!
00:17:33How can it be that God lets you remain on the face of the earth?
00:17:37Everything can be forced there for the price of gold.
00:17:41And souls as well as bodies.
00:17:44People of Florence, march on Rome and deliver my curse upon her.
00:17:50Rome replies.
00:17:56The Pope pronounces a major excommunication upon Savonarola.
00:18:00And the thundering prophet of doom is silenced.
00:18:06His own followers turn against him.
00:18:09Torture him.
00:18:10And sentence him to death.
00:18:14Ascension day.
00:18:16The people of Florence gather in the piazza.
00:18:19They are frightened.
00:18:21Afraid of themselves.
00:18:23Afraid of the deed they are about to commit.
00:18:27Savonarola must hang.
00:18:29His remains to be destroyed by flame.
00:18:34The piazza is ready.
00:18:38The people wait.
00:18:40The monk of San Marco is silenced forever.
00:18:50But his dire warnings will be heard again.
00:18:56Remorseful, the people of Florence inscribe a plaque to Savonarola.
00:19:00His single hope was to save their souls.
00:19:02And he paid for his zeal with his life.
00:19:11In Rome, Michelangelo followed the tragic events intensely.
00:19:15As a youth, he too had heard the words of Savonarola.
00:19:19And a spirit of compassion moved him.
00:19:20It was reflected in the statue he was completing at the time.
00:19:26Placed in the cathedral of St. Peter,
00:19:29the work was mistaken for that of another artist.
00:19:32Under the cover of darkness,
00:19:34the indignant Michelangelo slipped into the chapel with hammer and chisel.
00:19:38I, Michelangelo Buonarroti of Florence, made this.
00:19:44It was the only work that he ever signed.
00:19:49His first piazza.
00:19:57The mood is no longer that of his Bacchus.
00:20:01It is one of an enveloping sadness and wonder.
00:20:05The Virgin laments the Divine Child.
00:20:11The Virgin laments the Divine Child.
00:20:35The Virgin laments the Divine Child.
00:20:42The Virgin laments the Divine Child.
00:20:45The Virgin laments the Divine Doubs the Divine.
00:20:50The Virgin laments the Virgin laments the Divine Shadows.
00:20:54The Virgin noble reunions the 결국 of Arcanaimhali.
00:20:57Think of that of the奇怪 khôngcocoисle j Incorporation.
00:21:00flood mignon d parole m Property dão chisel m where da'reetis.
00:21:03THE END
00:21:33Florence was at peace once more, and Michelangelo decided to go home.
00:21:46Here he learned of a challenging civic project.
00:21:50The cathedral owned an enormous block of marble, which had revealed a deep flaw.
00:21:55No sculptor thought it could be salvaged.
00:21:58No sculptor except Michelangelo.
00:22:02Taking up the challenge of the 19-foot block, he locked himself away in the work yard behind the cathedral and hammered and chiseled in secrecy.
00:22:13Four years, he labored, and Florence echoed with rumors.
00:22:18Finally, it was finished, and the secret was out.
00:22:29In a holiday mood, the citizens of Florence awaited its unveiling.
00:22:37They watched as walls were torn down to let the huge figure pass through the narrow streets.
00:22:42They waited with growing excitement.
00:22:51The scores of men worked to place the Colossus on its base.
00:22:55The statue exalted all that the Florentines of the Renaissance stood for.
00:23:00Pride of youth.
00:23:02Pride of strength.
00:23:04Pride of intellect.
00:23:05Pride of life.
00:23:06It was David.
00:23:08With slingshot and stone in hand, he stands poised to defend his people.
00:23:13Pride of the movement.
00:23:26Pride of life.
00:23:37Pride of中国.
00:24:08As David towered over Florence, so Michelangelo now loomed head and shoulders over the other
00:24:30sculptors of his day.
00:24:32He was a public hero.
00:24:34The city voted him a house and studio, and to it came an endless stream of wealthy patrons.
00:24:42For the banker Pitti, he made the Bargello Madonna.
00:24:48His technique was sure, his mood calm.
00:24:52In the stone, he finds a harmony between the tender gravity of the Virgin and the exuberance
00:24:59of the child.
00:25:00The mood is sustained in the Madonna Tadei, with greater solemnity in the Bruges Madonna.
00:25:12In his painting of the Holy Family, the Virgin is robust.
00:25:22The child, an infant hero.
00:25:38Figures as vigorous as a family of stonecutters.
00:25:42He also did an Apollo, and a Christ with the cross.
00:25:58At this time, the city fathers of Florence voted to beautify the Palazzo della Signoria by commissioning
00:26:04two historical murals for its great hall.
00:26:08One of them was entrusted to the undisputed master of the day, Leonardo da Vinci.
00:26:13The other, to Michelangelo, twenty-five years, his junior.
00:26:22Leonardo conceived a tremendous battle scene, but he never finished it.
00:26:27All that remains of his work is a copy made by the Flemish master Rubens.
00:26:35Of Michelangelo's efforts, even less remains.
00:26:38A student's inferior copy of his drawings.
00:26:41But those who saw the actual sketches were greatly impressed.
00:26:46And everyone in Florence took sides in this contest of titans.
00:26:52Michelangelo also abandoned his project.
00:26:56A more important patron demanded his services.
00:27:03The mighty Pope Julius summoned him to the Vatican.
00:27:07A man of imperial ambitions,
00:27:09Julius II wished a colossal monument built for his tomb.
00:27:14The artist set to work.
00:27:17Here are the plans, Your Holiness.
00:27:19Will it be truly magnificent, my son?
00:27:22That depends upon your wishes, Holy Father.
00:27:25Then spare no effort.
00:27:27Lose not a moment.
00:27:29We wish to see the completed tomb
00:27:31within our own lifetime.
00:27:33He roamed the mountains of Kerala,
00:27:37selecting the marble for the tomb.
00:27:40His creative genius was fired by the boundless possibilities of the project.
00:27:45To fulfill his exalted visions,
00:27:47only a mountain would do.
00:27:50He even conceived the idea of carving a colossus
00:27:52out of a mountain top.
00:27:54For eight long months,
00:27:57he lived in this feverish state.
00:28:00Filled with excitement,
00:28:01he returned to Rome.
00:28:02But the Pope was occupied with other matters.
00:28:07He could not receive Michelangelo.
00:28:09And kept putting him on.
00:28:14Awaiting the pleasure of His Holiness,
00:28:16the sculptor spent restless days
00:28:18examining the excavations of antiquity.
00:28:20Each day, there are new discoveries.
00:28:26A startling find is reported.
00:28:30In the ruins of the palace of Titus,
00:28:33the workmen have unearthed an ancient statue.
00:28:36Made more than 1,500 years earlier,
00:28:40it tells the story of a Trojan priest and his two sons
00:28:43who are punished for defying the goddess Athena.
00:28:47It is the legendary Laocoon.
00:28:50THE END
00:29:20The theme of anguish
00:29:41influenced Michelangelo's dying slave.
00:29:45The edifice will grow in evil.
00:29:46I see in heaven.
00:29:48So be it.
00:29:49Abandoned.
00:29:52Furious.
00:29:53Michelangelo flee.
00:29:57All that work.
00:29:59Plans gone.
00:30:01The whole year, nothing.
00:30:03Workmen killed.
00:30:04My health shattered.
00:30:06The marvellous rots in Carrara.
00:30:08He would not see me.
00:30:10He'll never see again.
00:30:12But it was not to be gentle.
00:30:16Julius was also enraged.
00:30:18He sent armed couriers in pursuit of the sculptor.
00:30:22They approach Viterbo,
00:30:24where Michelangelo has stopped to rest.
00:30:28Forwarned, he races off to the north.
00:30:30But in the village of Pujibanzi, they overtake him.
00:30:46His holiness commands he return.
00:30:49Tell his most blessed holiness that I was turned away from his palace on his own orders.
00:30:53Wherefore, I give notice that from this time forward, if he wants me, he must seek me elsewhere than in Rome.
00:31:01I'll be to return with his message.
00:31:03I go on to Florida.
00:31:04The immensity of his creative vision in the mountains now set in motion new forces.
00:31:24A more intense feeling was breaking through the pattern of his earlier perfection.
00:31:31St. Matthew is keyed to the tragic.
00:31:33The inspired marble it does not contain.
00:31:37And his hand, obedient to his spirit, reveals all that the stone holds concealed.
00:31:45But the work is lengthy.
00:31:47The effort hard as the stone resists the chisel that attacks it.
00:31:52At last, the finished work appears to the light.
00:31:56To the Signoria of Florence, Pope Julius sent letter after letter, demanding the return of Michelangelo.
00:32:08The sculptor's friends were alarmed for him.
00:32:11You have behaved toward the Pope as the King of France himself would not have dared.
00:32:18The Signoria pleaded with him.
00:32:20When the Pope speaks of you, it's as though he were talking of a brother.
00:32:25Father, you frighten evil Popes.
00:32:29He was reassured.
00:32:31Once more, he left Florence.
00:32:36Michelangelo's flight was forgiven.
00:32:39The matter of the tomb forgotten for the moment.
00:32:42Julius was filled with another great scheme.
00:32:46It concerned the Sistine Chapel.
00:32:53His wishes...
00:32:54Our great ceiling is barren.
00:32:58Here, it would please us that your genius shall create a beautiful painting to the greater glory of God.
00:33:08The artist was hesitant.
00:33:10Beloved Father, I have told you time and again, this is not my trade.
00:33:16The painting of a vault is a very difficult endeavor.
00:33:19The Pope insisted.
00:33:20Once in agreement, however, they were both equally excited by the magnitude of the project.
00:33:28The area to be covered measured 10,000 square feet.
00:33:32He divided the ceiling into a series of panels, each telling a story from the Bible.
00:33:39Ranged along the sides and filled with portentous wonder, Sibyls and prophets follow the drama of man.
00:33:48From the creation, to the flood, only by mounting a high scaffold and lying on his back most of the time, could Michelangelo paint the ceiling.
00:34:03Out of the void, like magic, he was bringing the world into being.
00:34:12But the impatient Pope could not wait.
00:34:15When will you be finished?
00:34:16No man has ever undertaken so hard a task, and no one can help me.
00:34:25I lie on a wooden cage, as though on the rack, in the gloom, in pain, and in poor health.
00:34:36I finished the work, but at the end of my strength, alas, henceforth, my judgment is warped, and might work as well.
00:34:50Four endless, tortured years later, Michelangelo descended the scaffold for the last time.
00:35:02He had finished.
00:35:04Like God, he had created his own heaven and earth.
00:35:20And God, from the darkness.
00:35:41And God said, let the waters be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear.
00:35:50So God created man in his own image.
00:36:20Male and female created he then.
00:36:30Male and female created he then.
00:36:30And the Lord God said, behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil.
00:36:52Therefore, the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden.
00:37:13And Noah builded an altar to the Lord.
00:37:17And the rain was upon the earth, 40 days and 40 nights.
00:37:34And Am saw the nakedness of his father.
00:38:03Julius died.
00:38:07Giovanni, son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, was ordained Pope Leo X.
00:38:13He had grown up with Michelangelo in the Medici Palace, and he now summoned his boyhood friend.
00:38:20Giovanni, son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, was ordained Pope Leo X.
00:38:26He had grown up with Michelangelo in the Medici Palace, and he now summoned his boyhood friend.
00:38:32But Michelangelo was not free to work for him.
00:38:36He was still bound by the old contract to the heirs of Julius.
00:38:40They insisted he finish the tomb.
00:38:43He went to work.
00:38:45For the base of the tomb, he made four slaves, symbols of the suffering that is man's fate on earth.
00:38:57They carry the central meaning of Michelangelo's art and life.
00:39:03Where the will of God wrestles with the will of man.
00:39:15A sketch of Pope Julius, made many years earlier.
00:39:31He idealized into a portrait of Moses.
00:39:35The marble still trembles with a lightning alertness.
00:39:37He is poised to defend the Lord's unshakable law.
00:39:41A sketch of Pope Julius, made many years earlier.
00:39:44He idealized into a portrait of Moses.
00:39:47The marble still trembles with a lightning alertness.
00:39:51He is poised to defend the Lord's unshakable law.
00:39:55He is poised to defend the Lord.
00:39:57He's
00:40:16He is poised to defend the Lord's unshakable
00:40:23In the year of our Lord,
00:40:521518, Leo X made a triumphant entry into Florence.
00:40:58He graciously bestowed titles of nobility on Michelangelo's family and requested a tomb
00:41:04for the glory of the Medici dead.
00:41:09Moses and the vaults of the Sistine exalted the power of life.
00:41:15Now his spirit subsided into a serene meditation on death.
00:41:22A requiem carved out of eternal silence.
00:41:34In the dream world of the dead, Lorenzo and his cousin Giuliano contemplate the Madonna
00:41:41and child, a symbol of eternal truth.
00:41:48In the dream world of the dead, Lorenzo and his cousin Giuliano contemplate the Madonna and
00:42:03child, a symbol of eternal truth.
00:42:10And the dream world of the dead, Lorenzo and his cousin, a symbol of eternal life.
00:42:17And the dream world of the dead, Lorenzo and his cousin, a symbol of eternal life.
00:42:25And the dream world of the dead, Lorenzo and his cousin, a symbol of eternal life.
00:42:37And the dream world of the dead, Lorenzo and his cousin, a symbol of eternal life.
00:42:44Lorenzo, grandson of the magnificent, personifies the contemplative life.
00:43:14I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
00:43:44He has shaken off the torments of the living, expressed in the figures below.
00:44:14Dawn happily drags herself awake to another day of pain.
00:44:44Dawn happily drags herself awake to another day.
00:44:51Twilight doesn't even attempt the struggle of the living.
00:44:58The burden of his hopelessness weighs him down.
00:45:05Twilight doesn't even attempt the struggle of the living.
00:45:20The burden of his hopelessness weighs him down.
00:45:41Duke Giuliano, nephew of the Giuliano slain in the Pazzi revolt, personifies the active life.
00:45:50The burden of his hopelessness weighs him down.
00:46:02Night struggles in her sleep with the torment of her dreams.
00:46:24Their murky symbols lie scattered on her couch.
00:46:39The burden of his hopelessness weighs him down.
00:46:54At this point, it redo shows him .
00:47:09In the�楼 Уральaha's�� he clocked up to an official кажется.
00:47:17Day awakens in a rage.
00:47:28There is terror in his eyes.
00:47:47The heavy burdens of the living seem to force open the tombs, releasing the souls of the
00:47:59dead who live forever in the presence of the Lord.
00:48:04All the tensions of human time, dawn, twilight, night, and day, are resolved in the harmonies
00:48:14of eternal time.
00:48:25After the completion of the Medici Chapel, the whole of Italy held Michelangelo in awe.
00:48:34Pope built the Laurentian Library to house the fabulous literary collection of the Medici.
00:48:43The manuscripts of Dante, Virgil, Petrarch, and Tacitus, among others.
00:48:50The storehouse of humanistic learning.
00:48:56As in his sculpture, he conceived the library with forms locked in tensions which are never
00:49:02resolved.
00:49:03The columns are imprisoned in the walls.
00:49:07The scrolls leave nowhere.
00:49:13Even where the staircase flows freely upward, there is a counterflow on either side.
00:49:23The enslaved room not only expressed his own inner conflicts, but symbolized a time out
00:49:30of joint.
00:49:33A spirit of religious reform was sweeping Europe.
00:49:49Luther was thundering in Germany.
00:49:51The North was in revolt.
00:49:53Rome had been sacked and Pope Clement was prisoner in Castel Sant'Angelo.
00:50:07Having lost half of Europe, Clement took a new course.
00:50:10He allied himself with the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, his former enemy.
00:50:15Together, they launched an offensive against Florence.
00:50:20Within the city, there were riots and disorder, stirred up by Medici partisans.
00:50:27The gates were closed, but the turmoil continued.
00:50:31David himself was wounded.
00:50:34A missile flung from a balcony shattered his arm.
00:50:44Michelangelo, sculptor, architect, painter, poet, now became a man of battle.
00:50:54He was commissioned general, in charge of fortifications.
00:50:59Despite the city's outposts, he fortified the mountain stronghold of San Miniato.
00:51:13His efforts were of no avail.
00:51:16The city fell.
00:51:26Distant upheaval provoked a new spirit of reform in Catholic Rome.
00:51:31This renewed faith also ruled the Vatican, and Pope Paul III begged the Master to lend
00:51:37his genius to the strill of the church militant fighting for its very life.
00:51:45Once more, Michelangelo came to the Sistine Chapel.
00:51:49Wearily, the sixty-year-old man mounted the scaffold to paint his last judgment.
00:51:55The upheaval of Christendom, fusing with his own bitter turmoil, unleashed all the furies
00:52:04of his genius.
00:52:06For five anguished years, he drove himself to the point of exhaustion and beyond.
00:52:13When at last he had finished, the altar wall blazed out with an apocalyptic vision of final judgment.
00:52:20A sinful and stunned humanity churns in the torrents of his day of wrath.
00:52:26In a gesture of insane rage, he seems to skin himself alive.
00:52:32And the tattered skin which Saint Bartholomew presents to the Lord is painted Michelangelo's
00:52:38own tragic mask.
00:52:40It was as though he had ripped the Renaissance completely out of his system.
00:52:45Savonarola's thundering prophecies had never left his mind.
00:52:49Now they rang out in a deafening blast of doom.
00:52:56The End
00:53:05The End
00:53:09The End
00:53:10The End
00:53:14The End
00:53:15The End
00:53:16The End
00:53:19The End
00:53:20The End
00:53:21The End
00:53:24The End
00:53:25The End
00:53:26The End
00:53:27The End
00:53:28The End
00:53:29The End
00:53:30The End
00:53:31The End
00:53:32The End
00:53:33The End
00:53:34The End
00:53:35The End
00:53:36The End
00:53:37The End
00:53:38The End
00:53:39The End
00:53:40The End
00:53:41The End
00:53:42The End
00:53:43The End
00:53:44The End
00:53:45The End
00:53:46The End
00:53:47The End
00:53:48The End
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00:53:50The End
00:53:51The End
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00:53:55The End
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00:53:57The End
00:53:58The End
00:53:59The End
00:54:00The End
00:54:01The End
00:54:02The End
00:54:03The End
00:54:04The End
00:54:05The End
00:54:06When the fevered tempo of his rage had spent itself, Michelangelo collapsed.
00:54:26Members of the Stratzi family, old-time friends from Florence, took him to their estate at Tivoli.
00:54:36In these peaceful, sun-bay surroundings, his health was gradually restored.
00:54:54Now recovered, Michelangelo returned to Rome.
00:55:06As chief architect of the city, his work on palaces, gardens, and churches gave Rome a living grandeur which matched his vision of ancient Rome.
00:55:16For the reconstruction of the capital square, he designed a splendid staircase in marble, and decorated it with antique statues.
00:55:26In the center of the square, he erected an imposing figure of Marcus Aurelius.
00:55:41The handsome staircase of the Palace of the Senate lent new dignity to the capital.
00:55:52Overwhelmed with public duties, he still found time to continue work on his own sculpture.
00:55:57At 75, he was regarded with almost religious reverence, and now the Pope asked him to redesign St. Peter's.
00:56:12To build a monument worthy of the church triumphant.
00:56:28He had to cut through a tangle of plans submitted by all the leading architects.
00:56:33His own was a triumph of clarity.
00:56:47He was prevailed upon to construct a working model of the dome, to assure its completion in the event of his death.
00:56:54It was the greatest of all domes made up to that time.
00:57:24The
00:57:38but
00:57:45the
00:57:50THE END
00:58:20THE END
00:58:50THE END
00:59:20THE END
00:59:30Now in the last years of his life, he worked in his modest studio near the Trajan Forum, avoiding all contact with the papal court and Roman nobility.
00:59:41Here, in the shadows of St. Peter's, he labored to outwit death. But his health was failing.
00:59:52I'm broken, shattered, torn asunder. I am nothing but a bag of bones and nerves. I'm like a scarecrow set in a field. A spider hangs in one of my ears. And in the other, a cricket jerps all night long.
01:00:14The scarecrow was making another Pietà. Figures that once trembled with power, now crumble in a vibrant thromb.
01:00:29He is discouraged.
01:00:35The servitude that weighs on me. The greatest gust. The great distress of soul. With all my human weakness, I must still fashion out of stone human beings made to the image of God.
01:00:57Now his eyes turn inward. And his hands give form to the tremors of his soul.
01:01:06It is one of his last works. The descent from the cross. And the face of the old man, Nicodemus, who is looking toward Jesus, is the face of the sculptor himself.
01:01:25I am ill, ill with all the troubles which I want to afflict, old men. I am so old that death pulls at my sleeve. For she fears that I may forget. I will not forget.
01:01:48I know, he said. The creator will go. But his work survives. That is why, to escape death, I attempt to bind my soul to my work.
01:02:18The creator will go.