Michelangelo - Saint or sinner

The following programme contains flashing images.

'Was Michelangelo a saint or a sinner?

He's a saint of art.

He's certainly a patron saint of art

and probably one of the most famous artists in the world.

So in that sense,

he's saintly in that we still respect him and observe him

and go to his relics and the remains that he's given us.

But he thought of himself as a sinner.'

'I think in this case, we have to separate

the artist from the man and when we think of an artist,

the public persona is always this genius,

this guy who had the hands of God to create these divine-like works.

Then it's hard to think of him in any other way than divine.

But maybe this is the perfect moment in time, in history,

to think about him as a human being, as a complicated human being.'

I love Michelangelo on a very deep level.

He's the ultimate artist for me.

And I- I like to think of him more like a God than a mere mortal.

So, he's a complex man,

and maybe it's time for me to stop thinking about him as a God

and think about him as a man.

'I never tire of being in Rome.'

'I've been coming here for 20 years for my career.'

'It's almost as if I left a little piece of myself here,

and then I reconnect with it again every time.

It's a place that just gives me so much energy.

When I'm walking these cobblestones,

I'm immediately connected to Renaissance Masters.

I'm looking at these ancient monuments

and I'm thinking of an entirely different world.

But a world that still informs my existence today.'

'It's such a layered city,

and I suppose I'm addicted to it.'

'I'm a pilgrim. I keep returning.

And there's one artist more than anyone else

that I'm in search for...

..that I'm always keeping an eye out for...

and it's Michelangelo.'

This is the tomb of Pope Julius II by Michelangelo.

It was supposed to be one of the most magnificent,

splendid, ground-breaking artworks in history.

And instead, it's completely mired in controversy.

It took 40 years to deliver. It is far diminished.

It is a modest artwork instead of a magnificent artwork.

And ultimately,

it's something that really threatens Michelangelo's reputation.

It involves lots of scheming, lots of letters,

lots of accusations, several popes,

Michelangelo's rivals, Raphael and Bramante.

Perhaps the biggest controversy about Michelangelo, this tomb.

The mausoleum was to be Michelangelo's commission of a lifetime

that was meant to secure his legacy forever,

secure it beyond our wildest dreams that we know today.

'I think the failed tomb of Pope Julius II

can give us a different insight into Michelangelo's personal life.

Without this tomb,

and the controversy that surrounded it at the time,

Michelangelo probably would not have created

some of his most magnificent work.

So one could argue that out of his darkest moments

rose some of his brightest achievements.'

'As a sculptor, he had imagined something ambitious,

a marble monument like no other.

This tomb for Pope Julius II, known as the warrior pope,

was meant to become the eighth wonder of the world.'

'We are unaware of the details as we have no drawings.

But we do know that he wanted it to be magnificent.

A celebration of Christianity,

he wanted it to be a freestanding tomb

made entirely of the finest Carrara marble he would choose himself.

Never since classical times had a mausoleum like this

been built in the West for one man alone.

Michelangelo planned to finish it in under six years.

So why didn't he?'

This mausoleum would've immortalised Pope Julius II

as this king-like pope,

who was this architect of Rome who helped enable Rome to prosper

as one of the greatest cities artistically in the world.

It was supposed to be the Sistine Chapel in marble,

and instead we have Moses.

And don't get me wrong, I love Moses. It's a masterpiece.

But he was supposed to have serious company.

And instead, he's on his own.

The tomb ultimately cost a huge amount of money.

Maybe well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars

in modern equivalency.

But here's where, over the long, long history

of this tomb of 40 years, there were contracts

and there was agreements and there was funding,

and then there was promotion, more money presented.

Michelangelo didn't keep track of it!

And this is how he got into trouble. He didn't keep track of the money,

he didn't- he couldn't legitimise, or legitimate,

what he was spending his money on.

He was just a terrible, terrible money manager.

Mmm.

Stop.

Well...

KATE (IN ENGLISH): I began my career at the British Museum,

talking about Michelangelo in these divine terms.

But I never really thought about him as a man before.

And when I think about the Tomb of Julius II,

I realised that I haven't acknowledged that perhaps...

perhaps Michelangelo was flawed, perhaps he made mistakes.

Why did this tomb take 40 years to deliver?

Why was he hounded by the family

asking for the artwork that he promised them?

Why did he take money and then maybe not deliver on the sculptures?

And I think that, as art historians,

sometimes we're guilty of just putting forward

the story of Michelangelo and all of his accomplishments.

And we don't like to think about all the messy, complicated stuff.

I want to really understand this artist that I love so much.

You know, to be a true art historian is to see an artist in the round.

And that's what I need to do.

'Michelangelo's born in 1475, in a really tiny place,

Caprese, it's near Arezzo, in the Tuscan countryside.

Michelangelo came from a family which had very noble origins.

He was always very keen to stress this, it was important to him.

But by no means was- did he grew up in a family

which had a huge amount of wealth.'

And over 500 years later,

this is still one of the most remote parts of Italy I've ever seen.

And it spectacular. It's not about people.

It's not about buildings. It's not about money.

It's not about status. It's not about power.

This place just seems to be about light and nature.

And actually, Michelangelo's making more sense as an artist for me.

It's really important for me to come back to this place

and trace his footsteps and say, "He was born".

He was- He was flesh and blood, just like me.

And I think this art is known the world over.

This, sort of, person who set the benchmark for what art could be

was born right here.

He doesn't grow up with a lot of money.

There's no financial stability.

There's definitely always a concern in Michelangelo...

Even when he's in his much later years

and he shouldn't be worrying about money, he does worry about money.

And you can see his letters with his father.

His father's constantly writing to him to say,

when he's a young man, "You should be more financially secure,

but you mustn't live in poverty.

But at the same time, you mustn't live extravagantly."

There's all these pressures on him

and that stays with him throughout his entire life.

It's definitely a really psychological trait in Michelangelo

to both uphold the good name of the family,

but not be seen to be too luxurious.

And I think you see that in the way that he handles money.

I mean, he's slightly negligent when he handles money.

He's very concerned about money, but he doesn't count every penny,

he's so busy with his work, so he's a bit of a contradiction.

Well, Michelangelo was the person in the family that made money.

And so, um, yes, his father

was constantly asking for money from Michelangelo.

And so Michelangelo's a little bit irritated

that other members of his family weren't making as much money.

But Michelangelo made a LOT of money in his life.

I mean, he- by the end of his life, he was a multimillionaire,

but he didn't spend money on himself.

He spent money on everything else, his art and mostly on marble.

So, the... money was always a tension,

as it probably is in many families.

Well, Michelangelo came from an old, noble family...

uh, impoverished nobility.

And so, his father would naturally expect Michelangelo

to become a member of the government or a notary,

or something that was not manual labour,

which is what art was considered,

a manual labour and not very prestigious.

'When Michelangelo as a young man says he wants to become an artist,

you can imagine his family were really shocked

to the point of thinking they might be disgraced

by him becoming an artist.

But he obviously just feels it on a very instinctive level.'

But I think what becomes very clear

is that by the time that Michelangelo is 13,

he's basically just drawing at school.

He just wants to be an artist.

And his father and his uncle try and convince him not to be an artist.

But eventually they submit, and he goes to become an apprentice

at the workshop of Ghirlandaio, who's a very respected Florentine artist.

'So, I've come to Florence to retrace his footsteps

and think about him in all of his complexity.

The Tomb of Julius II, it seems like quite a contemporary problem.

You know, there's fake news.

There's people trying to slander Michelangelo.

They're trying to cancel him, they're trying to bring him down.

Was he a saint, or was he a sinner? I don't know.