The Sistine Chapel (Summer Repeat)

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 15 August 2024

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the astonishing work of Michelangelo (1477-1564) in this great chapel in the Vatican, firstly the ceiling with images from Genesis (of which the image above is a detail) and later The Last Judgement on the altar wall. For the Papacy, Michelangelo's achievement was a bold affirmation of the spiritual and political status of the Vatican, of Rome and of the Catholic Church. For the artist himself, already famous as the sculptor of David in Florence, it was a test of his skill and stamina, and of the potential for art to amaze which he realised in his astonishing mastery of the human form.

With

Catherine Fletcher Professor of History at Manchester Metropolitan University

Sarah Vowles The Smirnov Family Curator of Italian and French Prints and Drawings at the British Museum

And

Matthias Wivel The Aud Jebsen Curator of Sixteenth-Century Italian Paintings at the National Gallery

Producer: Simon Tillotson In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Rory Stewart and I want to talk about ignorance. I will die without having read
0:08.2	everything that was written in classical Latin. Because ignorance isn't simply the opposite of knowledge.
0:14.7	It's part of what it means to be human.
0:17.5	Just about every game I can think of involves ignorance.
0:22.1	There's no adventure without ignorance. There's no there's no narrative.
0:25.0	The long history of ignorance from Confucius to Kianan
0:29.0	with me Rory Stewart,
0:31.0	listen on BBC Sounds.
0:35.0	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:38.0	In our times on its annual break and we'll be back on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds on the 19th of September.
0:44.8	Until then, each week we're offering an episode chosen from our archive of more
0:49.0	than a thousand programs which I hope you'll enjoy. Have a good summer.
0:53.0	Hello, in 1506, Pope Julius II gave Michelangelo the chance to create arguably the greatest
0:58.8	work of art in his time or since, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
1:03.7	For the papacy his achievement was a bold affirmation of the spiritual and political status of the Vatican
1:09.1	and of the Catholic Church.
1:10.9	For Michelangelo, famous then as a sculptor of David it was a test of skill of stamina
1:16.2	and of the potential for art to amaze realized in his astonishing mastery of the
1:21.1	human form. With me to discuss the Sistine Javelar Sarah Vowles,
1:25.0	the Smyrnaudov family curator of Italian and French prints
1:29.0	and drawings at the British Museum.
1:31.0	Matius Wibble, the Ordage Jebston and curator of 16th century Italian paintings at the National Gallery,
	...

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