Professor William Wallace, Department of Art History and Archaeology, Washington University in St. Louis, has studied studied the life, and works, of Michelangelo for about 40 years. Professor Wallace joins the show to share more about Michelangelo’s later years—his distinguished architectural projects, his indefatigable work a mere days before his death, and why he spent so much of his later years in Rome versus Florence.
Some topics explored
- Who Michelangelo di Lodovici Buonarroti Simoni (Michelangelo) was
- His having been hired by five popes in his lifetime
- What Michelangelo was working on, literally, days before Michelangelo’s death
- Michelangelo’s writing and communications (he was known to have around 1,100 close relationships)
- How many letters Michelangelo wrote, and letters written to Michelangelo, survive
- His work as an engineer
- Why Michelangelo spent so much of his later years in Rome versus Florence
- The circumstances surrounding his corpse being stolen from Rome and surreptitiously brought to Florence where it remains today
- His distinguished work as an architect on the St. Peters Basilica in Rome
- How Michelangelo was as a manger (he managed around 300 people on one project)
- His work carving his own tomb
- Discussion about what Michelangelo is believed to have wanted to best be known by
Listen to the episode
The episode can be streamed below and is also available on major podcast apps: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music.
Show Notes
- Professor Wallace is the author of the books Michelangelo, God’s Architect: The Story of His Final Years and Greatest Masterpiece (Princeton University Press) and Michelangelo: The Artist, the Man and his Times (Cambridge University Press)
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