A documentary can typically inform a viewer extra in regards to the time it was made than the one it recounts. This holds very true for movies in regards to the Renaissance, which has been so meticulously coated that new revelations are farther and fewer between. The three-part BBC docuseries Renaissance: The Blood and the Magnificence, at present airing and streaming in the USA through PBS, is the latest entry on this custom. It won’t maintain something new for artwork historical past fanatics, however it’s a enjoyable primer for neophytes, and can absolutely make addition to the canon of college tutorial supplies. (I imply this as a praise.)
The best affect on this latest spin on the Renaissance is clearly Recreation of Thrones, beginning with the violence-tinged title. There’s a heavy emphasis on the political intrigues of Florence and Rome, particularly how the work of the interval’s most famed artists intertwined with the altering fortunes of main gamers just like the Medici dynasty and the emotions of the time. Michelangelo’s early sculpture “Bacchus” (1496–97), as an illustration, was commissioned by a cardinal however rejected upon completion as a result of its portrayal of the god’s drunken debauchery was just too attractive for the instances. The miniseries additionally adopts an analogous storytelling mode to the favored fantasy present, portraying broader turns in society by the views of people, with Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo positioned as major characters (in one other robust tie to Recreation of Thrones, the final is performed by the esteemed Charles Dance).
Whereas the sequence is full of reenactment — there’s extra of it than major visible sources, and probably even footage of speaking heads — Michelangelo is the one historic character to talk on to the viewers. He recounts being handed from one patron to a different, attempting to maintain his head down beneath the reactionary anti-“vanities” rule of the priest Girolamo Savonarola, and feuds with friends. The excellence between his private confessions, that are drawn from his precise writings, and the skilled commentary offers a number of the sequence’s most attention-grabbing friction. For example, immediately’s historians state with confidence that Michelangelo was queer, however he himself says nothing about this within the sequence as a result of he doesn’t determine as such in his private writings. Michelangelo is thus not an authoritative or wholly dependable narrator, however relatively a subjective voice who speaks solely from his personal time.
It’s inescapable to depart so much out when condensing practically a century of historical past into three hours, however it’s nonetheless a pity. The rise and fall of Savonarola, who briefly seized management of Florence, turns into virtually an apart, and whereas the documentary acknowledges Michelangelo’s queerness, it doesn’t delve deeply into how we’ve ascertained it (resembling his many romantic poems addressed to males). Lots of the pleasures of studying in regards to the previous come from these smaller particulars relatively than the broader occasions, and it frequently frustrates me to see mainstream documentaries elide them. That is what colours historical past! To proceed the analogy, it’s additionally why everybody liked the early, character-driven seasons of Recreation of Thrones and hated the later plot-driven seasons (nicely, that and since these plotlines have been very silly).
Nonetheless, it’s good to see a historic documentary that emphasizes the materialist facet of creative creation. Works just like the “Mona Lisa” (1503) and “Pietà” (1498–99) didn’t emerge merely from these artists’ brilliance, however as particular reactions to the occasions of historical past and the calls for of their patrons. It deepens one’s appreciation of the Sistine Chapel fresco to know not simply that some man named Michelangelo painted it, however that it was commissioned by Julius II, the “warrior pope” who needed to immortalize his identify, and that the artist needed to restart early on as a result of he didn’t combine the plaster accurately and mould grew on it. The artwork that endures has lived by a number of the most mundane issues you possibly can think about.
Renaissance: The Blood and the Magnificence (2025) is airing new episodes Tuesdays by July 22 on PBS.
