The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965)
Director: Carol Reed
Starring: Charlton Heston, Rex Harrison, Diane Cilento, Harry Andrews, Adolfo Celi
Julius the Pope commissions Michelangelo (Charlton Heston) to paint the side panels of the sistine chapel, but Michelangelo is primarily a sculptor and does not want the assignment. But the Pope persists and Michelangelo reluctantly takes on the project. He grows ever more reluctant and frustrated as he realizes how dissatisfied he is with the Pope's theme of the 12 apostles for the side panels.
And so starts a series of rows between the Pope and the painter with the painter being unable to compromise, but finally giving the Pope some respect.
There is a lot of history to the story also as the Pope had to manage several wars all the while tangling with Michelangelo.
Historical Background:
Near the end of the 15th century -- Italy becomes the object of a succession of aggressive wars, waged by France, Spain, and Austria, which culminated in the ascendancy of the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs.
1475 -- born Michelangelo Buonarroti in Caprese, Italy.
1488 -- at age 13, he is apprenticed to Domenico Ghirlandaio, who at the time was painting a chapel in the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. Learns the technique of fresco (painting on fresh plaster before it dries). Lorenzo de' Medici saw him at work and was impressed. He decided to sponsor Michelangelo.
1490 -- at age 15, Michelangelo began to stay in the home of Lorenzo de' Medici, where he studied sculpture under Bertoldo di Giovanni. He grows up with the children of Lorenzo. A problem for Michelangelo was that he was a determined republican living in a virtual Medici dictatorship. This would cause him to break with the Medici family. Michelangelo finishes the Madonna of the Stairs and the Battle of the Centaurs. He leaves Florence following the death of Lorenzo de' Medici. He eventually goes to Rome where he carves the Bacchus and the Pietà.
Lorenzo eventually buys his son a cardinalship, while his nephew becomes a priest.
1492 -- death of Lorenzo 'de Medici.
1494 (October) -- Michelangelo transferred to Bologna where he completed the tomb of St. Dominic.
1494 -- King Charles VIII of France undertakes to conquer the kingdom of Naples, then under the rule of the house of Aragón. Charles conducts this campaign for the Milanese regent Ludovico Sforza and the citizens of Florence, who are restive under the Medici family. He invades Italy, occupies Naples, and concludes a treaty with Florence, by the terms of which the Medici are expelled and the pope brought to submission. Cardinal Medici and his son the priest have to leave Florence for fear of being assassinated.
A league forms against King Charles VIII composed of Spain, the pope, the Holy Roman emperor, and the Italian cities of Venice and Milan. Charles is forced to retire from Naples and fight his way out of Italy.
1496 -- Michelangelo comes to Rome.
1498-1499 -- he sculpted the masterpiece of his early years, the Pietá for St. Peter's.
1499 -- King Louis XII of France, successor to Charles VIII, subjugates Milan.
1501 -- Ferdinand V of Castile, king of Sicily since 1468, reunites Naples and Sicily under one crown.
1501-1504 -- Michelangelo returns to Florence and completes his statue of David, which symbolically stood for the Republicans (the slayer David) of the Medicis (Goliath).
1503-1513 -- Pope Julius II's tenure.
1504 -- back in Florence, Michelangelo completes the statue David.
1506 -- Pope Julius II laid the foundation stone of the new St. Peter's Cathedral. He was a patron of Bramante, Raphael and Michelangelo.
In Rome, Pope Julius II summons Michelangelo to create a tomb for him with 40 life size figures.
1508 -- Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo resented this assignment thinking that it was a forced change out of sculpting to painting.
1512 -- Michelangelo returns to the work on Julius' tomb, completing the figure of Moses and leaving unfinished two Slaves.
1512 -- he finished painting the Sistine Chapel.
1513 -- Pope Julius II dies; Cardinal Medici becomes Pope Leo X. And now Michelangelo works for Pope Leo X, Lorenzo de' Medici's son.
1521 -- death of Pope Leo X.
1522-1523 -- Adrian VI is the new pope.
1523-1534 -- Leo X's cousin, another Medici and a cousin, becomes Pope Clement VII.
1524 -- The rivalry between Charles V, the Holy Roman emperor, and King Francis I of France leads to another French invasion of Italy. With the Florentines, Genoese, and Venetians as allies, the French are successful at first, but then face defeat.
1527 -- Rome sacked by Protestant sympathizers during the Reformation.
1529 -- the Peace of Cambrai; Francis I renounces all his claims to territory in Italy.
1534 -- Michelangelo leaves Florence for Rome, where he spends the remainder of his life. The Medici Pope commissioned Michelangelo to paint a fresco in the Sistine Chapel honoring his family and himself. (For revenge against the Medicis, Michelangelo painted a brutal scene of the Last Judgment.)
1534 --- death of Pope Clement VII.
1534-1549 -- tenure of Pope Paul III.
1541 -- the Last Judgment finished. The paintings contained many nude figures and after the death of Micheangelo the Church had Daniele da Volterra paint drapery over the offending parts.
1540s -- Francis I renews the conflict, but Charles's domination over Italy cannot be broken.
1542-1559 -- Paul III commissioned from Michelangelo's last major frescos for the Capella Paolina, the Conversion of St. Paul and the Martyrdom of St. Peter.
1546 -- Michelangelo appointed Chief Architect to St. Peter's, charged with the completion of the new church.
1550-1555 -- tenure of Pope Julius III.
1555 -- Pope Marcellus II.
1555-1559 -- tenure of Pope Paul IV.
1559-1565 -- tenure of Pope Pius IV.
1564 -- Michelangelo dies.
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