Through the Eyes of Michelangelo

You have seen the works of his hands – NOW MEET THE MAN!

Roaming high-atop his ceiling-high scaffolding, the earth-shaking super-star of the Renaissance, Michelangelo, entertains his visitors in the Sistine Chapel with stories of his life and times accompanied by the projection of vivid slides, with demonstrations of his innovative techniques, and with re-enactments of some of his most famous works of art, including the Roman Pieta, God giving life to Adam, and the Last Judgment.

The feisty poet extols the virtues of "the athletics of aesthetics", art of awesome power and immense vitality, where the viewer is contagiously coerced into viscerally reacting to the human emotions portrayed, where human physique is animated by universal truths more than mere religious doctrine, where people are inspired to an all-out, do or die charge at life, and where any challenge to his artistic abilities or purposes is met with unsurpassed ferocity and mastery. His contemporaries called it "Terribilita" and called him "the Divine Michelangelo".

This spiritually-minded sculptor, painter, poet and architect gave voice not only to matters of the soul, but also to the Florentine identification with ancient Athens and the ideals of Plato.

As the recent cleaning of this frescoes has revealed a fresh interpretation of his art, so does Michelangelo reveal his real personality: not the dark prince of angst, but an intense man powerfully inspired by spiritual beliefs. Just like his "David", Michelangelo was a maverick with the forcefulness of an athlete, a mysterious celebrity of his time, an artistic titan of awesome power and immense vitality who, rather than merely warming our hearts, compels us to WORK -- in order to understand his vision of a cohesive world view.

A victim of his own success, Michelangelo suffered from the demands of popularity experienced by celebrities today, hounded not by a posse of photographers, but by popes and rulers constantly forcing him into new projects, leaving earlier contracts unfulfilled and artistic visions unrealized.

Discover how he thwarted many an attempt to force failure upon him, by meeting every challenge and by surpassing all expectations. By rubbbing shoulders with a person of such inventiveness, humanity and intensity, audiences will be motivated to cultivate character traits of genius -- keen awareness, powerful imagination, self-determination, and integrity.

Memorable quotations

Auguste Rodin

Vincent Van Gogh

Leonardo da Vinci

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Claude Monet