Book Club for Art Lovers: Italian Renaissance

Get ready to dive into the vibrant world of the Italian Renaissance with fellow art enthusiasts at our Book Club for Art Lovers event!

Welcome to the April gathering of the Book Club for Art Lovers! In this meeting, we raise our eyes towards the sky to take in the world-famous Sistine Chapel--but not just as casual observers. Author Ross King gives us an intimate look at the drama and turmoil surrounding the creation of the beloved masterpeice in Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling.

When Pope Julius II (dubbed "the Warrior Pope" for his combative nature and unrelentting drive for power) commissioned Rome's most celebrated sculptor to adorn the Sistine Chapel in 1508, he had little notion of the conflict to come. Michelangelo had little painting experience but he did have a massive ego and a temper to match, and over the course of the next four years he and the fiery Pope Julius engaged in multiple battles, pitting art against Papal power with sometimes explosive results. In revealing the passion and the politics that rocked Rome both inside and outside of the Chapel's walls, King shows us a very different side of the frescoes we always thought we knew.

Book: Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling by Ross King (ISBN: 978-1620408407)