Michelangelo's Secret Drawings Are Underneath The Medici Chapel
Michelangelo is arguably one of the most famous artists of all time, whose
work is some of the most recognized. But many of us may not
have heard of his secret stash of drawings,
which researchers found hundreds of years after his death. The drawings
are on the walls of a small, cell-like room beneath the Medici Chapel of the Basilica di San Lorenzo chapel in Florence.
And here's where the story takes a turn for the even more interesting:
He was holed up there for months while the Medici family wanted him
dead.
In 1530, Michelangelo and many other Italians defied the pope in
hopes of a more democratic system of governance. This was a bold choice
for Michelangelo, who owed his entire career to the powerful Medici
family. The pope himself was a Medici,
by the way ; so this caused major problems for the artist. The pope and
his family sought to punish anyone defying their rule, which would have
included Michelangelo had he not hid in his dank little room beneath the
chapel, which he had originally built as a mausoleum for the Medici
Family. The drawings on the walls, which may include doodles of the
ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, were discovered in 1976 by the director
of the Museum of the Medici Chapel.
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