Renaissance: The Blood and the Beauty, on PBS

Michelangelo is often called a “Renaissance Man,” but he lived well into the Reformation. Fittingly, some of the talking heads dub his The Last Judgement a great work of Reformation art, because it is all about sinners burning you know where. Maybe even Savonarola would have approved—but probably not. Of course, Savonarola was very much a part of the Renaissance Era, if not its spirit. Indeed, the violence he unleashed fits right in with dual themes of director-producer Emma Frank’s three-part Renaissance: The Blood and the Beauty, which premieres tomorrow on PBS.

Poor Botticelli and Donatello might feel left out, because Frank largely focuses on Michelangelo’s professional rivalries with Da Vinci and Raphael. Clearly, Frank favors Team Michelangelo, since she incorporates dramatic monologues performed by Charles Dance, in the persona and costume of Michelangelo, adapted from the artist’s own writings. Indeed, Michelangelo had to compete against Da Vinci’s lofty reputation and Raphael’s political acumen, but he outlasted them both.

Frank and company frequently remind viewers of the dangers that came with living in the late 1400s, but that should not come as a great revelation to anyone who watched CW’s Leonardo. After all, both Da Vinci and Michelangelo secured good paying patronage work designing arms and fortifications.

Although wider in scope, The Blood and the Beauty feels a lot like Ken Burns’ Leonardo da Vinci, but with less impressive experts. Weirdly, Frank assembles a number of filmmakers and a “sex historian” (spare us, please) to compliment usual suspects like Walter Isaacson. (Burns’ film also features more distinctive music and narration, thanks to the contributions of Keth David and Caroline Shaw.)

Throughout the series, several historians suggest the patronage of the de Medicis and Pope Julius II represented a canny early understanding of soft power, suggesting their commissions represented propaganda imagery. They do not always close the loop on such arguments but Raphael’s Papal portrait is a convincing example. The series also nicely explores the evolving social perception of artists, who were merely considered trained artisans at the start of the Renaissance.

Dance has a jolly time chewing the scenery as Michelangelo, but Frank and the battery of editors give viewers just enough in these three episodes, so there is no need for anyone to produce a one-man “Evening with Michelangelo” follow-up stage-show. The level of analysis is rather inconsistent, but the series’ inclination towards the dark side of the Renaissance helps distinguish it from some of its predecessors. Recommended as diverting popular history, Renaissance: The Blood and the Beauty starts airing this Tuesday (7/8) on most PBS stations.