| Most people think learning history is boring, something | | | | to the curious. Michelangelo left strict orders that no |
| required in school and then promptly forgotten, like | | | | visitors were to be allowed in the Sistine Chapel. |
| algebra. But, those people never had a history teacher | | | | Michelangelo, busy as a bee himself, consumed with a |
| who knew the little stories, and the little stories that | | | | daunting task, apparently had little interest in the work |
| make history interesting. For me, art history is not just | | | | of Raphael. But Raphael had an interest in his. He paid |
| looking at pretty pictures with pretty colors; it is also a | | | | a secret visit aided by the pope to view the chapel |
| large body of knowledge about the culture and | | | | ceiling in progress. So profoundly did it affect him that |
| customs of real people. I was fortunate to learn from | | | | he returned to his work in the Stanza della Segnatura, |
| a number of gifted art historians, no, really storytellers, | | | | the private library of the pope, where he proceeded to |
| as teachers. This is one of those little stories. | | | | pay tribute to Michelangelo by incorporating a seated |
| Italian Renaissance giants Michelangelo Buonarroti and | | | | figure of Michelangelo in the foreground of his |
| Raphael Sanzio had an unspoken competition. The | | | | masterpiece fresco, The School of Athens. |
| irascible Michelangelo, forced by Pope Julius II into | | | | That is only the background for this little story. Perhaps |
| painting the ceiling of his own private chapel, the Sistine | | | | not so well known then as his Madonnas or his |
| as we know it, complained that he was not a painter, | | | | magnificent Vatican frescoes, Raphael Sanzio also |
| but a sculptor. This complaint fell on deaf ears as the | | | | executed a stunning fresco of The Prophet Isaiah in |
| pope had a war to fight and neither time nor patience | | | | Sant Agostino in Rome in 1511-12. The donor patron of |
| for soothing the artistic temperament. If the tale is true, | | | | Isaiah was Head Chancellor of the Papal Court, |
| the pope had even less patience for seeing that the | | | | Johannes Goritz of Luxemburg. Ruffled by what he |
| artist was paid. Food being a necessity, this was a | | | | considered to be an exorbitant price for the painting by |
| bone of contention between artist and patron. Raphael, | | | | Raphael, Goritz solicited Michelangelo for his opinion of |
| on the other hand, blessed with a much more affable | | | | its worth. Michelangelo looked at the painting of his |
| personality, never seemed to lack for funds, friends, or | | | | chief rival with its powerfully rendered figure of the |
| food. Both artists were occupied with the private | | | | prophet. Rarely one to acknowledge the genius in |
| artistic visions of the pope in the Vatican | | | | others, Michelangelo simply replied, 'For that knee alone, |
| simultaneously. | | | | it is worth the price. |
| The work of Raphael in the Vatican Stanze was open | | | | |