15 ...

Michelangelo (looking puzzled)
Wait a minute. A camera? Do you mean like camera obscura ? 

But that cannot be. This thing (examines the tiny camera, rolling it around on his palm) is so small. (looks up) And what do you mean by "wireless?" What wires? Where is Da Vinci when you need him? Never mind, I'm happier without his snooty nose stuck into this business.

Newkirk
I know it must be very disorienting to see new technology like this, but my advice is to simply accept these things, learn how to use them if necessary, and ignore what you don't need. Trust me, it's how most of us cope today. Otherwise, we'll be here forever, talking about the history of modern technology.

Picasso
It's not just you, my friend. I've never seen these things either.

Newkirk (nodding to Picasso)
That's right ... so much has happened in this field since the 1960s. Even today, the pace of change is so fast that it seems unless you're a teenager, or even younger, you have to work at keeping up with all the new developments. A lot of older people are finding this to be quite a struggle. Anyway, if you can accept that this thing is a camera capable of recording live motion as well as still images and sound, and can transmit that information anywhere in the world ... well, it just might make things easier.

Michelangelo (shaking his head)
Ah. It's all too much. Very well, I'll try to do as you say; but if we (indicates the others) need to know how to operate something ...

Newkirk
... I'll be glad to show you what I know, which in many cases will be inadequate, but we'll manage. What I want to know is why this camera is here, and who is using it.

MEANWHILE, IN A SMALL, WINDOWLESS ROOM, SOMEWHERE IN THE ROME ...

Tenente di Guardia, Guido Marchese 

What's wrong with camera 17? The screen has gone blank.

Sottotenente di Guardia, Paolo Bandone

I don't know, Guido. I just got in. Was it black when you arrived?

Marchese

I was concentrating on balancing my cornetto and coffee when I unlocked the door, so I'm not sure. I think so. Here, I brought yours too (passes coffee and pastry to the other man). The night team must've left early, lazy bums – nobody here when I came in. Check the list Paolo. What location does 17 cover?

Bandone

Uh, just a sec ... (runs a finger down the column of place names). Yeah, here it is. That one is in the Sistine Chapel.

Marchese

Cazzo. We'll have to call the Swiss Guards. Those guys can be such pricks. Let's have a quick look at what we've got before the camera crapped out. Go back to 10 minutes before the last time index.

Bandone (locates camera 17 on his keyboard, taps the reverse feed button, and a few seconds later, flickering images appear on the formerly black screen - taps stop, then play forward, then stop) What's that thing? 

Marchese (stands behind Bandone and looks over his shoulder at the still image on the screen; puzzled, he scratches his head) If I didn't know better, I'd say it's ... nah. Couldn't be. This is the Sistine Chapel for god's sake.

Bandone

What? What do you think you see? Whatever it is, it's right against the lens, and it's metallic and shiny.

Marchese

You ever join the fencing club at school, or at the academy? I swear that looks like the tip of one of the swords they have hanging all over the place. Go back another ten minutes, will you? There, stop there. Who are those guys? I count one close to the camera and four others near the centre of the chapel. How'd they get in there before the tours start? Can you bring up their faces?

(Within moments, five faces appear on the screen. Bandone proceeds to enhance and sharpen the images. He leans back, runs a hand through his hair and whistles a single note.)

Bandone

Look at this. Holy shit, it's true. I wouldn't have believed it if I weren't looking at it with my own eyes. I don't recognize this one (points to Newkirk's face) but these others? ... Unless somebody is into some elaborate impersonation scheme, that is Pablo Picasso - of that I'm sure.

Marchese

But Picasso's been dead for years. You're shitting me, no?

Bandone

Nope – these three are supposed to be dead too. Better sit down, Guido. That ... that is, oh jeez, I can't believe what I'm about to say ... that is Michelangelo Buonarroti (Marchese gasps), this is Raffaello Sanzio, and this is Gian Lorenzo Bernini. I may not be a swordsman, but I'm into this stuff, art history – always have been. I'd know those faces anywhere.

Marchese

My god.(falls back into his chair) I thought somebody at headquarters was pulling my leg. Got a memo last week – very high security clearance – that said a number of famous artists had been reported in Venice last fall, and that now they were showing up here. The memo said that many of these artists had long since been considered dead. They offered no explanation. Then yesterday another memo arrived saying that some of these artists had been reported missing. How the hell can you be missing if you've been dead for five hundred years? Who's reporting them missing? It's insane. (pauses, then decisively) You must be wrong Paolo. We've gotta run these faces through every data base we can access. I'm sure as hell not reporting that Michelangelo is alive and well and in the Sistine Chapel. Impossible. Impossible! (another thoughtful pause) Oh, my god ... this is why you were assigned here. You know art history – it must be in your file that you're some kind of expert, so they wanted you on this. Come on, let's see what we can find out. (opens a filing drawer) Where the hell did I put those memos?

14 ...

Bernini, Newkirk and Raphael are startled by a low moan apparently coming from Michelangelo at the far end of the chapel. The moan becomes a growl, followed by a string of obscenities not at all in keeping with the setting.

Raphael
What the devil is that about? I feel the back of my neck crawling. (calls to Michelangelo) What is it? What's wrong?

Michelangelo
Look at this! The paint is so poorly matched. How is it that no one has seen this before now? And what the hell is that? (points at something as the others walk over to join him)

Newkirk (peers up at what appears to be a slightly damaged spot on the fresco) I see what you mean, Michelangelo. Charon's left eye looks a bit odd.

Michelangelo
Odd? It's ruined! I don't understand it. I want to have a closer look.

Newkirk
If only I could reach it. It's just a bit too high. (looks around) I wish I had an umbrella or a stick.

Raphael 
Will this do? (from under his cloak, he draws a sparkling and deadly-looking sword. The others stare at him in silent shock, mouths open.)
(indignantly) What? I attended a formal affair before I joined you. Don't worry, I never use the thing – it's strictly for effect. Here (hands the sword, hilt first, to Newkirk). Try it. See if you can touch that spot on Charon's eye.

Newkirk
I can't believe I'm brandishing a sword in the Sistine Chapel ... and that I'm about to damage a fresco by Michelangelo.

Picasso
Oh, get on with it. The painting is already damaged and there's no one else here.

Newkirk 
(raises the sword to Charon's face, and risks a gentle scratch of the surface. Small pieces of plaster fall away from the left eye) Whoever did this chose a good spot. This eye is on the dark side of the face, and as we found out, just a little too high for the average viewer to discover. (one more small tap with the point of the sword)

Picasso
My god, something has been placed in that cavity.

Newkirk
It's a camera! Here, wait a second. (he pokes with the sword and dislodges a tiny black cylinder. It falls to the floor at his feet.)

Look! It's even shaped like an eye, and it's not much bigger. No wonder it wasn't found earlier. (looks up in panic and stares at each artist in turn). What the hell does it mean? If this thing is working, we're being watched right now! Surely the Vatican can't have installed this to keep an eye on the tourists – do you think?

13 ...

Bernini strolls over to them, leaving Michelangelo to continue inspecting of his recently restored masterpieces.

Bernini
These paintings certainly did have a profound effect on future generations of artists. The evidence is there for example, where god appears to be flying through that imaginary hole in the ceiling, and in other places throughout the ceiling panels – this, as they say, is just the tip of the iceberg.

Newkirk
What do you mean, Gian Lorenzo? If this is the tip, where is the rest of the iceberg?

Bernini
I mean that Michelangelo was so advanced in using, as a sculptor, a painter, and perhaps especially as an architect, the idea that one could not only suggest a convincing extension of physical space that recedes away from the viewer, but also that a work of art might extend out toward the viewer, involving him or her physically as a participant in the scene. And he even distorted architectural and sculptural elements in order to further dramatize a visual effect. Think of his David, as a start.

Michelangelo, David, 1501-1504

When you enter the Accademia to see the David, he appears at the end of a long gallery, in a circular space of his own. He is looking to his left. When you enter his circular gallery, and approach him from that direction, his left, you feel that you should look over your shoulder to see what David is so intently studying. Well, of course he is looking at the giant Goliath – at least metaphorically; there is no sculpture of Goliath to see. But there is this sense that you are trespassing between the two, and that you may actually be at risk since your position is between these adversaries. Of course you also know that David's head is about twice normal size, so that passers-by would still see his intense expression if the sculpture had in fact been installed atop the Duomo in Firenze, as was the intention at one time.

This business of distorting and extending spatial considerations is everywhere in Michelangelo's work. It certainly influenced me, and Pablo, here I think is the groundwork for your own experiments. You have seen the staircase of the Laurentian Library as it flows out to meet the visitor, like a gentle cascade.

And in the new sacristy of San Lorenzo, Michelangelo's sculptures for the Medici tombs use the convention of the sacra conversazione to suggest again that, as we enter the centre of the room, we are trespassing between and among participants in a meditative conversation – it's like the uncomfortable space we occupy between David and Goliath. This time, it is Mary and the infant Jesus (along with two attending saints) who are central to the conversation, and the Medici brothers, Lorenzo and Giuliano who "confer" with those central figures.

Michelangelo, Medici Tombs, new sacristy of the church of San Lorenzo, Florence, Italy 

But he did more with that room. The white and grey architectural elements he added to the surface of its walls are like more sculptures. These become fewer and lighter and airier as we look up from the main floor to the dome above. And then he did something quite remarkable. The window, just below the dome, is designed to be narrower at its top than at the bottom. In other words, Michelangelo exaggerated the viewer's sense of perspective to make that window appear to be taller, and the dome higher than it actually is. Pure genius. The room seems higher, but looking up from below, we don't really know why. Forgive me ... I'm going on. 

Newkirk
No, please; I'm enjoying this. Your enthusiasm is infectious. You know, when we were crossing the Piazza san Pietro – your piazza – Michelangelo said something about your having used some of his architectural conventions. What did he mean by that?

Bernini
I think he must have been referring to the balustrade above the colonnade, and the sculptures that stand atop it. This is something that he did decades before I made my piazza in his design for the Campidoglio, the perfect piazza. 

Michelangelo, The Campidoglio, the perfect piazza

The idea is gradually to lighten and dissolve the physical building as it reaches into the heavens. The solidity of earth gives way to the lacework, if you will, of balustrade and the even airier and more heavenward sculptural elements. It's much like the Medici Chapel in that regard. Everything lightens as it extends heavenward. It's a "new" variation of the heavenward stretch of the great Gothic churches.

And you know by the way, that this piazza is in itself a variation of the sacra conversazione. The facades of the three buildings are linked by the design on the pavement - the buildings (and the sculpted figures above the rails) reflect and "speak to" each other. This is one of the most beautiful spaces in Rome. And one more thing before I stop myself ... you must walk behind the Campidoglio when you visit. There you will find the most breath-taking view of the ancient Forum of Rome. Go in the evening – I guarantee that you will be glad you did. But perhaps you know this place?

Newkirk

Yes, I do; and I completely agree. It is a wonderful place.

12 ...

Raphael  (notices Picasso studiously looking up at the ceiling)
Which passage interests you, Pablo? It's hard to pick a favourite from among so many wonderful paintings.

Picasso (relaxes his shoulders and, shaking his head in wonder he glances at Raphael)
Truly amazing. It is now five centuries since Michelangelo climbed down from his scaffolding for the last time. Just amazing. I'm looking at the panel of god creating the stars and planets. It is Michelangelo's treatment of space, in the cinquecento for heaven's sake, that fascinates me.

You see how it's possible to estimate the depth of the space god occupies by "measuring" the distance between his pointed fingertips? Or on the left, between the soles of his feet and the outstretched left hand. It's figures like this that inspired superhero fantasies in the 20th century. Uccello played with this a bit in the quattrocento ...

Paolo Uccello, Niccolò Mauruzi da Tolentino at the Battle of San Romano (probably c. 1438–1440), egg tempera with walnut oil and linseed oil on poplar, 182 × 320 cm,National Gallery, London.

... as did the great Mantegna just years before Michelangelo, a sculptor remember, painted this spectacular ceiling cycle.

Lamentation of the Dead Christ by Andrea Mantegna (c.1490)

But truly, Michelangelo is the artist who changed everything. You, Raphael, are a great artist without doubt. However, for shear inventiveness, Michelangelo has no equal. Ahem, well ... at least not until the early 20th century when a young painter named Picasso changes it all again. Nevertheless, the liberties that I have taken in representing three-dimensional space might never have been possible without the daring example of Michelangelo. Oh, I suppose that's an oversimplification, but standing here, one can't help wanting to ascribe everything wonderful about painting to Michelangelo. I mean, just look at the next panel ... god dividing the water from the earth.

The tompe l'oeil architectural details, the contorted figures that frame what looks like a hole in the ceiling, revealing god whirling around the heavens. He looks ready to burst through that opening and swoop down into the chapel with us. Astonishing. I'm sure that Gian Lorenzo must see this as the beginning of Baroque tromp l'oeil.

Fra Andrea Pozzo, Glorification of Saint Ignatius (detail, the continents),

ceiling fresco in the nave of Sant'Ignazio, Rome, 1691-94 

11 ...

Three of the group are intimately familiar with the various hallways throughout the Vatican, but all are content to let Michelangelo lead the way. Rather than where the tourists enter, just beneath the damned souls of the Last Judgement, Michelangelo opens the huge wooden doors to emerge as he always did, from the proper entrance used by Cardinals and Popes. The otherwise masterful frescoes of Botticelli, Perugino, Pinturicchio, Ghirlandaio, and Roselli are powerfully dominated by Michelangelo's masterpieces.

As compelling as it is to look immediately up toward the ceiling, having entered from this end of the chapel, they are first confronted by the magnificent Last Judgement on the wall behind the altar. 

http://maitaly.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/michelangelo-sistine-chapel-the-last-judgement/

Bernini
Are you happy with the restoration work, Michelangelo?

Michelangelo
What? Restoration? What do you mean, restoration?

Bernini
Oh ... it had not occurred to me that you were unaware of the recent work. Forgive me, I thought you knew. For centuries the priests have burned candles and incense, without so much as a thought for what the soot might do to your frescoes. And then too, the entire world wanted to stand here to see the paintings for themselves. The crowds these days are positively suffocating, especially from June to October. They jostle and shove with their dusty clothes, their breath, and despite the admonitions of the poor priest in the corner who acts as disciplinarian, their cameras. As you can imagine, the effect of all of this has been to darken and obscure your original colours. But this time, the conservators and scientists tried to get it right. To my eye, everything looks marvellously vivid and fresh, compared to what I knew of the Sistine in my own time. Now they are taking greater care not to discolour the paintings with "close guesses.". 

Michelangelo
Well, yes, the soot worried me from the beginning. (squinting as he examines particular areas of the Last Judgement) Hmmm. This green is not quite right. (stands back to take in the entire wall; scans the ceiling). But, on the whole, I think the frescoes look very much as I left them. It's out of my hands ... yet again! There's nothing I can do to correct any mistakes, so I suppose the best thing is simply to let it go, and enjoy what is here today. It's pretty good though. AHA! Look! Here's that idiot, penny-pinching Cardinal Carafa, just where I left him, and precisely where he belongs ... among the damned. 

10 ...

Michelangelo (embracing Picasso warmly)
Pablo! How good it is to see you again. You know the others? 

Pablo Picasso

Picasso
Yes, of course ... (shakes hands with the others) ... Hello again David, Raffaello, Gian Lorenzo. Nice to see you all again – this time in your own city – although I hope you enjoyed the event in Venice as much as I did. (friendly greetings and expressions of agreement all around) What a beautiful morning in Roma. Where are you four headed so early?

Newkirk
We are on our way to the Sistine, with the great artist himself, to talk about the ceiling in terms of Michelangelo's artistic legacy. Join us, if you have the time, please.

Picasso
That would be delightful, thank you. Certainly I'll come along. (smiling) I'd like to bet that you two (indicates Raphael and Michelangelo) have been exchanging rather pointed remarks.

Raphael 
That is a bet you would win, my friend. Glad you can join us, although you know from our previous encounters that I disapprove of your atheism. Your earlier remark about not needing God to appreciate this place ... really, Pablo you are shameless.

Picasso (chuckling)
Shameless? Hmmm, perhaps. But we've been through this religious discussion Raphael, and you know how sternly I disapprove of your god, and of all the others that people have invented to justify the awful things they do to each other. Let us agree to disagree, and enjoy the morning and the good company.

Michelangelo
Yes, yes, yes. Leave him alone Raphael. Let's get to the chapel before the tourists arrive. (to Bernini) But, Gian Lorenzo, I must compliment you on this marvellous structure. I see that you have used some of my devices (points to the sculptures of biblical figures above the open railing atop the colonnade), but very beautifully. 

Michelangelo, The Campidoglio, 1536–1546

www.romaincamper.it

This piazza is certainly an oasis of calm. What is it they say these days? "I love what you've done with the place."

Piazza San Pietro

(As they enter the narthex their laughter echoes from the marble floor and vaulted ceiling. They head for the hallway that will take them to the Sistine Chapel).

The narthex of St. Peter's Basilica

www.aviewoncities.com

9 ...

(They stroll back along Via Catone towards the wall that marks the boundary of Vatican City and approach the Porta Angelica where even now a few intrepid tourists have queued, sipping espresso, yawning and chatting quietly. 

The four pass through the gate without challenge, and continue walking toward Bernini's colonnaded piazza San Pietro.)

Bernini
The most dramatic approach to the basilica is not this route, but along what is now the Via della Consiliazone. What a shame it is that this dictator, Mussolini, demolished the little streets of the Borgo with their charming, if decrepit buildings, just so that he could create an impressive avenue for his motorcade. The effect was much more inspiring when I built this. One would emerge from the narrow streets to the suddenly open space, the beautiful dome beyond the colonnade rising majestically, the arms of the church – my colonnade – reaching out to embrace you and welcome you to the calm of the piazza and the greatest church in Christendom. 

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Via_della_Conciliazione:

Demolition of the spina of Borgo began with Mussolini's symbolic strike of the first building with a pickaxe on October 29, 1936, and continued for twelve months. Even at the time, the demolition proved controversial, with many Borgo residents displaced en masse to settlements ("borgate") outside of the city.^[14] Among the buildings dismantled, either totally or in part, and rebuilt in another position, were thePalazzo dei Convertendi, the house of Giacomo and Bartolomeo da Brescia, the Church of the Nunziatina, the palaces Rusticucci-Accoramboni, Cesi and degli Alicorni. Other buildings, like the palace of the Governatore del Borgo and the Churches of S. Giacomo a Scossacavalli and S. Angelo al Corridore, were destroyed. Facing into the cleared area are five other historical buildings, the Palazzo Giraud-Torlonia, the church of Santa Maria in Traspontina, the Palazzo dei Penitenzieri, Palazzo Serristori, and Palazzo Cesi (which was mutilated).^[15]

The construction of the road was only a small feature in the reconstruction of Rome ordered by Mussolini, which ranged from the restoration of the Castel Sant'Angelo, the clearance of the Mausoleum of Augustus, to the vastly more complicated site of the Via dell'Impero through Rome's ancient imperial remains. His plan was to transform Rome into a monument to Italian fascism.^[16]

Crowds spilling into the Via della Conciliazione during the funeral of Pope John Paul II.

In five years, Rome must appear marvellous to all the peoples of the world; vast, orderly, powerful, as it was in the time of the first empire of Augustus.

Benito Mussolini^[17]

Construction of the road continued long after Mussolini's death and the abolition of Italian Fascism. The obelisks along the road were installed in time for the Jubilee of 1950.^[4]

The effect was to make one feel rewarded for trudging through the streets, past the meagre structural efforts of mere mortals, dramatically to be greeted by God's own gateway to redemption. Now the surprise is spoiled. Today you can see the colonnade from hundreds of metres away. Ah well, at least it is still standing. (They enter the piazza) And that feeling of peace remains.

Via Della Conciliazone, as seen from the dome of St. Peter's (wikipedia) 

(As they approach the central obelisk, a lone figure approaches, extends his hand)

Picasso
One doesn't need god to be moved by this wonderful place.

8 ...

Newkirk (glances at his watch)
Wow, look at the time. I had no idea we'd been here so long. (looking towards the back of the café, he sees the proprietor precariously slouched in a chair, his head tilted back, mouth agape, and apparently sound asleep.)

(smiles at the others) He just did not have the nerve to ask you three titans of Rome to leave. It would be like telling the Pope to get out.

The Vatican at dawn

http://www.visitsitaly.com/tours/site_see_rome/vatican_at_night.htm

(Quietly they push back their chairs, stand and stretch. Newkirk leaves payment on the table with a generous tip for such respectful hospitality. Silently, the four slip out the door and stand together beside the predictable line of Vespas out front. The first whispers of morning in Rome greet them like gentle friends. It's the only time of day one can actually hear the occasional birdsong.)

Newkirk 
Since we began our conversation with Raphael's fresco in the Vatican, if you are game, perhaps we'll head back there to the Sistine Chapel, to see what Michelangelo can teach us now. Does that suit you, Michelangelo?

Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel Ceiling, 1508-12, fresco

Michelangelo
Oh, sure. This is a good time of day to be there. It'll be empty (then, with a sneer) with the possible exception of Bramante. Did you know that cretin could not imagine building a scaffold for my work without poking holes in both side walls to support the main beams? – holes that would have pierced my painting forever! I had to step in to get it done properly. And an ugly rumour I don't want to believe has it that he's been putting too much sand in the concrete he's using for the footings of his new St. Peter's. But ... he is without question, despite any shortcomings, the greatest architect since the ancients. I respect the man's genius, even though, like our pretty friend here, he is from Urbino, and therefore untrustworthy.

Donato Bramante, Tempietto, c. 1502

http://elizabethkramer.wordpress.com/2012/03/04/ancient-rome-at-columbia-university/

Raphael 
Here we go again. Dear fellow, it's well known that your nose is always out of joint (Michelangelo fumes silently, fists clenched, while Newkirk and Bernini stifle laughter, studiously avoiding any glance at the famously broken nose). But please, let us steer away from debating the political and artistic superiority of any one city; the argument could be interminable, and very tedious.

Newkirk 
Michelangelo, you refer to your own present, not to mine. The new St. Peter's has been finished for several hundred years now, and you and Gian Lorenzo are largely responsible for its final appearance. However, I think we'll concentrate on the Sistine for now, and perhaps come back to the architecture later. 

St. Peter's Basilica, Rome

7 ...

Newkirk
Let me quickly summarize some of the influence you have had on art and artists since your own time. In 1774, a young French painter by the name of Jaques-Louis David was awarded the very prestigious Prix de Rome by the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. The following year, he travelled to Italy where he studied the ancient monuments, and the master artists of his more recent past. It was your work, Raphael, that he most admired. David was perhaps the most important painter of what was known as the Neoclassical style. He concentrated on historical subjects, and in his work, he applied those characteristics of elegance and refinement that he found in your paintings.

Jaques-Louis David, The Death of Socrates, 1787, oil on linen, 130 cm × 196 cm

Later, another talented young Frenchman, Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres studied for four years with David. The refined, sinuous and sensitive quality of line with which Ingres firmly defined the edges and outlines of his subjects evolved in large part from the style of David, and so also from Raphael. 

Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres, Portrait of Louise de Broglie, Countess d'Haussonville, 1845

And in the 19th and 20th centuries, Ingres influenced Degas, and Manet and Matisse and Picasso, and arguably, according to Barnett Newman, the abstract expressionist movement. And so, Raphael, you can see that your work in particular, and the art of the High Renaissance generally, have left a legacy that stretches from your own time to mine.

Bernini
And let us not forget the influence of Raphael on the art of my time, David. Rubens, for example, greatly admired your work Raphael, as do I and most others of my generation, although your touch may not always be immediately evident in the art of – what did David call it? – the Baroque period.

Michelangelo
Fine. That'll be enough talk of Signore Congeniality for now. Everybody loves him. Everybody loves his art. We get it. Now please let us talk about some really great art ... (with a grin of false modesty, he leans back, tilts his head and extends his hands, palms up, in an "Aw, shucks – little ol' me?" gesture.)

Newkirk
OK, Michelangelo. Let's do just that. But before we leave Raphael's work, I want you to remember that, working in my studio, I feel an affinity with those qualities I just mentioned: the elegance, the clarity and the defined contours.