Our artistic traditions are full of wisdom. We can look to the past and, with curious minds and open hearts, absorb the lessons of our cultural history. The Italian Renaissance is filled with great stories that resulted in great art, and the story and art of Michelangelo are an enduring example. The story begins in…

For almost four years it was a common sight on Vatican Hill. Between eight and a dozen men at their various tasks: Mixing plaster, using pick-axes to give a ceiling the rough surface which helped plaster stick, applying plaster and painting it. Does that sound like an ordinary construction job? It’s actually how one of…

The musty smell of lime plaster fills the air just under the chapel’s ceiling. The artist works quickly on each section of the fresco as he stands on a scaffold platform 68 feet above the floor. Along the perimeter of the high barrel vault of the Sistine Chapel, Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti paints 12 prophetic…