Courtauld summer school day 4

Day four showed even more goodies!

Lectures covered a detailed examination of the plans for Julius II’s tomb from the grand plans for a free standing tomb with 40 plus statures to the final version in St Peter ad Vincula. It covered whether the slaves or captives and what they stood for, why Moses seems to be facing the wrong way and what the whole thing costs.

After this we looks at the Stanza or apartments in the Vatican decorated by Raphael. I only really knew the School of Athens in any detail although I have been there so fascinating to go through the iconography of the three rooms in detail. As with the Sistine Chapel it was all about stressing the powers of the popes and ‘bigging up’ the current one.

This afternoon was a magical trip to the prints and drawing room at the British Museum where we had a chance to look at some wonderful Michelangelo and Raphael drawings. We were even lucky enough to have the drawing for Adam on the ceiling, a fine figure of a man!

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