PBS announced today the US premiere date for the docudrama series, Renaissance: The Blood and the Beauty.
Renaissance: The Blood and the Beauty explores the extraordinary lives and intense rivalries of three towering figures of the Italian Renaissance — Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Raphael — whose timeless masterpieces were forged amid brutal political power struggles, violent warfare, and religious upheaval during one of the bloodiest periods in history.
Narrated by Oscar® nominee Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda), the three-part series features Charles Dance (Game of Thrones, The Day of the Jackal) as Michelangelo, Jonny Glynn (Royal Shakespeare Company: The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Henry IV: Parts I and II) as Leonardo Da Vinci, and Joshua Duffy (Doctor Who: The Cravat Doctor Adventures, Glimpses of Gallifrey) as Raphael.
Framed through the eyes of an aging Michelangelo, the series traces more than sixty years, beginning with the Pazzi Conspiracy of 1478 (in which members of the Pazzi family and others attempted to displace the Medici family as rulers of Florence) and concluding with the unveiling of Michelangelo’s The Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel in 1541. Through stunning visuals, compelling storytelling, and historical insight, the series reveals how these artists battled for favor, risked everything in service of their patrons, and reshaped the world’s understanding of art and the artist.
Renaissance: The Blood and the Beauty premieres in the US on Tuesday, July 8, at 9pm ET, on PBS (check your local listings), with simultaneous streaming available on PBS.org, the PBS app, and the PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel. New episodes will drop weekly through July 22.
Contributors to the series include Walter Isaacson, William Wallace, Sarah Dunant, Leslie Primo, Michael Collins, Jerry Brotton, Jessica Warnberg, Alison Lapper, Anthony Gormley, Daphne Di Cinto, Ilaria Bernocchi, and Kate Lister.
Here’s what we can look forward to in each episode:
- Episode 1: “Rise” (Sunday, July 8, 9-10pm ET) — Michelangelo and Leonardo struggle to win work, navigating the shifting politics of powerful patrons and violent city-states. In Florence, young Michelangelo (Eddie Mann, Wolf Hall) rises under the Medici’s patronage while Leonardo builds his reputation in Milan. Political upheaval and changing attitudes disrupt their careers and set the stage for an artistic rivalry.
- Episode 2: “Rivalry” (Sunday, July 15, 9-10pm ET) — Florence becomes a hotbed of creative competition as Michelangelo and Leonardo return to the city and battle for artistic supremacy. When Michelangelo is awarded the commission for David, Leonardo seeks to outshine him with technical innovation, but the arrival of the young prodigy, Raphael, threatens both men. Their careers collide in Rome under the patronage of Pope Julius II (Laurent Winkler, Baptiste), igniting an epic artistic showdown.
- Episode 3: “Redemption” (Sunday, July 22, 9-10pm ET) — While Michelangelo paints the Sistine Chapel ceiling, Raphael ascends in the Pope’s favor while working on his private apartments. But shortly after the completion of the Sistine ceiling, the Pope dies, and as the Protestant Reformation tears through Europe, art becomes a battleground for ideology and power. As the new pope, Pope Leo X, seeks to reassert Catholic supremacy, Michelangelo is commissioned for a depiction of The Last Judgement, which will become both a political statement and a very personal expression of Michelangelo’s own spiritual redemption.
A production of BBC Studios Specialist Factual Productions for BBC Arts and PBS, Renaissance: The Blood and the Beauty is produced and directed by Emma Frank (Julius Caesar: The Making of a Dictator, The Boleyns: A Scandalous Family). The executive producer is Alexander Leith. The BBC Commissioning Editors for BBC Arts are Suzy Klein and Alistair Pegg. The Executive in Charge for PBS is Zara Frankel.
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