Exploring Art History

Ep 4. MICHELANGELO: Contemporary Artistic Impact - A conversation with Bill Wallace, Part 2

Published: 4 May 2026 at 09:49 Europe/London

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Episode notes

Renaissance artist Michelangelo was both influenced by, and strongly influenced, other great artists from his contemporary world. In this illustrated video podcast Michelangelo scholar Bill Wallace, Washington University in St. Louis, discusses his research on the artistic relationship between Michelangelo and the great Venetian master Titian and how we can use the power of imagination in combination with art historical knowledge to understand the artists' time.

You'll also learn about the different colourists - Pontormo, da Volterra, Venusti - that Michelangelo worked with, his collaboration with Del Piombo, Titian's daughter Lavinia who was a great artist herself, Vasari's divergent descriptions of Michelangelo and Titian in his Lives of Artists and more.

Host: Howard Burton

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction

1:30 Michelangelo's The Fall and Titian's The Jealous Husband

8:20 Michelangelo's Rebellious Slave and Titian's St. Sebastian

9:58 The power of informed imagination to understand an artist's time

14:52 Documentary evidence on Michelangelo's encounters with Titian and his art

19:37 Michelangelo's use of influences to create radically original art

28:05 The effects of the collaboration between Michelangelo and Del Piombo

31:40 Colourist collaborators of Michelangelo: Pontormo, da Volterra, Venusti

37:45 Michelangelo's influences on Titian

39:44 Vasari's Lives of Artists and Titian's Judith and Holofernes