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Secret room in Florence in which Michelangelo sketched and hid from enemies to be opened to public
For centuries its existence was unknown, but a secret underground room in Florence in which Michelangelo hid from his enemies and drew sketches on the walls could soon be opened to the public for the first time.
Michelangelo sought refuge in the tiny cell in 1530, when he was on the run after betraying his patrons, the Medici, by supporting a popular revolt against their rule.
During the two months he spent cooped up in the room, he fought boredom by drawing with charcoal and chalk on the walls, producing exquisite sketches of human figures.
The cell lies beneath the Medici Chapels, a mausoleum for members of Florence’s most powerful Renaissance family.
Ironically, it was Michelangelo himself who had been commissioned to build the Medici Chapels. After hiding beneath them, he was later pardoned by the family and was allowed to complete the project.
“I hid in a tiny cell, entombed like the dead Medici above, though hiding from a live one. To forget my fears, I filled the walls with drawings,” he later recalled.
The room in which he hid remained undiscovered until 1975, when it was found by chance when custodians came across a trap door hidden beneath a wardrobe. The trapdoor revealed a flight of narrow stone steps which led down to a rectangular room.
The walls were filthy but the faint outlines of drawings could just be made out. Mould and grime were carefully removed and the sketches were revealed, but the room was then closed in order to protect the precious artwork.
“We’re working on making the secret room of Michelangelo accessible,” said Paola D’Agostino, the director of the Bargello Museum, which manages the Medici Chapels. “There’s a plan under way to make the space safe for visitors. There’s a great deal to do.”
She said she hoped the room could be opened to the public within three years.
Access to the space is likely to be limited to small numbers of visitors at a time. “To reach it you have to go down a very narrow, very steep staircase which cannot be widened,” said Monica Bietti, the director of the Medici Chapels. “At the moment it’s accessible only to specialised academics. We’ve also produced virtual images of the room, which allows visitors to admire it without entering it.”
The sketches appear similar to some of Michelangelo’s most famous works, including his statue of David, one of the most best-known icons of Renaissance Italy, and paintings in the Sistine Chapel.
A sketch of a muscular male figure with one arm outstretched bears a resemblance to a later chalk drawing of the Resurrection of Christ.
A man’s bearded face is strikingly similar to one of Michelangelo’s marble statues, a sinuous work entitled Laocoon and his Sons.
Some of the images are little more than doodles, and are probably not the work of Michelangelo but of contemporaries – or even draughtsmen who were working on the Medici Chapel project.