Renaissance: The Blood and the Beauty - Season 1

Michelangelo Buonarroti and Leonardo da Vinci struggle to find work and navigate the whims of patrons in Renaissance Florence. Florence at the end of the 15th century is famed for banking, trade and the skill of its artists. But being an artist is still a lowly trade.

The young Michelangelo is nonetheless determined to become an artist, defying the wishes of his father, and is lucky enough to catch the eye of the de facto ruler of Florence, Lorenzo de' Medici.

But Leonardo da Vinci is less fortunate. Struggling to find sufficient commissions in Florence, he instead offers his services to Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan, a violent and dangerous man who Leonardo approaches not as an artist but as an engineer, able to design weapons of war.

Leonardo and Michelangelo return to Florence, both riding high and both determined to become the greatest artist the city has ever produced. It is 1501, and the people of Florence have turned on the radical priest Savonarola, burning him and declaring Florence a republic. For Michelangelo, it represents a new beginning, where art might once again flourish, and he is keen to offer his services to the newly reborn city. But Leonardo's reputation in Milan precedes him, and the two men will vie to secure the best commissions in Florence.

Meanwhile, a third contender emerges: Raphael Santi, a young prodigy from Urbino, who has arrived in Florence to learn all he can from the two master artists. But it isn't long before he starts to win work, taking commissions from the two older men. Michelangelo, in particular, sees Raphael as a direct threat and angrily criticises him as a plagiarist. The artistic rivalry in Florence is set to become even more intense.

As Michelangelo sets to work on the Sistine Chapel, his rival Raphael is working on the Pope's private apartments just a few hundred metres away. Each man is determined to outdo the other and win the favour of the Pope.

Meanwhile, Raphael unveils the School of Athens: a work of iconic beauty that casts Julius II as the inheritor of the wisdom of the classical world, with the figures of Plato and Aristotle surrounded by great thinkers.