Michelangelo in Rome

Presented by the Union League of Philadelphia. Everyone is familiar with Michelangelo the sculptor and Michelangelo the painter, but Michelangelo the architect is far less well-known. Yet his influence on the history of architecture was no less profound than his influence on sculpture and painting, and the innovative works he designed in Rome made him not only the father of the Baroque style of architecture but the father of modern city planning as well. George Sullivan’s richly illustrated lecture examines all of Michelangelo’s important Roman architectural projects, including his critical contributions to St. Peter’s and the Palazzo Farnese, his designs for the Porta Pia and the Sforza Chapel in S. Maria Maggiore, and – most importantly – his revolutionary work at the Piazza del Campidoglio, the extraordinary complex of buildings atop the Capitoline Hill that created a new architectural era. George Sullivan is the author of Not Built in a Day: Exploring the Architecture of Rome.