Within this audiobook, acclaimed actor Simon Callow narrates the gripping untold tale of Michelangelo’s final decades-and his transformation into one of the greatest architects of the Italian Renaissance

As he entered his seventies, the great Italian Renaissance designer Michelangelo despaired that his productive years were past. Anguished with the death of close friends and discouraged by the loss of commissions to more youthful performers, this supreme painter and sculptor began carving his very own tomb. It was at about Michelangelo, God’s Architect: THE STORYPLOT of His Final Years and Greatest Masterpiece this unlikely moment that destiny intervened to task Michelangelo with the most ambitious and daunting task of his long creative life.

Michelangelo, God’s Architect is the first book to tell the full story of Michelangelo’s final two decades, when the peerless musician refashioned himself into the get good at architect of St. Peter’s Basilica and various other major buildings. When the Pope handed Michelangelo control of the St. Peter’s project in 1546, it was a study in architectural mismanagement, suffering from flawed style and faulty anatomist. Assessing the problem with his uncompromising eyes and razor-sharp intellect, Michelangelo overcame the furious resistance of Church officials to persuade the Pope that it was time to start out over.

Leading Michelangelo expert William Wallace sheds fresh light on this least familiar section of Michelangelo’s biography, uncovering an innovative genius who was simply also a skilled engineer and enterprising businessman. The challenge of creating St. Peter’s deepened Michelangelo’s trust, Wallace shows. Fighting with each other the intrigues of Church politics and his own declining health, Michelangelo became persuaded that he was destined to create the largest and most magnificent cathedral ever conceived. And he was established to live longer plenty of that no additional architect could alter his style.