The last creative season of the Renaissance genius, amongst religious anxieties and new forms of expression.

This book recounts the lesser-known part of Michelangelo Buonarroti’s life and work, the part that begins with the exe­cution of the Last Judgement (1534-1541). During the years in which he executed this extraordinary painting, Michelan­gelo developed a radical religious sensibility that led him to get close to the group of ‘Spirituali’, made up of a number of men and women who were fighting for a religious reform and who, because of their secret militancy, would be su­spected, accused and persecuted for heresy by the Inquisi­tion Tribunal in Rome. Michelangelo’s late production, which includes masterpie­ces such as the Tomb of Julius II, the Pauline Chapel, the new St. Peter’s and the small paintings for Vittoria Colonna and Tommaso Cavalieri, cannot be understood without this spiritual event that puts the artist’s very life at stake. Finally, the book is also an acute reflection on the censorship to which this very important part of the artist’s production was subjected, exercised first by the Inquisition Tribunal and then by art critics who failed to grasp the disruptive message of the Italian genius.