It Seems Unbelievable,

but in 1530 the great artist Michelangelo received a death sentence from Pope Clement VII. 

all images courtesy of the Bargello Museums, Florence, it was serious, Michelangelo went into hiding, in fear of his life, 

it is believed he spent two months stowed away in a tiny vault stretching just 32 feet long and 6.5 feet wide, with 8-foot ceilings at their highest points and a single window to the street,

 before the pope rescinded the sentence, tucked into the Medici Chapels in the Basilica of San Lorenzo, in his time there, he using carbonized wood and red chalk, sketched several works, including the head of the ancient Laocoön sculpture and iterations of his own masterpieces, including his Leda and the Swan painting and of his David statue, the drawings were hidden until 1975 when the then-director of the Medici Chapels, Paolo Dal Poggetto, was trying to find a new space for the museum exit,

a trapdoor under a cabinet led to the room, which was filthy from housing slack coal for two decades, when the walls were finally stripped of two layers of plaster, the museum discovered the artworks,

and here is the good news, the space has previously been restricted to visitors for fear of damaging the drawings, although on November 15, it will open to the public for the first time. The decision comes after security renovations that will allow four visitors inside at a time, with only 100 tickets available per week through to March 30, 2024, for the full fascinating story have a look here at The History Blog.