Michelangelo Knew the Right Answer. They Ignored Him for 400 Years. | VERSO

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:01]In January [music] 1506, workers excavating a vineyard in Rome uncovered a marble sculpture [music] buried underground.

[00:00:08]Pope Julius II dispatched his court artists to the site.

[00:00:12]Among those who arrived was Michelangelo, along with architect Giuliano da Sangallo, [music] and Sangallo's 11-year-old son.

[00:00:20]The sculpture showed three figures, [music] a man and his two sons, entwined by serpents in a scene of extreme agony.

[00:00:27]Pliny the Elder had mentioned it in the 1st century as [music] the greatest work of sculpture ever made.

[00:00:33]Now it had been found, nearly intact, except [music] for the right arm of the central figure, which was gone.

[00:00:40]Everyone assumed [music] the missing arm had extended outward, a natural gesture of desperation and appeal.

[00:00:46]Michelangelo disagreed.

[00:00:48]>> [music] >> He insisted the arm was bent backward over the shoulder, a more agonized and inward position.

[00:00:54]A competition was organized.

[00:00:57]Sculptors submitted models.

[00:00:59]The outstretched version won.

[00:01:01]>> [music] >> Michelangelo's version was rejected.

[00:01:05]He was so convinced of his interpretation that he painted Christ in the Sistine Last Judgment with his arm [music] in that exact position, bent back over the shoulder in a sweeping arc.

[00:01:14]An argument preserved in fresco, visible to anyone who looked up.

[00:01:19]In 1906, a bent marble arm was discovered in [music] a stonemason's workshop in Rome.

[00:01:25]Analysis in the 1950s confirmed it was the original arm of the Laocoön.

[00:01:30]The restoration was completed in 1957.

[00:01:32][music] Michelangelo had been correct for 450 years.