The secret room hidden under a trapdoor in Florence that experts believe contains a lost Michelangelo artwork unseen for centuries

Michelangelo’s Renaissance Secret

A Renaissance secret remained hidden below the Medici Chapels in Florence for hundreds of years, wherein behind a trapdoor beneath a wardrobe, a room with charcoal and chalk was discovered. According to the National Geographic Exclusive report, the room had been discovered in 1975 when Paola Dal Poggetto, the director then, of the Medici Chapels museum of Florence, had come across the Renaissance treasure.

 In the process of locating new options of exit for tourists, he together with his colleagues had found the trapdoor hidden near the new Sacristy which was a chamber intended to house the ornate tombs of Medici rulers. Beneath the trapdoor, some stone steps gave way to an oblong room packed with coal which appeared at first to be more than a storage space.

However, on the walls, they found the sketches which were believed to be the drawings of the famed artist, Michelangelo. Though the room had been closed to the public in order to safeguard the artwork, Paola Wools the National Geographic photographer had been granted exceptional access to capture its amazing content, thirty years after its discovery.So, while some may have been done by Michelangelo himself, the expert says others were likely to be done by some of his many assistants during their breaks

Removed Layers of Plaster from Wall – Insight to History of City

After discovering the room that had been occupied with coal, the experts started a cautious task of removing layers of plaster from the wall to know what laid beneath and would get an insight to the history of the city. It was then revealed that dozens of drawings seemed identical to some of the famous works of Michelangelo.

According to the National Geographic, from the pictures there was an image resembling a sculpture in the New Sacristy chamber of the chapel which had been designed by Michelangelo. It was also observed by the experts; equivalents between a specific sketch and the artist’s chalk drawing of the Resurrection of Christ, together with sketches significant of the depiction of Michelangelo of Leda and the swan. Others portrayed humans flying across the walls or dropping from the sky while the drawings are presumed to be a version of one of the figures in the paintings of the artist at the Sistine Chapel.

 According to Dal Poggetto together with the other experts, in 1530, Michelangelo had remained hidden in the oblong room for around two months. The artist is said to have been commissioned by the Medici family.

Betrayal in 1527

However he had betrayed them in 1527, during their exile by aligning himself against their rule with the others, which had put him in danger at a later stage according to National Geographic.

It was presumed that the artwork in the room had been an assortment of work which he had completed already as well as of those which he intended to complete, though this explanation has not convinced all. Moreover the pieces too are not signed and some of them have been considered to be too `amateurish’ to be actually completed by the famed artist.

As in the case of any unsigned centuries-old artwork, it tends to get difficult in confirming the origins of a drawing with confidence. The consensus is of the opinion that some of the sketches on the wall seem to be too unprofessional belonging to Michelangelo though the attribution of others tends to be a matter of opinion.