A personal view by Kenneth Clark

'Pope Julius II was not only ambitious for the Catholic Church, he was ambitious for Julius II; and in his new temple he planned to erect the greatest tomb of any ruler since the time of Hadrian... some of the figures made for it survive, and they add something new to the European spirit - something that neither antiquity nor the great civilisations of India and China had ever dreamed of.' Three great artists, Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci, are the protagonists in this programme, which centres on Papal Rome in the early 16th century. Kenneth Clark's theme takes him through the gardens and court-yards of the Vatican to the rooms decorated for the Pope by Raphael, and to the Sistine Chapel.
(Book £4.75, paperback £2.25: see p 50)