A documentary can sometimes tell a viewer more about the time it was made than the one it recounts. This holds especially true for films about the Renaissance, which has been so meticulously covered that new revelations are farther and fewer between. The three-part BBC docuseries Renaissance: The Blood and the Beauty, currently airing and streaming in the United States via PBS, is the newest entry in this tradition. It might not hold anything new for art history enthusiasts, but it’s a fun primer for neophytes, and will surely make a good addition to the canon of school instructional materials. (I mean this as a compliment.)The greatest influence on this newest spin on the Renaissance is clearly Game of Thrones, starting with the violence-tinged title. There’s a heavy emphasis on the political intrigues of Florence and Rome, especially how the work of the period’s most famed artists intertwined with the changing fortunes of major players like the Medici dynasty and the sentiments of the time. Michelangelo’s early sculpture “Bacchus” (1496–97), for instance, was commissioned by a cardinal but rejected upon completion because its portrayal of the god’s drunken debauchery was simply too horny for the times. The miniseries also adopts a similar storytelling mode to the popular fantasy show, portraying broader turns in society through the perspectives of individuals, with Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo positioned as primary characters (in another strong tie to Game of Thrones, the last is played by the esteemed Charles Dance). Film still from Renaissance: The Blood and the Beauty (2025) with Raphael (Joshua Duffy)While the series is stuffed with reenactment — there’s more of it than primary visual sources, and possibly even footage of talking heads — Michelangelo is the only historical character to speak directly to the audience. He recounts being passed from one patron to another, trying to keep his head down under the reactionary anti-“vanities” rule of the priest Girolamo Savonarola, and feuds with peers. The distinction between his personal confessions, which are drawn from his actual writings, and the expert commentary provides some of the series’s most interesting friction. For instance, today’s historians state with confidence that Michelangelo was queer, but he himself says nothing about this in the series because he does not identify as such in his personal writings. Michelangelo is thus not an authoritative or wholly reliable narrator, but rather a subjective voice who speaks entirely from his own time. It’s inescapable to leave a lot out when condensing nearly a century of history into three hours, but it’s still a pity. The rise and fall of Savonarola, who briefly seized control of Florence, becomes almost an aside, and while the documentary acknowledges Michelangelo’s queerness, it doesn’t delve deeply into how we’ve ascertained it (such as his many romantic poems addressed to men). Many of the pleasures of learning about the past come from these smaller details rather than the broader events, and it continually frustrates me to see mainstream documentaries elide them. This is what colors history! To continue the analogy, it’s also why everyone loved the early, character-driven seasons of Game of Thrones and hated the later plot-driven seasons (well, that and because those plotlines were very stupid).Still, it’s nice to see a historical documentary that emphasizes the materialist aspect of artistic creation. Works like the “Mona Lisa” (1503) and “Pietà” (1498–99) did not emerge simply from these artists’ brilliance, but as specific reactions to the events of history and the demands of their patrons. It deepens one’s appreciation of the Sistine Chapel fresco to know not just that some guy named Michelangelo painted it, but that it was commissioned by Julius II, the “warrior pope” who wanted to immortalize his name, and that the artist had to restart early on because he didn’t mix the plaster correctly and mold grew on it. The art that endures has lived through some of the most mundane things you can imagine.Film still from Renaissance: The Blood and the Beauty (2025) with Charles Dance as older MichaelangeloFilm still from Renaissance: The Blood and the Beauty (2025) featuring Leonardo da Vinci (Jonny Glynn)Renaissance: The Blood and the Beauty (2025) is airing new episodes Tuesdays through July 22 on PBS.