Young artists Michelangelo and Leonardo navigate patrons and pursue their ambitions in 15th-century Florence, where banking and trade flourish but art remains a lowly trade.
Leonardo and Michelangelo, back in Florence in 1501, aim to surpass each other. Raphael, a talented newcomer, wins commissions, igniting a fierce rivalry among the three to be the city's greatest artist.
As Michelangelo sets to work on the Sistine Chapel, his rival Raphael is working on the Pope's private apartments just a few hundred metres away. Each man is determined to outdo the other and win the favour of the pontiff. Meanwhile, Raphael unveils The School of Athens: a work of iconic beauty that casts Julius II as the inheritor of the wisdom of the classical world, with the figures of Plato and Aristotle surrounded by great thinkers.
