Famous Medici Chapel Florence to allow visitors to a secret room with charcoal drawings attributed to Michelangelo

The renowned Medici Chapel in Florence will finally permit a maximum of four visitors at a time to access the long-concealed secret room within the chapel, which is believed to contain charcoal drawings, some of which are attributed to Michelangelo.

The secret room, measuring 10 by 3 meters (33 by 10 feet), was first discovered in 1975 when authorities began searching for a new exit for the Medici Chapel to accommodate the increasing number of visitors.

At the time, Paolo Dal Poggetto, the museum’s director, “firmly believed that they were by Michelangelo,” according to Paola D’Agostino, the current director. The attribution of these paintings to Michelangelo has been a subject of intense debate that continues to this day.

“The major scholars of Michelangelo’s drawings dismissed the attributions” when the room was discovered 50 years ago, D’Agostino stated. “Others had a more moderate view, suggesting that some could be by Michelangelo and others by his followers. So the debate continues.”

Until 1955, the room was used to store coal before it was sealed and forgotten for decades beneath a trapdoor hidden by furniture. The drawings on the walls were discovered beneath two layers of plaster.

According to Dal Poggetto’s theory, Michelangelo had hidden in this small space to escape “the wrath of Pope Clement VII” after he supported a short-lived republic that overthrew the Medicis. In the room, the artist sketched studies for some of his projects.

The artwork includes sketches believed to be of Giuliano de’ Medici’s legs, near the entrance of the secret room. Access to the room has been restricted for the past 50 years.

Officials have decided to open the room to the public on a limited basis, with the works exposed to LED lights for limited periods and then placed in extended darkness for protection.

Starting on November 15, the secret room will be open to the public, with 100 visitors granted access each week through reservations, limited to four at a time, and each group allowed a maximum of 15 minutes inside the room.

Francesca de Luca, curator of the Museum of the Medici Chapels, noted that this place offers visitors “the unique experience of coming into direct contact not only with the creative process of the maestro but also with the perception of the formation of his myth as a divine artist.”

D’Agostino mentioned that the restoration has been “time-consuming, constant, and painstaking work.”