Michelangelo: 'Not Ticked All the Metrics'

Michelangelo: 'a glorious failure'

Whilst there has been some disquiet amongst arts organisations about Arts Council England's plans to introduce a national quantitative system for evaluating the quality of the art it funds, they needn't worry. Such systems have long been used by commissioners of artistic works. A transcript of a discussion between Pope Julius II and Michelangelo has recently come to light that confirms that such 'quality metrics' were already in place when the artist was working on the Sistine Chapel. We reprint it here to put our readers' minds at rest.