Michelangelo and Leonardo struggle to make their reputations in the brutal world of Renaissance Italy, as both must play a high-stakes game to win favour.

Michelangelo’s rivalry with Raphael reaches new heights in Rome, while a violent religious schism engulfs Europe and makes the artist question everything.

Against a backdrop of political upheaval in Florence, Michelangelo and Leonardo jostle for artistic supremacy. But the arrival of the young prodigy Raphael threatens both men.