The way things were

… Michelangelo’s Middlebrow Moment. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Nowadays, of course, such high-minded programming has gone the way of all middlebrow culture. PBS, though its “American Masters” series of artist profiles can be quite good in its non-judgmental way, now mostly steers clear of more ambitious shows about the masters of classic art that unapologetically proclaim the permanent force and significance of the civilizational values embodied in their work. And while a Michelangelo-themed Russian-Italian biopic called “Sin” was released in the U.S. in February, it proved to be as overripe as “The Agony and the Ecstasy” is straightforward and dignified, and sank with little trace.