AllMovie

Criticized as an indulgent and pompous directorial farce, this is really just a slight vehicle in which the lives of artists Cosimo de Medici and Leon Alberti are catalogued in an effort to portray the Renaissance art of Italy from the 1400s. The four hours are an excellent showing of the evolution of Italian Renaissance Art, but there is essentially no plot and critics have suggested that the time might better be spent in a tour of an art gallery to see the actual pieces.