Young Michelangelo: The Path to the Sistine: A Biography
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Individual Artists
Young Michelangelo: The Path to the Sistine: A Biography Details
From Publishers Weekly Art historian Spike (Caravaggio) weaves together the personal and professional relationships that shaped the first 30 years of Michelangelo's career, from his early days in the Medicis' sculpture garden to the commissions that culminated in his work in the Sistine Chapel. Spike's Michelangelo is driven relentlessly by ambition, an obligation to provide for his dysfunctional family, and a firm conviction of his own genius. Although he lacked the social graces of contemporaries Leonardo and Raphael, Michelangelo attracted the patronage of the most important political figures of the time. Michelangelo was probably one of the very few who could flee Rome in the middle of completing the pope's tomb, repeatedly refuse orders to return, and still receive an even more important commission for a bronze sculpture. Spike crystallizes historical detail into vivid, memorable imagery. One scene stands out in particular: Michelangelo's six-ton David being slowly dragged through the streets of Florence to its place in front of the Palazzo della Signoria. Alternating between accounts of the turbulent political atmosphere and details of Michelangelo's most private moments in the sculpture studio, Spike creates a rich narrative that promises more intrigue than the best adventure novel. 60 illus., maps. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Read more About the Author John T. Spike, critic, curator, and art historian, is the author of more than 20 significant books on Italian painting and artists, including Caravaggio. He lives in Florence and teaches in the Sacred Arts Masters program at Regina Apostolorum University in Rome. Read more
Reviews
Not another book about Michelangelo (Yawn). Wake up! Mr. Spike will open your artistic and intellectual eyes again.This is a seriously engaging book for anyone who has been subjected to Irving Stone's "The Agony and the Ecstacy" (Ugh!) or has explored the delights of Howard Hibbard's work on the master. Rather then giving us an encrusted venerated hagiography on the master, Mr. Spike introduces us to a young, moody, tortured, mercurial youth who not only "could of been a contender," but ended up a champ."An inventor of filth" who said that about Michelangelo? doesn't matter, let it suffice that Mr. Spike lets us know that it was said. But without being too flippant, the author poses some scholarly and unique opinions about Michelangelo's development. I was happily educated by the author's view of Michelangelo's work and their connections such as Bacchus vis a vis the Pieta vis a vis David and of course a brief description on types of marble.Who else has conjectured that Michelangelo went to Rome to avoid competition with Da Vinci because he felt that he would be outdone. Of course this is not about the Sistine Chapel, but what brought the kid to Rome, all the while reminding us that Michelangelo was a wild one taking on artists who were old enough to be his father.Why buy the book? Informed, provocative, emminently readable, absurdly priced ($1.98 Kindle special), and a great addition to Ross King, Andrew Graham-Dixon, Jonathan Jones. Too bad there were no motorcycles in those days.
