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Michelangelo And The Sistine Chapel |
| Five hundred years ago the legendary Renaissance genius, Michelangelo (1475-1564), put the first brushstroke to his most ambitious creation. As he started work on his vast fresco cycle for the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, in the autumn of 1508, he began putting into pictures the awe-inspiring legends recounted in the Book of Genesis. But for the viewer looking up into Michelangelo's painted sky, with its visions of an elemental universe, this was to be just the first of a series of unprecedentedly original images. These depictions of swooping, gesticulating, flying, muscular figures reach their climax in The Creation of Adam - a depiction of the very origins of Man that has been rightly celebrated, for centuries, as the quintessential masterpiece of the Renaissance. Yet the painting of the Sistine Chapel, for all its magnificence, came at a considerable human cost. It would take Michelangelo four years of long and bitter toil to complete his masterpiece, goaded all the while by his volatile, impatient patron, Julius II - known as the "Warrior Pope", in allusion both to his military conquests and aggressive temperament.
The two men came to blows on more than one occasion, the artist harbouring a lifelong grudge over the abuse of what his friend and biographer Giorgio Vasari called his "divine genius", not to mention the damage the labours caused to his eyes, neck and back. In his new study of Michelangelo's work in the Sistine Chapel, Andrew Graham-Dixon tells the fascinating human story behind its creation. He analyses its many layers of meaning and teases out the multitude of ambiguities that lurk within its imagery of timeless magnificence. This is a retelling of the story of the Sistine Chapel for modern times, and an essential companion guide for one of the artistic wonders of the world.
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Review Hardcover: 224 pages "an excellent introduction to the Sistine Chapel... Time and again while reading this book I found myself looking with fresh eyes at a detail of the ceiling, prompted by an arresting phrase or astute observation... This is art history at its best: clear, exciting, well-informed." (CRAIG BROWN'S BOOK OF THE WEEK MAIL ON SUNDAY ) "an engaging and accessible introduction... the way he sets out this historical context, establishing for his readers the ongoing economic, social and political events that did so much to shape the building of the city and therefore the creation of a masterpiece... a model of understated scholarship packed into a convenient size - physically as well as intellectually - with good colour photography and all at a very reasonable price: what more can the general reader hope for." (SUNDAY TELEGRAPH ) "shows the best of what Graham-Dixon brings to his art criticism: an easy facility to convey the complex in lucid, simple terms." (SERENA DAVIES DAILY TELEGRAPH ) "From first to last, it is crisply written in a prose which is both brisk and shapely... such a user guide to the brilliant particularities of the Sistine Chapel, aimed at the intelligent general reader, fills a gap in the market." (RA MAGAZINE ) "Andrew Graham Dixon penetrates the many layers of meaning surrounding Michelangelo's rich images and allows us to glimpse something of the visions perceived by the artist himself. But more than this, he reveals Michelangelo the man - an achievement which ultimately proves even more rewarding." (YORKSHIRE EVENING POST ) |
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