The Life and Works of Michelangelo by Nathaniel Harris Hc/Dj 2002 Edition

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The Life and Works of Michelangelo by Nathaniel Harris
A compilation of works from the Bridgeman Art Gallery
This is … Read more The Life and Works of Michelangelo by Nathaniel Harris
A compilation of works from the Bridgeman Art Gallery
This is a Parragon Book
This edition published in 2002
UK
Copyright © Parragon 1995
Hardcover in dust jacket.
Excellent condition.
Measurements are 8” x .5” x 8.25”.
THE TURBULENT GENIUS of Michelangelo is unique in the history of art: never before or since, has a single artist reached such heights as both a sculptor and a painter. Even in his lifetime he was known as 'the divine Michelangelo, working for the popes and princes of Renaissance Italy while showing a fiery independence that won a new respect for all artists. Michelangelo's vision was essentially religious, but it was expressed through mighty human forms of unsurpassed power and beauty. The plates in this book show all of his most famous sculptures, including the heart-rending Pretà in St Peter's, the colossal, heroic figure of David, and the sternly majestic Moses. Michelangelo's paintings are generously represented, notably by restored and cleaned scenes from the vast Sistine Chapel ceiling, now revealed in all their blazing glory.

MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI 1475-1564
Michelangelo Buonarroti was born on 6 March 1475 at Caprese, a Tuscan village where his father was serving as a magistrate of the Florentine republic. Florence was the most important centre of the great cultural movement known as the Renaissance, and so, when his family returned to the city, Michelangelo grew up in absolutely the right place and at absolutely the right time.
At thirteen Michelangelo was apprenticed to Domenico Ghirlandaio, the leading fresco (wall) painter in Florence. But sculpture soon took first place in his ambitions, although we know very little about how he acquired the necessary skills. They were soon apparent enough to attract the notice of the most powerful man in Florence, Lorenzo de' Medici, in whose household Michelangelo studied the ancient Greek and Roman works which Renaissance artists regarded as the ultimate criterion of beauty.
Michelangelo's greatest single contribution to art, the heroic male nude, capable of expressing every nuance of emotion, was based directly on the study of classical antiquity and on his burning desire to surpass its greatest achievements.
The 1490s were troubled times for Florence, and so the young Michelangelo looked for commissions elsewhere. In 1496 he came to Rome, where generous patronage enabled him to create his first masterpiece, the wonderful Pietà in St Peter's. The solemn beauty of the Virgin mourning the dead Christ displayed one side of his genius; the other was revealed a few years later by the colossal figure of David, a glorious, godlike warrior-youth,……

Author: Nathaniel Harris is a prolific author whose special fields are the arts and cultural history. Educated at University College, Oxford, he has devized and acted as the consultant on several educational series, and served as co-editor of The Encyclopaedia of the Arts (1965) and editor of The Romantics (1991).
His books include A Picture History of World Art (1973), the best-selling The Impressionists (1979), The Art of Toulouse-Lautrec (1981), The Paintings of Manet (1989), Art Nouveau (1987), and studies of Michelangelo, Cezanne and Van Gogh.
He lives with his wife and son in Worcester, England. See less