Product Description
This book provides an entertaining and humor ous introduction to the famous artist, Michelangelo. It incl udes excellent colour reproductions of the artist''s work. ' ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

great series!
I bought all of the books in this series for our homeschool art curriculum.They are easy to read and a fun supplement that can lead to a nice trip to the Smithsonian Gallery of Art.

Easy for children to appreciate his work
I read this to my pre-k and she loved it.We read this AFTER we saw David in Florence.I wish we had read it before as it would have built up the excitement of seeing the statue, but no matter, it was fun for her to learn about how Michelangelo grew up to become one of the most famous artists in the world.It also made us both appreciate his works of art.There was just enough text to tell his story, but short enough to not lose a child's attention.We are reading the others in the series.

The young have a grand time with Michelangelo's grand scale
"One of the things that made Michelangelo such a great artist was his ability to give a special energy and strength to the people he painted and sculpted," p.29

The young reader will learn about Michelangelo'sbeginnings in a city near Florence, the brief time he spent as a baby witha family of stonecutters, his years of study at the workshop ofGhirlandaio, his years under the patronage of Lorenzo de' Medici and hisyears working for Pope Julius II.

Michelangelo did things on a grandscale.His "David" of Goliath fame is 16 ft., 10 in. in heightand took 2.5 years to complete.His "Ceiling of the SistineChapel" is 5800 sq. ft. in area and took 4 years to complete.Theyoung when doing an art piece are frequently never able to complete itwithin the allotted time, regardless of the length of the allotted time. It seems there is a reluctance on the young's part to feel it is complete,because it seems there is always some additional work required.They shareMichelangelo's art ethic and will appreciate his dedication.

Myfavorite sculpture in the book is Michelangelo's "Pieta,"sculpted in 1498-1499.There is both an expressed fragility to Jesus' bodyand an overwhelming gentle strength in Mary's holding of him.It givestestimony to Michelangelo's complete oneness with the roughness andhardness of marble.The marble was putty in his hands.

Venezia'sillustrations are humorous.His narrative is delightfully entertaining. His approach brings the artist within reach of the young.His portrayal ofPope Julius II in the Sistine Chapel offering unsolicited comments onMichelangelo's work jokingly brings to the fore the conflict that existedbetween the two.

The size of the book is perfect for smaller hands.Itenables the young to have art within their grasp.Venezia gives thelocations of the paintings and as result if the child lives near one of themuseums or will be near one on vacation, she/he would be able to see theoriginal.

This is the 11th in Venezia's "Getting to know theWorld's Greatest Artist" series. He also has a similar series oncomposers.Venezia's back cover illustration ties back to the subject. "Mike found it easy to relate to Michelangelo's painting the SistineChapel ...".

The price of the book is well worth paying.The bookcontains the following:Michelangelo's sculptures (5), chapel ceilingfresco (1), chapel wall fresco (1), marble relief (1), dome from buildingplan (1), and sculptures unfinished (2), Venezia's illustrations (7), Others' sculptures (2), frescoes (2) and gilt bronze panel (1).

Spring board to introduce classic artists
A book intended for ages 4-10, the book attempts to introduce the artistand his paintings.A very dry attempt at that, but it is a great springboard to start.A very simple book with cartoons to atract young readers. Samples paints with breif explainations of each work.I have used thisbook only as an introduction. I do follow up with more books that give adeep explaination.This book is an inexpesive way for children toexperience various paintings and engage their natural curiosity toinvestigate further.To introduce the artists and his works of art this isan average book for the young. ... Read more

Product Description
Michelangelo is universally recognized to be one of the greatest artists of all time. In this vividly written biography, William E. Wallace offers a substantially new view of the artist. Not only a supremely gifted sculptor, painter, architect, and poet, Michelangelo was also an aristocrat who firmly believed in the ancient and noble origins of his family. The belief in his patrician status fueled his lifelong ambition to improve his family's financial situation and to raise the social standing of artists. Michelangelo's ambitions are evident in his writing, dress, and comportment, as well as in his ability to befriend, influence, and occasionally say "no" to popes, kings, and princes.Written from the words of Michelangelo and his contemporaries, this biography not only tells his own stories but also brings to life the culture and society of Renaissance Florence and Rome. Not since Irving Stone's novel The Agony and the Ecstasy has there been such a compelling and human portrayal of this remarkable yet credible human individual.

Subscribe to William Wallace's podcast on individual works of the master! Click here!

Episodes every week, right from this bookmark or your feed reader. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

The Syrian Bow
"Michelangelo, The Artist, the Man, and His Times" is a watershed event, marking a generational transformation in the way we think about the greatest artist of western civilization.This is important.We live in the shadow of Michelangelo.The relationship between creative people and wealthy, powerful patrons: the powerful coming (or should come) as supplicants to the creative--was established by Michelangelo, and ever since, western artists have, often unconsciously, modeled themselves on what they believe Michelangelo to have been like.

Relying on new scholarship, much of it his own (and some the result of exhaustive investigation by Rab Hatfield into Michelangelo's banking records), Wallace demolishes the myth that has grown up around (or instead of) the man.Where we were once asked to believe the artist was an aloof, grouchy, troubled, hypochondriacal loner given to rages and outbursts of violence, and a man wholly unable to work with others in any kind of joint project, Wallace shows, thoroughly and convincingly, that Michelangelo wry, funny, and likeable, was at the center of a large cadre of friends, family, and admirers.He was generous with his money, his time, his concern for others, and his advice.This was a man who could supervise teams of over three hundred construction workers during the initial building phases of the Laurentine Library, and who raised a four-year-old niece and later a nephew.Michelangelo playing with a little girl, on the floor drawing pictures of her feet with her is not the Michelangelo we have been given to expect.The various stories offered up by Vasari and others have been taken by other writers as historical truth.Wallace is careful to sift through the historical record and filter out suspiciously tall tales.

I advise anyone reading this book to also buy Wallace's "Michelangelo Sculpture Painting Architecture," a comprehensive "complete works" without the pretensions of the recent 14-pound Taschen footrest of a volume.Wallace's biography obviously can't supply the images he talks about.(This is a problem with all artist biographies.)

Wallace focuses on projects other writers skate past.When Michelangelo is coerced into creating a huge bronze statue of Pope Julius II in Bologna, a seated figure twelve feet tall, few writers have seemed to comprehend what a gigantic engineering challenge this was.Wallace makes clear the almost endless intense work involved in creating such a gigantic object.
Wallace is forced by the very nature of the subject to treat the Sistine ceiling in painfully few pages but here again, as with the bronze Julius, an entire book would be (and has been) required to cover the material.He limits himself to an overview of the ceiling and doesn't touch the complexities of its creation.But he scarcely could.It's too complex.I suggest watching "The Divine Michelangelo," in which Wallace participated.It can be found in sections on YouTube.

The book opens with narrative style, describing the Rome that Michelangelo at 21 would have seen as a near ruin, a far cry from the flourishing Florence, his homeland.It then commences a brisk and comprehensive retelling of the creation of the Bacchus (for Cardinal Riario) and the Pieta.Here Wallace is careful to say only what he knows.After explaining that the Bacchus was "eventually acquired" by the banker Jacopo Galli, and only suggesting (instead of asserting, as is usual) that Riario didn't like it, Wallace says that Michelangelo "spent five ducats on a piece of marble that proved to be bad, and then purchased another for five more ducats."No mention is made here of what that marble may have been used for, and this may be Wallace's way of avoiding the (for now) very unsettled issue of the Young Archer statue, currently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and championed as a Michelangelo but by no means generally accepted as one.(I've seen it.It isn't.)

Later Wallace tells the almost universally accepted story that Michelangelo carved a "sleeping cupid" that so matched the antique in style that it was indistinguishable from an antique, apart from the fact that it was obviously brand new, and at the suggestion of a friend distressed and aged it so that he could "sell it more profitably."The cupid is said to have then been sold to Cardinal Riario as an antique.Riario, we have been told, somehow figured out he'd been duped; Michelangelo hurried to Rome to straighten matters out.Much has been made out of this story, especially by some current art historians looking for proof of Michelangelo's capacity and willingness to commit deliberate forgeries and pass them off as genuine antique statuary, but Wallace shrewdly suggests that this story, too, might be a fabrication.

This kind of responsible scholarly restraint is evident throughout the book.Where Vasari tells us that Michelangelo's friend (they were both teenagers) was exiled from Florence for breaking Michelangelo's nose, Wallace warns us that there may be "a hint of embellishment" here.Indeed.Tactful.

Throughout the Raiders-of-the-Lost-Ark-Final-Warehouse-Scene avalanche of literature on Michelangelo the "hint of embellishment" has been too often permitted to pollute our understanding of the man and his times.Wallace avoids all the pitfalls that Michelangelo himself warned of when he complained that an ambassador insisted on some kind of confession or apology the ambassador felt owed."My answer is that he has fashioned a Michelangelo of his own."Previous writers could have fashioned a Michelangelo out of facts, rather than one of their own.

Finally scholars, Wallace chief among them, are starting to cast overdue doubt on the more mythological claims, the hagiography, and whatever one might call the reverse of hagiography is (it's not exactly iconoclasm) and are bringing to light a real man whose accomplishments, in the now revealed ordinarinesses of his life, make his extraordinary accomplishments all the more astonishing.
I am loath to write in books, so it's a mark of a centrally important text when I find myself making notes in margins, or highlighting or dog-earing pages.My copy of "Michelangelo The Artist, the Man, and His Times" is covered with marginalia.

"Michelangelo, The Artist, the Man, and His Times" is a vital and seminal work.I cannot recommend it highly enough.

While seasoned Michelangelo scholars will read this book, it's also for students of the Italian Renaissance at all stages of expertise.Better to start off right to avoid unlearning the myths of lesser minds.

Michelangelo, the Genius

I am a keen reader of good biographies, and I have long wanted to read one of Michelangelo. This
book by William Wallace met my expectations. It is a very well written book about the artistic
genius most people in the western world know about.

The author uses correspondence between Michelangelo and others extensively in presenting a very
interesting portrait of Michelangelo, his life, devotion, genius and charater. The letters and
quotations seem to fit naturally and do not in anyway interfere with the beautiful flow of the
material.

One minor point that I found rather unwelcome was the author's frequent references to the subject's
death ahead of its time thus preventing some anticipation by the reader. Despite this shortcoming,
I found the book to be extremely well written. I would strongly recommend it to anyone interested
in reading about Michelangelo, one of the greatest artists who ever lived.

Many new ideas.
This book will remain a treasure of information about the man. Professor Wallace presents many new ideas. For example, he dispels the accepted characterization of the isolated anti-social genius and shows that Michelangelo indeed corresponded with thousands of people from the most humble worker to the most exalted of Rennaisance society. We learn of the long friendships and of the importance of family loyalty. Michelangelo always left lesser jobs for better opportunities and always mastered new mediums with remarkable speed. Wallace understands as few scholars do, that carving marble is a subtractive process, a one way street, one can correct only by taking away. The writing is often wonderful as when he describes the old sculptor and the Pieta Rondanini. As no other, Wallace has revealed the depth of faith of the artist who has given us so many profoundly religious works.

Michelangelo: The Artist, The Man and his Times
The life of Michelangelo is the most documented outside of Leonardo da Vinci, both in fiction and non-fiction, from the movie //The Agony and the Ecstasy// to the many books written on the life and art of Michelangelo, from the Sistine Chapel to David.Is there room for yet another biography on Michelangelo?William Wallace attempts to answer the main question.He only slightly answers the question.Mr. Wallace takes a more academic look at Michelangelo's life, from going out on his own instead of working in a traditional workshop, to supporting family and good friends.

The scholarship is sound; Mr. Wallace uses primary source documents when it is possible to take a look at the life and mind of Michelangelo.Mr. Wallace looks at the major works, and examines the impact that they had on Michelangelo and the culture of Renaissance Italy. The literature on Michelangelo is vast and dense, though not all of it good.There is not a lot of room for a new biography on Michelangelo; this is a good work it will have to fight for attention from the other works.

Reviewed by Kevin Winter

Non-finito
Since this book is entitled MICHELANGELO and subtitled THE ARTIST, THE MAN, AND HIS TIMES it would have been nice to have a portrait of the artist reproduced within its pages, especially the bronze bust done from life by one Daniele Da Volterra teasingly described at various points in the late pages of the book.It would have been a nice cover, instead of the Doni Tondo which for some inexplicable reason is given prominence on the book's dustjacket, designed by one Holly Johnson.Alot of Michelangelo's drawings and architectural works are vividly described yet not shown.What we do get by way of illustration are the same pictures we have seen a thousand times over of the Maestro's major works.If we are treated to images of these masterworks, might it be too much to want to see them from new angles?

Anyway, as to the book itself:William Wallace is a fine writer but herein relies too heavily on the letters of Michelangelo and his family and associates to tell the tale.While this is not bad in itself (as a matter-of-fact, quoting so extensively from the written record of Michelangelo does much towards bringing him to life), what is sorely absent in the rest of the book is scholarly speculation where written records are lacking.What I mean by this is that given that Mr. Wallace is presumably an "expert" on Michelangelo and his Art and his Times, it would have been so refreshingly nice to read some educated guesses as to Michelangelo's working methods on the Pieta and David and Moses, etc:were actual, living models used; were clay or wax models used and then enlarged via a size-ratio method; how did he keep his work from prying eyes; what were the actual techniques used in his marble sculpting?The first two-thirds of the book also lack in answering some basic questions that any casual reader might like to know the answers to, such as - what exactly is fresco painting?Why was Michelangelo wet-nursed by a stone cutter's wife as an infant?What was actually involved in the sculpting and casting of the Bologna bronze of Pope Julius - and what really became of it?(It was allegedly melted down by an invading army so as to make cannons - but this is not told in the book under discussion.) Who actually commissioned the David?Did Leonardo and Michelangelo exchange heated words in the Florentine streets, as related by Vasari or Condivi?Did they ever meet when doing preparatory work for the dual commissions for the Palazzo Vecchio? Leonardo was one of a committee who decided on the placement of the David - and even drew a sketch of it - yet nothing of the real interchange between these two titans is really addressed in this book.Raphael?Who's Raphael?Who truly conceived of the subject for the Sistine Ceiling?How was the scaffolding truly erected so that Michelangelo could paint?How big are the figures on the ceiling?What happened to the cartoons?How does a cartoon truly play into the making of a fresco?What did Florentines really think of David once it was unveiled - why was it not only hailed but also pelted with stones?When was it damaged when a bench was thrown out of a window knocking off the left arm?Who repaired it?The Pieta is behind bullet-proof glass now - yet we are not told why. In this book, Michelangelo works for years on David and the Sistine Ceiling and later the Last Judgement - yet "The Artist" part of the subtitle is practically breezed over.Was the Pieta an original conception?(I always thought it was - but it isn't - it just happens to be the best of a long line of Pieta-themed works.) Why is there a size disparity between Jesus and His Mother?Why does she look so young and what was Michelangelo's answer to this complaint?How did Michelangelo actually revolutionize the art world?Who truly influenced him?Did he secretly sign the Pieta by emphasizing the M in the folds of Mary's left hand - and only later, when the work was attributed to another, hurriedly sneak back into the church and erroneously carve his name across the Virgin Mother's sash? There is a mistake in the spelling of his own name - but we do not learn that fact herein - yet it lends credence to the story that the accentuated M in the palm was not enough to proclaim authorship to the viewing audience. What did the people of Rome really think when the Sistine Chapel - and Last Judgement - were finally unveiled to the world?Mention is constantly made of the work entitled The Risen Christ - yet what it is or who commissioned it aren't ever mentioned. And for a book that includes "His Times" in the subtitle, we learn actually very little of what was going on in the world during those times.The Lutheran Reformation is barely touched upon.Pope Julius and his ambitions never come to life at all. The Sack of Rome is covered in half-a-sentence. What was going on in the rest of the world as far as arts, science, politics, the New World?But judging from what we have, the book truly comes to lifeonly in the artist's later years - when the written record via letters comes into play - then the book truly (for me) comes alive.And that is my complaint:scholarly speculation could have done much towards making the preceding decades of the artist's life as rich and as vivid as the closing years and chapters.

I am glad that the author gives Michelangelo's poetry its just due (something another new biography of the artist does not do, sadly.) The book is an easy read - perhaps too much so - but...it could have been so much more.Of all three topics listed in the subtitle, the author succeeds best in delivering a portrait of Michelangelo the Man.But again, this is basically a depiction of the Maestro in his old age.

One day someone will trasmute Irving Stone's fictional biography into a historical masterwork and give us a complete Michelangelo.And as the Maestro advised so many of his restless brethren, I guess we'll just have to be "patient" until that time. ... Read more

Product Description
Has any other artist left the world such a vast legacy as Michelangelo?Author Philip Wilkinson leads young readers on a journey of discovery through the life and works of the Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, and poet in a visually evocative book.

Wilkinson's lively narrative follows Michelangelo from his early apprenticeship in fresco through his fascination with sculpture, which gave us such masterpieces as the Pieta and David. Readers learn how Michelangelo studied anatomy by cutting up cadavers and of his tortuous struggle to release the human form from raw stone.

With the help of period artwork, quotes, and photographs of artifacts, the book traces Michelangelo's lifelong association with the Medici family and his Vatican patronage through several papacies. His monumental work on the Sistine Chapel ceiling is examined in detail, as is Michelangelo's role as Chief Architect to St. Peter's. Michelangelo's story will enthrall all who are inspired by the search for perfection. ... Read more

Product Description
outstanding studies, including sketches for David, Sistine Ceiling, Last Judgment, etc. Nudes, figure studies, children, animals, mythical and religious works, more. New volume in Dover Art Library affords insight into mastery of proportion, anatomy, perspective, shading, contrast. Essential for artists, museum-goers.
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Customer Reviews (7)

Great for the price!!
This is a thin book with nothing but drawings(46 it says, I only count 43?? but thats ok), no words. Some drawings aren't anything special but there are some great drawings from some of his popular works and gives a hint to his creative process and the changes he made, which I enjoy seeing. For what this book cost (I paid a dollar or two for a used copy), it is totally worth it. Who better to learn from than the master.

Just like the title
This book is filled with Michelangelo life drawings, just like the title says.It delivers what it promises at a good value.

okay, not great
The images are not the highest quality, but if your goal is to get a taste, maybe to have something to copy to learn the style, this book will do fine, and it is not terribly expensive.

useless
What is the point of buying having the book when you can't even see it.The print quality of this book is so poor.The images are either too dark or just can't see at all.

Inexpensive renderings of classic drawings.
A good buy for any student of art or anatomy. ... Read more

Product Description
A new infinity sign to symbolize the birth of the Third Paradise. What is the Third Paradise according to the author’s concept? It’s the fertile coupling of the first and second paradise. The first was the Earthly Paradise that came before the eating of the apple. It’s the natural paradise where everything is regulated by the intelligence of nature. The second is the Artificial Paradise, the one developed by human intelligence, by means of a very slow process that has reached an increasingly vast and exclusive dimension in the last two centuries. This paradise is made up of artificial needs, artificial comforts, artificial pleasures and every other sort of artifice. Confronted by the universal problem of humanity’s survival, the artist conceived the global project entitled Third Paradise. The biblical reference does not have any religious purpose, but is used to give force and meaning to the concept of responsible social change and to fuel a high ideal that unites, in a single endeavor, the arts, the sciences, economics, spirituality and politics. ... Read more

Product Description
Turning a skeptical eye on the idea that Renaissance artists were widely believed to be as utterly admirable as Vasari claimed, this book re-opens the question of why artists were praised and by whom, and specifically why the language of divinity was invoked, a practice the ancients did not license. The epithet ''divino'' is examined in the context of claims to liberal arts status and to analogy with poets, musicians, and other ''uomini famossi.'' The reputations of Michelangelo and Brunelleschi are compared not only with each other but with those of Dante and Ariosto, of Aretino and of the ubiquitous beloved of the sonnet tradition. Nineteenth-century reformulations of the idea of Renaissance artistic divinity are treated in the epilogue, and twentieth-century treatments of the idea of artistic "ingegno" in an appendix. ... Read more

Product Description
A view of the life and work of Michelangelo. The book describes the challenges and hardships he suffered, and how his genius was accepted by the world. The techniques are fully described and illustrated by examples of the artist's work. ... Read more

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The immense effect that Michelangelo had on many artists working in the 16th century is widely acknowledged by historians of Italian Renaissance art. Yet until recently greater stress has been placed on the individuality of these artists' styles and interpretation rather than on the elucidation of their debts to others. There has been little direct focus on the ways in which later 16th-century artists actually confronted Michelangelo, or how those areas or aspects of their artistic production that are most closely related to his reveal their attitudes and responses to Michelangelo's work. This text presents a study of the influence exerted by Michelangelo's work in painting and sculpture on artists of the late-Renaissance period including Alessandro Allori, Agnolo Bronzino, Battista Franco, Francesco Parmigianino, Jacopo Pontormo, Francesco Salviati, Raphael, Giorgio Vasari, Marcello Venusti and Alessandro Vittoria. The essays focus on the direct relations, such as copies and borrowings, previously underrated by art historians, but which here form significant keys to understanding the aesthetic attitudes and broader issues of theory advanced at the time. ... Read more

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Explores the lives and works of the world's greatest artists. This title takes readers inside each artist's studio to learn about the people, places and events that had the biggest influences on their careers. It also discovers how artists work had an impact, not only on the times in which they lived but also on our world. ... Read more

Product Description
Michelangelo (1475-1564) began his work as an apprentice when he was thirteen. At twenty-four, he carved the Pieta which today stands in St. Peter’s in Rome. From 1408 to 1512, he painted the gigantic fresco that covers the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Twenty-five years later, from 1536 to 1541, he painted The Last Judgement on the wall behind the high altar. Hailed as the greatest artist of all time by the art historian, Vasari, Michelangelo continues to move and amaze through the tremendous energy and sheer beauty of his work.

This conveniently sized edition is ideal for the pockets of young students and older art lovers alike.
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Product Description
Michelangelo`s first stay in Rome was a crucial period in his artistic production, a time when he created the life-sized marble sculptures Bacchus and the celebrated Piet... and worked on at least two important paintings now in the National Gallery, London-the Entombment and the Manchester Madonna. In this handsome book Michael Hirst presents the first coherent narrative of these years in Rome, and his perceptive comparison of the paintings and sculpture is supported by Jill Dunkerton`s lucid technical description of the making of the two National Gallery pictures. Published to accompany a major exhibition at the National Gallery in October. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An excellent addition for the Michelangelophile.
This book covers the evolution of the young Michelangelo's abilities as an artist, as well as the available details of how he spent his time during the period.The authors give persuasive argument for Michelangelo's authorship of a controversial early panel painting, and there is useful discussion of the relationships between Michelangelo's ideas in paintings and sculpture, as well as of their possible antecedents in the work of others.

But what makes this book such a gem is the detailed analysis of the techniques used in the panel paintings.Michelangelo's paintings, like his sculpture, have a unique power, clarity and imaginative force.The panel paintings if anything hint at even greater achievements, but unfortunately only one finished example has come down to us.The latter painting, the _Holy Family_, is one of the most perfect examples of renaissance art, and a tour-de-force of image-making technique.Although this book does not provide direct analysis of that particular painting's technique, in its analysis of other unfinished paintings it provides a great deal of information which illuminates the results Michelangelo achieved in the _Holy Family_ (including a long-needed explosion of the ill-fitting presumption that the smoothly blended forms of the latter were executed in tempera).Well-illustrated. ... Read more

Product Description
A new translation of poetry and letters from one of the most influential artists in history

The iconic Renaissance painter and sculptor Michelangelo Buonarroti was also a prolific and gifted poet. This groundbreaking collection presents verses, intense and passionate, that capture Michelangelo's eroticism and spirituality, alongside letters that provide fascinating insight into his family relations and day-to-day life as a working artist. The result is a revealing portrait of a towering figure of the Renaissance. ... Read more