Wallace offers a new view of Michelangelo. Not only a sculptor, painter, architect and poet, he was also an aristocrat who believed in the noble origins of his family. This biography tells his own stories, and also brings to life the culture and society of Renaissance Florence and Rome.
Michelangelo is universally recognized as one of the greatest artists of all time, yet his life-which spanned the Italian Renaissance to the first stirrings of the Counter-Reformation-continues to be obscured in myth. "The Treasures of Michelangelo" presents an original overview of the famed artist, drawing from his numerous poems, artwork, and letters. The wealth of information presented here offers a fresh perspective on his life and his relationships. Augmented by facsimiles of 15 documents from his personal papers and other archives, this beautiful package paints a vivid portrait of an exceptional yet deeply human individual and the remarkable times in which he lived.
"As he entered his seventies, the great Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo despaired that his productive years were over. Anguished by the death of friends and discouraged by the loss of commissions to younger artists, this supreme Renaissance painter and sculptor began carving his own tomb. It was at this unlikely moment that fate intervened to task Michelangelo with the most ambitious and daunting project of his long creative life--the design and construction of St. Peter's Basilica. In this richly illustrated book, William Wallace tells for the first time the full story of Michelangelo's final two decades--and of how the artist transformed himself into one of the greatest architects of the Renaissance"--Back cover