Young Michelangelo: The Path to the Sistine

ISBN: 086565266X

Author: Spike, John T.

Condition: Used

Truly in a class of its own, Young Michelangelo is the most definitive and eye-opening study of the artists early life to come along in a generation.In this compelling account, renowned art historian John Spike paints a vivid portrait of one of the worlds greatest artists and the places and people-Lorenzo de Medici, Leonardo, Machiavelli-that inspired and defined his early life and career. Spikes masterful text probes the thinking, evolution, and desires of a young man whose awareness of his exceptional talent never wavered. Michelangelos complex personality is revealed through lively examinations of the Piet, the David, and all other major works. Drawing on a rich background of Italian Renaissance politics and culture, Spike deftly navigates the fiery Florentine masters struggle to surpass da Vincis artistic mastery, and his troubled relationships with Julius II and other key figures of the era.Praise for Young Michelangelo:Making the most of Michelangelos ample correspondence and the recently published records of his extensive banking transactions, Spike has drawn an astonishingly vivid portrait of the artists first 33 years. It's the best life of Michelangelo I've read, and it leaves one wishing the author would complete Michelangelos life with his wonderful grasp of the artists tenacious personality and Herculean achievement. ~ Everett Fahy, John Pope-Hennessy Chairman of the Department of European Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of ArtTense and agile as an early sculpture, Young Michelangelo is a compelling portrait of the artist as a young man in a dangerous time. ~ Peter Robb, Author of M: The Man Who Became Caravaggio"Spike crystallizes historical detail into vivid, memorable imagery. . . . Alternating between accounts of the turbulent political atmosphere and details of Michelangelos most private moments in the sculpture studio, Spike creates a rich narrative that promises more intrigue than the best adventure novel."-Publishers Weekly"Spike's original and valuable approach to studying [Michelangelo's] childhood, development, and reputation as one of the greats of the Renaissance provides a deeper understanding of such a wondrous, almost mythic figure. An essential book for Renaissance collections and devotees." -Library JournalThis erudite but immensely readable account is essential for anyone who desires to know more about Michelangelos formation. ~ David Alan Brown, National Gallery of ArtSpike is a masterful weaver of disparate information into a synthetic narrative. He provides a rich web of the political, social, and personal contexts against which Michelangelo's early career unfolded. ~ John Hunisak, Professor of Art & Architecture, Middlebury College"Spike captures [Michelangelo's] magnetism, his drive and the sheer scale of his ambition.... A veteran biographer of Caravaggio, Masaccio and Fra Angelico, Spike relates Michelangelo's wanderings to his restlessness and the troubles of his era, from the rise of the fundamentalist preacher Savonarola in Florence to the many skirmishes provoked by Rome's bellicose Julius." ~ The Sunday Times"No art historian has got closer to [Michelangelo] than John T Spike. The Florence-based American, whose coup here is his access to the artist's recently published financial accounts and consequently enhanced understanding of his dealings with patrons, is an immensely flexible writer who has produced a book of alternating pans and zooms. . . . At the same time, however, the worldly dealings that Spike recounts, and his textured reconstruction of the times that his subject moved moodily through, make the artist seem more human than ever before. We're left with a Michelangelo who lived on earth as a man, but also had an element of the unearthly about him. . . . Though it probably only portends a trilogy, it's perhaps no accident that Spike's narrative ends in the artist's 33rd year." ~ The Telegraph"As John T Spike argues in this cri