Michelangelo Drawings: Closer to the Master
by
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Editorial Reviews
One of the best known and most influential artists in the history of art, Michelangelo was a prolific sculptor, painter, architect, and draftsman. This lovely book focuses on more than 250 of his drawings executed in chalk, charcoal, and pen and ink. Distinguished art historian Hugo Chapman examines this array of works and discusses how the act of drawing figured prominently in Michelangelo’s work.Chapman considers the artist’s training and his choice of various techniques in a close investigation of the central role of drawing in Michelangelo’s career. The author describes the artist’s frugal use of paper, explaining how he often recycled letters and drawings (working on both the front and back of the sheet) throughout his career. Organized chronologically, the book looks at Michelangelo’s early development in Florence and Rome, his accomplishments as papal artist for the Sistine Chapel ceiling with its myriad preparatory studies, and his drawings for the tomb of Julius II, the Medici tombs, the Laurentian library, and the Last Judgement. The fascinating history of the fate of Michelangelo’s drawings after his death is also explored in detail.
Customer Reviews
Michelangelo Drawings, 2007-02-02
by Jeffrey Soniat (Baton Rouge, LA USA)
This is a really fine book. It's great to have all of these drawings together in one book. The drawings have a life of their own. As a bonus I was surprised to find here some of the best shots of the Sistine Chapel post-restoration. Amazing!
The exhibition Hugo, the exhibition..., 2006-06-25
by Christopher Evans (Frankfurt am Main, Deutschland)
It seems that Mr. Chapman set out to survey the life of Michelangelo, which is frustrating, as this book is the sole document to 'catalog' what is the largest exhibition of Michelangelo's drawing in modern times.
Also unnerving is that while being a $50 paperback, the British Museum did not license decent prints to accompany a book about M's life, so the reader must suffer black and white, grainy photographs of 'Battle of the Centaurs' and other pivotal works, reproduced with the quality of a cheap high school art survey text.
The pictures from the Exhibition itself are severely scaled and butchered, many only given half to a fourth of a page. The delightful 'Study of Infants' is included at barely 3" across, the result of which are sub 1" inch figures. Let me reiterate that this figure study was in the exhibition that Mr. Chapman's book is supposed to catalog and accompany!
Works such as St. Matthew, the Bruges Madonna, the Dying Slave, etc.. are just crammed in postage stamp, sub 1.5" thumbnails and confined to the edges, as if warring with the text itself. If this metaphor was to be taken literally, I would say Mr. Chapman's text was actually the victor. For a book about M's drawings to have the Gardner Pieta scaled to a size of 1.5" or the Studies for the Libyan Sibyl at 2", both black and white; is pretty inexcusable.
Mr. Chapman however, does a decent job of digesting most contemporary knowledge about the man and regurgitating it in a somewhat interesting and easily re-digestible text. It is unfortunate that this book is one of the only places you can see these drawings, and this alone is a reason to own it. However, in the end, this was a book about the drawings, and those who bought this book surely wanted to gaze, not squint, upon the work of the most masterful artist that has ever lived.
Also unnerving is that while being a $50 paperback, the British Museum did not license decent prints to accompany a book about M's life, so the reader must suffer black and white, grainy photographs of 'Battle of the Centaurs' and other pivotal works, reproduced with the quality of a cheap high school art survey text.
The pictures from the Exhibition itself are severely scaled and butchered, many only given half to a fourth of a page. The delightful 'Study of Infants' is included at barely 3" across, the result of which are sub 1" inch figures. Let me reiterate that this figure study was in the exhibition that Mr. Chapman's book is supposed to catalog and accompany!
Works such as St. Matthew, the Bruges Madonna, the Dying Slave, etc.. are just crammed in postage stamp, sub 1.5" thumbnails and confined to the edges, as if warring with the text itself. If this metaphor was to be taken literally, I would say Mr. Chapman's text was actually the victor. For a book about M's drawings to have the Gardner Pieta scaled to a size of 1.5" or the Studies for the Libyan Sibyl at 2", both black and white; is pretty inexcusable.
Mr. Chapman however, does a decent job of digesting most contemporary knowledge about the man and regurgitating it in a somewhat interesting and easily re-digestible text. It is unfortunate that this book is one of the only places you can see these drawings, and this alone is a reason to own it. However, in the end, this was a book about the drawings, and those who bought this book surely wanted to gaze, not squint, upon the work of the most masterful artist that has ever lived.
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Book Details
| Pages | 320 |
| ISBN | 0300111479 |
| Publisher | Yale University Press |
| Publication Date | 2005-11-11 |
| Sales Rank | #745812 |