Michelangelo Buonarroti Libros

In this portrait of the artist and his work, Michelangelo's brilliance leaps from the page as his words speak directly to us.

The genius of Michelangelo as architect, sculptor and painter was recognised by his European contemporaries. Only recently has he been acknowledged as the greatest Italian lyric poet of his generation. From the time he was thirty he wrote verse all his long life, but what turned him into a great poet was his encounter at the age of fifty-seven with Tommaso de'Cavalieri, a young Roman nobleman. The versions given here are of the sonnets and madrigals generated by his love for Cavalieri. Whether that love was ever physical is debatable. It was certainly 'metaphysical', and in their conceptual toughness and power these poems anticipate the work of the English poets of that description. The themes are light and dark, cold and the fever of flesh and damnation, helplessness in the face of young beauty, hope for the divine countenance. Immortalized in these poems, Cavalieri has another aspect. Vasari tells us Michelangelo did a full-length cartoon of him. If Aretino is right, millions have admired his features - in all probability Christ in the Sistine Chapel Last Judgement is a portrait of Tommaso de'Cavalieri.

Unique book includes 30 adaptations of Michelangelo's beautiful designs for the Sistine Chapel's celebrated frescoes. The ready-to-color illustrations show details from The Flood, The Last Judgment, The Creation of Eve, and other magnificent works.

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) is universally celebrated as one of the greatest artists of all time, yet iconic Renaissance creator was also a prolific and gifted poet. This is a collection of verses which are devoted to love and religion.

The book is a facsimile reprint of an original antiquarian work, preserving its cultural significance despite potential imperfections like marks and flawed pages. It aims to protect and promote literature by providing an affordable, high-quality modern edition that remains true to the original text.

"Mr. Gilbert has been right in following what he calls the principle of 'complete fidelity.' The original beauty of the sound may be lost, but at least the thoughts and the ideas are saved, something which is scarcely true even of such illustrious translations as those of Emerson or Wordsworth." -The New York Times Book Review

The poems have been rendered into vigorous contemporary English. A selection of Michelangelo's letters, many of them to important contemporaries such as Vasari and Duke Cosimo, is accompanied by the `Life' of the great artist written by his pupil Ascanio Condivi.