Search

It is frequently recounted that shortly before Michelangelo died, the eighty-eight-year-old artist sat before a fire and burned many drawings. Critical examination reveals various motivations for such a destructive act and elicits suggestions for what Michelangelo might have burned. Mainly because of old age and significant changes in his artistic practice, Michelangelo made far fewer drawings in his final two decades than earlier in his career. Therefore, he may have destroyed less than is usually imagined and nothing that would have impaired the completion of his current projects, most important of which was New Saint Peter's. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relates the history of a Michelangelo project for a reliquary tabernacle in the church of San Silvestro in Capite, Rome, Italy. Explanation of the social dynamics contained in the history; Interplay of personal, political and professional relations involved in the minor undertaking of a major artist; Removal of the boundaries of patronage, favor and friendship.

This essay is a preliminary sketch for a book that examines Michelangelo Buonarroti's final eighteen years, from his appointment as architect of St. Peter's until his death in 1564, that is, from age seventy-one to a few weeks shy of eighty-nine. This period represents nearly a quarter of his approximately seventy-five-year artistic career, yet it remains the least familiar segment of Michelangelo's long life. It is paradoxical that in the final phase of his career, Michelangelo remained prodigiously creative and influential without being prolific--as he had been earlier in his career. His late life was concerned less with making things than with finding the courage and devotion to continue tasks that he knew he would never see to fruition, and this despite the loss of his closest friends, greatest patron, and his entire family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explains the reasons for the refusal of Michelangelo to release the painting 'Leda' to the courtier Il Pisanello sent by Alfonso d'Este to retrieve it. Pictures included in Alfonso d'Este's camerino; Reasons for Michelangelo's acceptance of the commission; Michelangelo's assistants employed by the City of Florence, Italy to aid the defense effort.

Presents a micro-historical view of the life of artist Michelangelo Buonarroti. Michelangelo's difficulties with paying large tariffs on his art works; Supervision during the loading and unloading of his art works; Ownership of a horse as a luxury during the Renaissance; Horse as an artistic recompense; Michelangelo's preoccupation with the horse.

The article presents information on Italian sculptor and architect, Michelangelo Buonarroti's bronze dagger. In 1506 the Florentine nobleman Piero Aldobrandini commissioned a bronze dagger from Michelangelo Buonarroti. Piero Aldobrandini initially approached Michelangelo's brother Buonarroto in Florence, since in 1506 the artist was in Bologna working on the bronze statue of Pope Julius II. In response to Buonarroto's letter informing him of Aldobrandini's wishes, Michelangelo complained that he was busy but he assured Buonarroto that he would do his best to see that Aldobrandini was well served. A month later, Michelangelo informed his brother that he was having the dagger made by the best (but unnamed) armourer in Bologna.

Since Charles de Tolnay first published them in 1940, Michelangelo's drawings for the fortifications of Florence have stimulated considerable scholarly interest. Tolnay likened the zoomorphic shapes of Michelangelo's sketches to crustaceous creatures. The analogy has become a commonplace, and while helping to describe the formal appearance of these unexpected designs, it has led most scholars to question their purpose and practicality. Furthermore, every scholar has followed Tolnay's general view that the series proceeds from the simple to the complex, with the drawings becoming increasingly abstract and fantastic. This paper proposes that Michelangelo's process of design was exactly the opposite. Beginning with abstract and complex ideas, Michelangelo proceeded to develop and refine his conceptions in a series of drawings that reflect a rational process of design. This hypothesis is more in accord with the historical facts and the documentary evidence and is based on a close analysis of the drawings themselves. The 20 sheets preserved in the Casa Buonarroti are evidence of Michelangelo's practical concern with particular problems of Florence's defense in 1528-1529 and represent the first stage of his successful activity as a military engineer for the Republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]