Barkan, Leonard

Princeton. 2010. November 2010. Princeton University Press. 1st American Edition. Very Good in Dustjacket. 9780691147666. 107 color illus. 97 halftones. 366 pages. hardcover. keywords: Art . FROM THE PUBLISHER - Michelangelo is best known for great artistic achievements such as the Sistine ceiling, the David, the Pietà, and the dome of St. Peter's. Yet throughout his seventy-five year career, he was engaged in another artistic act that until now has been largely overlooked, not only filling hundreds of sheets of paper with exquisite drawings, sketches, and doodles - but also, on fully a third of these sheets, composing his own words. Here we can read the artist's marginal notes to his most enduring masterpieces; workaday memos to assistants and pupils; poetry and letters; and achingly personal expressions of ambition and despair surely meant for nobody's eyes but his own. Michelangelo: A Life on Paper is the first book to examine this intriguing interplay of words and images, providing insight into his life and work as never before. This sumptuous volume brings together more than two hundred stunning, museum-quality reproductions of Michelangelo's most private papers, many in color. Accompanying them is Leonard Barkan's vivid narrative, which explains the important role the written word played in the artist's monumental public output. What emerges is a wealth of startling juxtapositions: perfectly inscribed sonnets and tantalizing fragments. inventory #37816 ISBN: 9780691147666.