Michelangelo

Italian-born <strong>Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni</strong> (1475-1564) was a tormented, prodigiously talented, and God-fearing Renaissance man. His manifold achievements in painting, sculpture, architecture, poetry, and engineering combined body, spirit, and God into visionary masterpieces that <strong>changed art history forever</strong>. Famed biographer Giorgio Vasari considered him the pinnacle of Renaissance achievement. <strong>His peers called him simply "Il Divino" </strong>("the divine one").

This book provides the essential introduction to Michelangelo with<strong> all the awe-inspiring masterpieces and none of the queues and crowds</strong>. With vivid illustration and accessible texts, we explore the artist's<strong> extraordinary figuration and celebrated style of <em>terribilita</em></strong> (momentous grandeur), which allowed human and biblical drama to exist in compelling scale and fervor. Through the <strong>power hubs of Renaissance Italy</strong>, we take in his major commissions and <strong>phenomenal capacity for compositional schemes</strong>, whether the famous Medici library in Florence, or the extraordinary 500-square-meter ceiling (1508-1512) in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel.

From the towering <em><strong>David</strong> </em>to the aching grief and faith of <strong><em>The Pieta</em></strong> and the vivid drama of the Sistine Chapel's <em><strong>Last Judgment</strong>,</em> this is a succinct, dependable reference to a true giant of art history and to <strong>some of the most famous artworks in the world</strong>.