The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti [Paperback]

John Addington Symonds (Author), Creighton E. Gilbert (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 2002

The artistic genius of Michelangelo (1475-1564) is beyond question. One the most important figures in the history of art, his monumental paintings in the Sistine Chapel, his sculpture David in Florence, and his Pietà at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome are among the greatest human achievements of all time and remain the most visited and admired works of art in the world. Michelangelo's life has been the subject of many biographies over the centuries, but it was not until the appearance of John Addington Symonds's The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti, in 1893, that a biographer had complete access to the artist's family archives.

The Buonarroti archives were to be available to the public with the passing of the last family member, but even when that event occurred, in 1858, material from the archives remained closely guarded and only fragments emerged through the hands of family friends. The Italian government, predisposed to Symonds for his impeccable scholarship of Renaissance art, gave Symonds full access to the Buonarroti archives in the 1880s, the first independent scholar so honored.

With the ability to consult the massive amount of material in the archives, Symonds produced the first documented, and considered by many still to be the best, biography of Michelangelo. Symonds's expertise as a historian and critic gives added depth to this biography, and it is here that the public first learned that translations of Michelangelo's poetry had been altered to opaque the artist's sexuality. Yet this great work, the last of Symonds's life, has largely been forgotten by students of Michelangelo.

In this new edition, the first in more than fifty years, preeminent art historian Creighton E. Gilbert reintroduces Symonds's masterful study of Michelangelo to a new audience through a discussion of the historical context in which the biography appeared, a biographical sketch of Symonds, an openly gay man who worked rigorously to evaluate and promote the contributions of gay artists and scholars to mainstream life, and concludes with an appreciation of The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti, for its scholarly and literary merits, as an account of the most brilliant painter and sculptor of the Italian Renaissance.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Though this originally appeared back in 1911, it is still considered to be one of the best biographies of the artist. Symonds was the first to deal frankly with Michelangelo's homosexuality and was the first scholar granted complete access to the artist's materials by the Italian government. This edition includes a new introduction by Creighton E. Gilbert, art historian and translator of Michelangelo's poems and letters, who discusses the historical context of the biography as well as Symonds's own life and his efforts to recognize the contributions of gay artists.
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Review

"Scholars and students can learn much from a careful reading of this masterpiece of nineteenth-century research, the first modern biography of this famous artist. . . . Symonds's biography stands on its own as a solid, readable, compelling, and appropriate reading for the twenty-first century."—Sixteenth Century Journal

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Product Details

• Paperback: 992 pages
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press; 1 edition (April 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812217616
• ISBN-13: 978-0812217612
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 2.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,769,178 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding biograpphy !, November 1, 2004

By 

Hiram Gomez Pardo (Valencia, Venezuela) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti (Hardcover)

Miguel Angel is to say in Carlyle words , the Hero made Artist .

If we had more individualities with his courage , the symphony of the civilization would be more glorious .

If we persisted in search of the affinities of such artist we would find them in Beethoven . If not go and listen the last quartets of Beethoven (Op. 130 and 132, for instance) and proceed to watch the last works of Miguelangelo . You will not find another music more appropriate which illuminates with so fevered state, intriguing pathos and dark clouds mood . He, as the legitimate son of the ancient Greeks lived in the right time and in the right place Florence to show the world the Renaissance not only was the most important artistic movement of the mankind story but it was more than necessary a figure of his stature appeared in the middle of this land .

He belonged to the lineage of the deep characters , violents , greatful , that strengthens and fight passionately.

Miguel Angel was the timeless inspiration to many other thinkers , writers and artists such as William Blake, Goethe, Beethoven , Liszt, Mendelssohn, Lord Byron , Carlyle and Fürtwangler, among others and even his legacy seems to have not any kind of restrictions.

The author makes a careful study and explores dilatory every stage of his complex life with magnificent illustrations and broad gusto that it represents an exquisite refinement exercise for the intellect and mind to read this fundamental biography

The description of the Sistine Chapel is simply a imagination triumph and the highest and supreme good taste .

Terrific recommendable.