Michelangelo [Hardcover]

Diane Stanley (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 22, 2000 | Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up

When he was born, Michelangelo Buonarroti was put into the care of a stonecutter's family. He often said it was from them that he got his love of sculpture. It certainly didn't come from his own father, a respectable magistrate who beat his son when he asked to become an artists apprentice.

But Michelangelo persevered. His early sculptures caught the attention of Florence's great ruler, Lorenzo de' Medici, who invited the boy to be educated with his own sons. Soon after, Michelangelo was astonishing people with the lifelike creations he wrested from marble--from the heartbreaking Pieta he sculpted when he was only twenty-five to the majestic David that brought him acclaim as the greatest sculptor in Italy.

Michelangelo had a turbulent, quarrelsome life. He was obsessed with perfection and felt that everyone--from family members to his demanding patrons--took advantage and let him down. His long and difficult association with Pope Julius II yielded his greatest masterpiece, the radiant paintings in the Sistine Chapel, and his most disastrous undertaking, the monumental tomb that caused the artist frustration and heartache for forty years.

With her thoroughly researched, lively narrative and superbly detailed illustrations, Diane Stanley has captured the life of an artist who towered above the late Renaissance--and whose brilliance in architecture, painting, and sculpture amazes and moves us to this day.

Children's Books 2000-NY Public Lib., Books for Youth Editor's Choice 2000 (Booklist), Lasting Connections 2000 (Book Links), Best Books 2000 (School Library Journal), Top 10 Youth Art Books 2000 (Booklist), and Notable Children's Trade Books in the Field of Social Studies 2001, National Council for SS & Child. Book Council

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Michelangelo Buonarroti, one of the greatest artists of all time, was not exactly a noble and humble man. Irritable, arrogant, and impatient, his perfectionism and expectations drove away many potential friends, and even provoked one would-be friend to hit him in the nose, crushing it "like a biscuit." However, what's truly important for us today is that this man ultimately became an artistic genius, mastering the three arts of the Renaissance: sculpture, painting, and architecture. From his early years, when he created the Pieta (at age 25), to his 40 years of tormented work on a monumental tomb for Pope Julius II, to his greatest masterpiece, the paintings in the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo astounded people with his almost otherworldly talent.

Diane Stanley's well-researched, vivid narrative captures the life of the creator of some of the world's most beautiful, heart-wrenching works of art. Her illustrations are fantastically elaborate and include details of many of Michelangelo's sculptures and paintings. Michelangelo is a perfect introduction to art and art history, with plenty of compelling background information about the Renaissance and life in 15th and 16th century Italy. Stanley has written many other award-winning picture-book biographies, including Leonardo da Vinci and Cleopatra. (Ages 9 to 12) --Emilie Coulter

From Publishers Weekly

There is no one like Stanley (Leonardo da Vinci; Joan of Arc) for picture-book biographyAshe brings to the genre an uncanny ability to clarify and compress dense and tricky historical matter, scrupulous attention to visual and verbal nuances, and a self-fulfilling faith in her readers' intelligence. Returning to the Italian Renaissance, she looks at Michelangelo: "In an age of great artists, he was perhaps the greatest," she posits, pointing to his masterpieces in the three major artsAsculpture, painting and architecture. Her panoramic telling of his life story, fascinating in and of itself, also illuminates papal politics, the machinations of the Medicis, the technical difficulties of painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling (an assignment so unpleasant that Michelangelo thought his rival Bramante had put the pope up to it), the heady climate of Florence and other complex topics. The illustrations again manifest Stanley's prodigious talents. Her detailed rendering of the pre-Michelangelo Sistine Chapel, for example, is dramatic, expressive and historically accurate. Unfortunately, the digital techniques she used to good effect in LeonardoAcollaging in photos of her subject's workAare not successful here. She skillfully integrates reproductions of Michelangelo's own paintings and other two-dimensional art, but when she shows him toiling on the Piet? or with other sculptures, the difference in the depths of field is jarring: one portion of her composition is flat, another seems three-dimensional. The dislocating effect blemishes an otherwise outstanding work. Ages 8-up. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 48 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; First Edition edition (August 22, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688150853
• ISBN-13: 978-0688150853
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 9.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,138,337 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #45 in Books > Children's Books > History > Renaissance

More About the Author

Diane Stanley is the author and illustrator of more than fifty books for children, noted especially for her series of picture book biographies. SHAKA: KING OF THE ZULUS was named a New York Times Best Illustrated Book; LEONARDO DA VINCI received the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction from the National Council for Teachers of English. Ten of her books have been honored as "Notable Books" by the American Library Association and she has twice received both the Boston Globe/Hornbook Award and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators' Golden Kite Award. She is the recipient of the Washington Post/Children's Book Guild Award for Nonfiction for the body of her work.

She lives in Santa Fe, NM. Visit her website at dianestanley.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN!, September 25, 2000

By 

Pollyanna Stickney (Kingston, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Michelangelo (Library Binding)

While browsing through a local bookstore I chanced upon Michelangelo by Diane Stanley. What a beautiful book! Not only were the pictures captivating, but the information was excellent. Michelangelo's famous picture of the creation of the moon and stars that graces the Sistene chapel is on the cover. My children were enthralled as I read how Michelangelo spent many hours dissecting human cadavers at a local morgue, becoming so familiar with the human body that he was able to make his works come alive with breathtaking detail. I will look for more books by this same author. Children(and adults)will read this book over and over. A great addition to your home library!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining for my five-year-old daughter, March 1, 2004

By 

Andrew Taber - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Michelangelo (Hardcover)

With popular culture grabbing my daughter's attention so powerfully, it was nice to have some high brow material that could compete with the Disney genre. My favorite part was when my girl asked, "Why doesn't God just stretch his finger a little more like this [stretched her finger] to touch Adam?" The whole book is a single bed time reading for a parent to a child. It reads a bit like a cliff hanger with the reader along for the ride through Michaelangelo's challenges and accomplishments.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Life and Times of Michelangelo....., March 18, 2002

By 

Roz Levine - See all my reviews

This review is from: Michelangelo (Hardcover)

Born March 6, 1475 in the little stonecutter's village of Caprese, about fifty miles east of Florence, and left in the care of a nurse, Michelangelo "fell asleep to the odd lullaby of chisel striking stone. Years later he remarked that his love of sculpture must have come to him along with his foster mother's milk." From an early age, Michelangelo wanted to become an artist. His father, ashamed that his son wanted to enter such a lowly profession, tried to literally beat the idea out of him, but the headstrong and determined child would not give in, and in 1488 was apprenticed to the famous painter, Domenico Ghirlandaio. After only one year his unrivaled talent was noticed by Lorenzo de'Medici, a great and generous art lover and patron. He brought Michelangelo into his palace and treated him as one of his sons, encouraging his art. But upon Lorenzo's untimely death, Michelangelo was sent back to his father's house, and cast in the role of family breadwinner, "a role he would play for the rest of his life." And so it was that the difficult and disagreeable, perfectionist Michelangelo's greatest masterpieces, The Pieta, David, and the paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, were commissioned works by patrons and popes..... Diane Stanley's intriguing biography takes the reader on a compelling and suspenseful journey as she details the life and times of the greatest artist of the Renaissance. Her easy to read and engaging text is rich in history, art, drama, and anecdotes, and complemented by her ingeniously creative and innovative illustrations. Together word and art captures the essence of the arrogant and tormented artist, and brings Michelangelo and the Renaissance to life on the page. Perfect for youngsters 9-12, Michelangelo is a well researched and spellbinding introductory biography, and another marvelous addition to Ms Stanley's superb series.