Customer Reviews

Michelangelo Drawings: Closer to the Master

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It seems that Mr. Chapman set out to survey the life of Michelangelo, which is frustrating, as this book is the sole document to 'catalog' what is the largest exhibition of Michelangelo's drawing in modern times.

Also unnerving is that while being a $50 paperback, the British Museum did not license decent prints to accompany a book about M's life, so the reader must suffer black and white, grainy photographs of 'Battle of the Centaurs' and other pivotal works, reproduced with the quality of a cheap high school art survey text.

The pictures from the Exhibition itself are severely scaled and butchered, many only given half to a fourth of a page. The delightful 'Study of Infants' is included at barely 3" across, the result of which are sub 1" inch figures. Let me reiterate that this figure study was in the exhibition that Mr. Chapman's book is supposed to catalog and accompany!

Works such as St. Matthew, the Bruges Madonna, the Dying Slave, etc.. are just crammed in postage stamp, sub 1.5" thumbnails and confined to the edges, as if warring with the text itself. If this metaphor was to be taken literally, I would say Mr. Chapman's text was actually the victor. For a book about M's drawings to have the Gardner Pieta scaled to a size of 1.5" or the Studies for the Libyan Sibyl at 2", both black and white; is pretty inexcusable.

Mr. Chapman however, does a decent job of digesting most contemporary knowledge about the man and regurgitating it in a somewhat interesting and easily re-digestible text. It is unfortunate that this book is one of the only places you can see these drawings, and this alone is a reason to own it. However, in the end, this was a book about the drawings, and those who bought this book surely wanted to gaze, not squint, upon the work of the most masterful artist that has ever lived.

What can I say about this GIANT demonstrating with such tour de force, the lost art of classical drawing. Chapman gives us an extraordinarily comprehensive view of his work and helps prove that Michelangelo will always be our best teacher in drawing the figure - his system, despite it complexity, provides the most clarity. I don't necessarily agree with the other reviewers comment that reproductions here are mediocre. True many are sadly too small - in order to fit in lots of written documentation but also copyright/legality issues often prohibits better pics. (And perhaps Euro publications maintain better focus on repro-quality then here.) There are actually a few larger studies ie. single poses devoted to whole pages. Its a impressive collection and of descent clarity (for book standards) so I think its a must have for artists interested in traditional figure work. No single/ideal book exists on such a prolific draftsman and I think their isolation was a wise choice by the author in that it separates two different stages of leaning: the abc's of drawing from matters of secondary importance (tone and color). Interestingly enough M preferred simple black chalk on light paper vs. the popular addition of white on toned paper - used by so many as a crutch (and is therefore a tip from him per understanding basics of drawing). So this format is educational regarding history and introduction to techniques pertaining to chalk and paper (which you'll probably gain more from reading than from the best attempted 'how to' of today since most author/artists are more concerned with their own work than they are in learning about the artform itself).

Its not absent however of rather misguided statements regarding process which writers typically stab at awkwardly. Ie. statements Chapman makes such as, "...here, M's main focus was the study of light...". This is misleading - since classical artists were primarily focused on analyzing and manipulating form. That they used lighting as a tool to help `sculpt' form is obvious but all the while the main intent was in understanding and extracting dimensional qualities of shapes (from inside to outer). The surface/shadow/lighting infatuation so common with amateur draftsmen today is a modern approach which generally contradicts what traditional artist were trying to do. Look at M's (Exh.No.76 Recto) - shadows are practically non existent - much of it is mid-tones only. Or look at the left side rib contour (of Exh.No.30) following shapes - which is practically void of tone. This visual concept can hardly be explained using words. That's why its imperative to inspect originals. (They'rs a Mengs hanging today at our National Gallery (DC) in the 2010 German show which is a fine example of this subtle restraint. And our Met has M's, 'Sybl' (Fig.51)but alas she's allowed to breath in public rarely).

Most all bk repros are too dark/overly contrasted with subtle half tones being knocked out - which invites faulty, exaggerated remarks usually about shading/lighting issues - the easiest, most superficial one to address. If you seek out originals that museums pull out of hiding now and then, I guarantee you'll be continuously astounded by how light in tone, how soft of touch they are and how lacking of harsh contrast (so common in modern work unaccustomed to a traditional approach that works so hard to maintain transparency/depth). What this book does display is the often misunderstood dimensional concept of simply drawing through forms, empowering M to in a sense see through them - manipulate their relationships etc.(vs. the predominantly flat/2D, shadow approach so popular today with many so called 'Realists'. We see hints of this under-drawing framework in (Exh.No.19 Recto) or (Exh.No.85 Recto.) which enliven even his restfull figures.

We artists ooh and ah over the anatomy - an easier subject to learn compared to what is perhaps the more important lesson M offers - that being his dynamic understanding of inner structure. Think of the geometric box for the pelvis as referenced by the R.B.Hale books (in a sadly diluted manner) and you'll be on the right track. This may sound deceptively ABC yet it quickly deepens into highly complex issues derived from the study of antique work which M surrounded himself with. The untrained eye however will not see the structure imbedded in many of M's finished drawings (those basics are put on auto-pilot as M's imagination hurls him into the higher realm of ideal design) but it should not stop one from trying - even if you have to pull out a magnifying lens to see some of the faint lines disguised hear and there (rarely reproducible). That many of them are hidden by `stylus', as Chapman notes, helps explain their elusive nature. That he sometimes invented designs without the use of a live model has invited many ignorant claims about his dynamic abilities. A deeper dialogue on this would have to include the fact that most everything he did was absolutely based on a very serious observation of nature.

M was exceptional of course yet trained in a time when sculpture was a standard part of training for artists who, more enlightened than we, saw the world as round and three dimensional as apposed to the flat consensus perpetuated by schools today. A misnomer is that simply by playing with clay you will learn form but it all comes down to HOW you see and interpret form - hence the virtually lost and highly misunderstood issues pertaining to it. To this I'd add the fluid rhythm apparent in Italian disegno as well as the ability to concept designs from the imagination (a skill hardly extant today with the odd exception of those still doing hand-drawn animation). Much he learned by copying Greek sculpture (as indicated by Fig.17) while fusing that knowledge with his own intense study of nature. The documentation here is fascinating and exhaustive and admittedly I've only skimmed some sections of historic info so I may revise my review in the future.

I wanted to correct my prior review. In all fairness I reviewed the order before the arrival time was actually up. I was disappointed it had not arrived by Christmas but it was never promised to be here by then.

This is a really fine book. It's great to have all of these drawings together in one book. The drawings have a life of their own. As a bonus I was surprised to find here some of the best shots of the Sistine Chapel post-restoration. Amazing!