Michelangelo: His Epic Life

A new biography of Michelangelo by the acclaimed author of Man with a Blue Scarf and The Yellow House There was an epic sweep to Michelangelos life. At 31 he was considered the finest artist in Italy perhaps the world; long before he died at almost 90 he was widely believed to be the greatest sculptor or painter who had ever lived (and by his enemies to be an arrogant uncouth swindling miser). For decade after decade he worked near the dynamic center of events: the vortex at which European history was changing from Renaissance to Counter Reformation. Few of his worksincluding the huge frescoes of the Sistine Chapel Ceiling the marble giant David and the Last Judgmentwere small or easy to accomplish. Like a hero of classical mythology such as Hercules whose statue Michelangelo carved in his youth he was subject to constant trials and labors. Here Martin Gayford describes what it felt like to be Michelangelo Buonarroti and how he transformed forever our notion of what an artist could be.