Michelangelo
Michelangelo between earthly passions and fear of God
During the Renaissance, the great homosexuals, from Leonardo da Vinci and Botticelli to Michelangelo and Raphael, transformed the history of art, attaining to ever closer imitation of nature whilst altering it to their taste. From their art, ambiguous beings were born, half man, half woman; female breasts were planted on male busts and a young man's gaze peeped out beneath the eyelids of a Madonna.
From his earliest youth, Michelangelo never ceased to suffer, and thereby to create. He attempted to reconcile the apparently conflicting forces that inhabited him: earthly passions and fear of God. Hence the edifice devoted to beauty, celestial and infernal alike, that Michelangelo raised to the glory of God. It has no equivalent nor descendance. His predecessors aspired to Heaven through faith alone; Michelangelo sought to rise through the contemplative exaltation of beauty.
His passions found expression in the human body as it emerged from the Creator's hand. And they did so even on the ceiling of a papal chapel: the Sixtine. This exposed him to a chorus of derision from prudish critics, who accused him of exhibiting paganism in a place of religion, and who clothed his immodest Titans in painted "breeches".
It was Michelangelo's curse to remain a colossus outside and apart from his time. It is the birthright of the comet to inspire fear and awe in the spectator. The spectacle of such glory can sear the tender eye.
About the Series:
Every book in TASCHEN's Basic Art Series features:
- a detailed chronological summary of the artist's life and work, covering the cultural and historical importance of the artist
- approximately 100 color illustrations with explanatory captions
- a concise biography
About the author:
Gilles Néret (1933-2005) was an art historian, journalist, writer, and museum correspondent. He organized several art retrospectives in Japan and founded the SEIBU museum and the Wildenstein Gallery in Tokyo. He directed art reviews such as L'Oeil and Connaissance des Arts and received the Elie Faure Prize in 1981 for his publications. Néret's many titles for TASCHEN include Salvador Dalí - The Paintings, Matisse, and Erotica Universalis.
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Michelangelo
Néret, Gilles
Softcover, flaps, 18.5 x 23 cm (7.3 x 9.1 in.), 96 pages, $ 9.99 |
- Reviews (3 items)
"Das vorliegende Bändchen bietet auf ca. 100 Seiten eine Ersteinführung ins Werk mit knappen, aber aussagekräftigen Texten und hervorragenden, oft ganzseitigen Bildreproduktionen."
Lehrerbibliothek, München, Germany
Lehrerbibliothek, München, Germany
- See also (16 items)
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Leonardo da Vinci - The Complete Paintings and Drawings Da Vinci in detail: Leonardo's life and work - the definitive edition. All pictures, all drawings! |
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Michelangelo, Complete Work Michelangelo's complete work — sculpture, painting, architecture, drawings |
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Arcimboldo Arcimboldo and his allegorical paintings composed entirely of flowers and fruits |