Michelangelo And The Pope's Ceiling by Ross King

Michelangelo And The Pope's Ceiling by Ross King

In 1508 Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He had been advised against doing so. The painting of the vaults was so difficult and Michelangelo was so inexperienced in fresco that it was considered a folly. Indeed, Michelangelo himself was reluctant for he considered himself primarily a sculptor rather than a painter. However, for the next four years he would labour over the vast ceiling, at first employing assistants and later, working alone, spending back-breaking hours with his face turned upwards. The result was one of the greatest masterpieces of all time. 'There is no other work to compare with this for excellence, nor could there be,' wrote Vasari in his Lives of Artists. Ross King's fascinating new book tells the story of those four extraordinary years. Battling against ill health, financial difficulties, domestic problems and inadequate knowledge of the art of fresco, Michelangelo created figures so beautiful that, when they were unveiled in 1512, they stunned his onlookers. Modern anatomy has yet to find names for some of the muscles on his nudes, they are painted in such detail. From Michelangelo's experiments with the composition of pigment and plaster to his bitter rivalry with Raphael, who was working on the neighbouring Papal Apartments, Ross King paints a magnificent picture of day-to-day life on the Sistine scaffolding and outside in the upheaval of early sixteenth-century Rome.

'Ross King deftly stitches modern Michelangelo scholarship into his fluent and gripping narrativeThe result is a delightful book that overturns the many legends.' Boyd Tonkin, Independent

Ross King is a renowned expert in the Italian Renaissance. He is the author of numerous bestselling and acclaimed books include Brunelleschi’s Dome, Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling, Leonardo and the Last Supper and Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies. His love of Renaissance Florence, which he has been studying, writing and lecturing about for over twenty years, made Vespasiano’s long-forgotten story – never written about before – an irresistible next subject. He lives just outside Oxford.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780712667685
ISBN 10	0712667687
Title	Michelangelo And The Pope's Ceiling
Author	Ross King
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Vintage Publishing
Year published	2003-10-02
Number of pages	384
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.