by centuries of grime and soot, Michelangelo’s paintings in the Sistine
Chapel were cleaned in a painstaking process that began in the 1979 and
lasted thirteen years - three times longer than it took Michelangleo to
paint the ceiling.
This
50-minute video documents the laborious cleaning process that brought
Michelangelo’s frescoes back to their original glory. If you’ve
ever been curious about the process of restoration - its complications
and complexities - than Return to Glory is for you. It
provides a close-up look at the processes that were used by art
conservators as they sponge-bathed each and every massive figure on the
Sistine Ceiling. And it documents exciting discoveries made in
the process. Splendidly colored figures formerly hidden by layers
of dirt and grime emerge before your eyes.
Likewise,
if it’s Michelangelo’s amazing capacity to render the human body that
interests you, than this is a documentary film that you won’t want to
miss. You can’t get this close to the Sistine Ceiling in a visit
to the Vatican Museums, and you can’t begin to see the details that
this video highlights - including a figure that bears Michelangelo’s
hand print!
Return to Glory is
currently out of print, but you’ll find copies in many public and
university libraries. And, with a careful search, you’ll discover
that there are some used copies floating around the internet.
Nippon Television Network Corporation, 1996. Distributed by CCC of America, Inc.
Here’s a brand new book
that aims to give us the inside view on Michelangelo and his quest for
artistic perfection - but this is not a book about the Sistine Chapel
ceiling or the Pieta. Rather this book details Michelangelo’s
quests for perfect blocks of marble in the quarries of Carrara in
Northern Italy. Author Eric Scigliano presents a vivid picture of
Michelangelo’s escapades and ordeals in the quarries that produced the
marble from which the artist carved every single statue that he ever
created.
Michelangelo’s repeated
trips to Cararra - some lasting as long as eight months - gave him
intimate knowledge of its mountain of marble. He spent his time
there choosing the perfect blocks of statuario - marble fit for carving statuary - and supervising their quarrying and their transport to distant locales like Florence and Rome.
In writing this book,
Scigliano shows his reader just how difficult and complex the task of
quarrying marble was in the Renaissance, and he also demonstrates
the extraordinary effort needed to produce the perfect block of
marble.
Fortunately this book
is not just about the quarries. It also covers the subject of
Michelangelo’s scultpural work, with chapters discussing some of the
artist’s greatest hits, like the David and the Pieta. Equally
spellbinding are Scigliano’s descriptions of the enormous social
and political challenges Michelangelo faced throughout his career, and
his often troubled relationships with popes, princes, and poets.
Order Michelangelo’s Mountain from Powell’s
Free Press, 2005. ISBN 0743254775
By now, Ross King’s blockbuster book, Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling,
is well known to many lovers of art and Rome-antics. But,
just in case you’ve missed it, we want to remind you that it’s out
there and that it’s well worth your time. It provides an
excellent and enjoyable overview of the immense task undertaken by
Michelangelo when he was commissioned to paint the Sistine Chapel
ceiling by Pope Julius II.
It wasn’t
Michelangelo’s first encounter with the formidable pontiff.
Julius II had already asked Michelangelo to create a colossal tomb for
him, then cancelled the project, an act that angered Michelangelo and
made him swear never again to work for Julius. It was a promise
that couldn’t be kept, however, for in 1508 Julius summoned
Michelangelo to Rome and set him on the task of painting the Sistine
Ceiling.
As King
points out, Michelangelo was perhaps not the most logical choice for
this project. His experience as a painter was limited, yet he was
to produce a masterpiece that still attracts enormous
crowds almost 500 years after its completion. The process by
which the ceiling came into being is the subject of King’s book, but
it’s hardly a straight forward art history.
Rather, Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling
should be considered to be a history of the Papal Court and its
artists, for King aims to give his reader a complete picture of
the social context in which Michelangelo worked. As a
result, we learn much about the relationship between Michelangelo and
the Pope; about the interactions between Michelangelo and the other
superstar artists, like Raphael, working for Julius II; about the
techniques and processes used by Michelangelo to paint the ceiling; and
about the complex relationship that Michelangelo maintained with his
family in Florence.
Order Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling from Powell’s
Penguin, 2003. ISBN 0142003697
Anthony Majanlahti’s book, The Families Who Made Rome: A History and a Guide
is simultaneously a social history of Rome’s most noble families and a
guidebook that allows you to see Rome in a whole new way. If
you’ve ever wandered from Palazzo Barberini to Piazza Colonna or from
the Villa Borghese to the Palazzo Medici and wondered who built all
these grand palaces, piazzas, and gardens, then this book is for you!
The book
begins with an introduction to the “Broken City,” the Rome created by
the long Middle Ages, when power struggles and financial woes took
their toll on the city that had once been the capital of the Roman
Empire. From there, Majanlahti sets out to show us how the
magnificent Rome we experience today came into being and he places much
of the responsibility for the rejuvination of the city in the hands of
its most noble residents - families such as the Colonna, the Della
Rovere, the Farnese, the Borghese, and the Barberini.
The book
is divided into chapters that focus on the architectural and artistic
achievements of a particular family. These chapters make great
reading for the arm-chair traveler, but also serve as an interesting
guide for visitors to Rome.
Order The Families Who Made Rome from Powell’s
Chatto and Windus, 2005. ISBN 0701176873
Everyone at the IDC is talking about Caroline Murphy’s book, The Pope’s Daughter: The Extraordinary Life of Felice Della Rovere.
The book
chronicles the life of Felice, daugher of Pope Julius II who reigned
from 1503-1513. Felice began her life as the illegitimate
daughter of Pope-to-be Giuliano della Rovere and a Roman noblewoman,
Lucrezia Normanni, in 1483. When Felice was 20 years old, her
father was elected to the Papal throne and became Rome’s most powerful
Renaissance Pope and an exemplary patron of art. In his
decade-long reign, he hired Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel
Ceiling, asked Rapahel to paint his private apartments in the Vatican
Palace, and commissioned Bramante to design the new St. Peter’s
Basilica.
Julius was a formidable man, known for his terribilita, and
his daughter Felice inherited much of his political-savvy and
determination. Her Papal father married her to a Roman
noble of the Orsini family, insuring her an aristocratic standing in
Roman society, and she used her status to better her own position
in the world and that of her father. As Pope, her
father regularly called upon her to negotiate diplomatic
agreements about issues that could not properly receive
direct Papal attention. And concern with her family
legacy led Felice to build a financial empire of her own,
making her among the richest and most powerful women on the Italian
peninsula.
Not
suprisingly, Felice moved in the privileged circles of Italian
society, and her biography is a star-studded one, showcasing her
interactions with such individuals as Michelangelo, Isabella d’Este,
Lucrezia Borgia, and Catherine de Medici.
Besides
giving a fascinating account of the life of Felice della Rovere,
Murphy’s book demonstrates the extreme creativity of the period in
which she lived. Surrounded by humanistic invention of every type
- artistic, literary, philosophical, and scientific - Felice took the
task of self-fashioning to new heights, gaining levels of power
and freedom that were extraordinary for a Renaissance woman.
Order The Pope’s Daughter from Powell’s
Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 0195182685