Michelangelo : Divine Draftsman and Designer - the exhibition catalogue from The Metropolitan Museum of Art available to buy at Museum Bookstore

Michelangelo : Divine Draftsman and Designer

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'A showcase of visual seduction and scholarship, this is the catalogue to the landmark Michelangelo exhibition just opened at New York’s Metropolitan Museum. It deepens our understanding of the artist’s creative process as draughtsman, sculptor, painter, architect, and compellingly explores his turbulent life, Renaissance context and classical sources' - FT

The exhibition catalogue accompanying a show at the Met Museum offering a comprehensive and exquisitely illustrated presentation of the genius of Michelangelo by the world's leading expert on the artist.

Featuring more than 200 drawings as well as paintings, sculpture, and architectural plans and views, this authoritative book examines Michelangelo as "the divine draftsman and designer" whose work, according to Giorgio Vasari, embodied the unity of the arts. Carmen C. Bambach delivers a thorough and engaging narrative of the artist's long career, beginning with his training under Ghirlandaio and Bertoldo and ending with his 17-year appointment as chief architect of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. In each thematic chapter, related drawings and other works are illustrated and discussed together, many for the first time, to provide new insights into Michelangelo's creative process.

In addition to St. Peter's, other featured projects include the Sistine Chapel ceiling, the Tomb of Pope Julius II, and the architecture of the Campidoglio in Rome. Michelangelo's theories of art are also explored, and new consideration is given to his personal life and affections and their effect on his creative output.

Magnificent in every way, this book is a great addition to any art lovers' library.

One of the FT's art books of the year (2017). One of the Times' art books of the year (2017). One of the New York Times art books of the year (2017).

Details
  • Author: Carmen C, Bambach, Curator in Department of Drawings and Prints at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  • Hardcover: 400 pages | 370 colour illustrations
  • Date published: November 2017
  • Language: English
  • ISBN: 978-1588396372
  • Product Dimensions: 27.9 x 24.1 cm
Reviews

'The exhibition of the year (more than 130 drawings and sculptures by Michelangelo) has just opened: alas, it is at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The next best thing to the show is Michelangelo: Divine Draughtsman and Designer, edited by Carmen C Bambach (Metropolitan Museum of Art/Yale £50). This accompanying, independent book contains the latest scholarship and examines Michelangelo’s mastery of disegno (a term that encompasses drawing and conceptual design). “I am not a painter,” he despaired but he was certainly a draughtsman of genius, and this beautiful volume looks at the drawings he made as preparation for his paintings, sculptures and architecture, and the independent works he gave to his closest friends.' - The Times

'A showcase of visual seduction and scholarship, this is the catalogue to the landmark Michelangelo exhibition just opened at New York’s Metropolitan Museum. It deepens our understanding of the artist’s creative process as draughtsman, sculptor, painter, architect, and compellingly explores his turbulent life, Renaissance context and classical sources' - FT

'This hefty book is both a visual souvenir of the Met’s grand exhibition of Michelangelo drawings (through Feb. 12), and something more. Years in the planning, the show was a labor of love on the part of its curator, Carmen C. Bambach. And the long, multipart essay by her that dominates the catalog has a sense of personal investment unusual in a scholarly context. The tone and pace makes you feel involved in an inquiry that turns a monumental art into the human record it was, and is.' - New York Times

'without a doubt an irreplaceable addition to the artist’s ever-expanding scholarship' - Nigel Ip for Museum Bookstore 

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