Una vita inquieta

Testo fondamentale per capire veramente l'essenza del genio di Michelangelo, ben oltre una semplice biografia, molto di più di una storia su uno dei massimi artisti di tutti i tempi. Forcellino ci fa conoscere prima di tutto l'uomo con le sue ansie, le sue paure, le sue ambizioni, e soprattutto i suoi tormenti, è indubbio che dopo averlo conosciuto in questo modo le sue opere ci appariranno inevitabilmente sotto una luce completamente diversa. ( )

How can any biographer aim to do justice to this quintessential Renaissance man who spent his long life in the cultural centers of his time? Forcellino's choice is to emphasize the political world and rulers around Michelangelo. Every commission Michelangelo received connected and positioned him amidst the competing clans of Italy. Michelangelo ruthlessly entered into too many contracts (with hefty cash advances) he was unlikely to complete on time. In contrast to Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo mostly managed to eventually complete his contracts, helped by his longevity. The long gestation of his works transformed a physical job into an intellectual endeavor. Michelangelo reworked and rearranged his composition and their symbolism. One of the highlights of this biography is Forcellino's revelations about the older Michelangelo's close collection to a group of reform Catholics, an association that became dangerous during the papacy of the rabid reactionary Paul IV.

Forcellino's biography also presents a good and lavishly (b/w) illustrated overview of Michelangelo's oeuvre and its creation. Michelangelo's unwillingness to delegate and seek help from what are now called project managers resulted in him having to spend an inordinate time dealing with tedious and unimportant elements of his work. His clients learned that an added nagging supervisor, despite all of Michelangelo's protestations, helped the project completion rate. Forcellino's focus is Michelangelo as a sculptor, followed by his work as a painter. His architecture, drawings and poetry are only cursorily treated. Apart from his family relations (often about financial matters), Michelangelo's personal life is not fully explored and suffers from open contradictions: How does the unwashed, unkempt Michelangelo fit together with Michelangelo the Dandy chasing and courting Rome's male youths?

Overall, a fine biography about a remarkable man who survived and prospered in a tumultuous Italy. ( )