In this biography, the author of the acclaimed Caravaggio examines therelationships that shaped Michelangelo’s first thirty years. In this compelling account, renowned art historian John Spike paints a vivid portrait of one of the world’s greatest artists and the places and people—Lorenzo de’ Medici, Leonardo, Machiavelli—that inspired and defined his early life and career. Spike’s masterful text probes the thinking, evolution, and desires of a young man whose awareness of his exceptional talent never wavered. Michelangelo’s complex personality is revealed through lively examinations of the Pietà, the David, and all other major works. Drawing on a rich background of Italian Renaissance politics and culture, Spike deftly navigates the fiery Florentine master’s struggle to surpass da Vinci’s artistic mastery, and his troubled relationships with Julius II and other key figures of the era. Praise for Young Michelangelo “Spike, an art historian, curator and critic, has done some impressive research to flesh out the early years of the artist’s life, right up until his return to Rome in 1508 to focus on a commission in the Sistine Chapel. The young sculptor’s daunting talent and quest to earn as much money as possible are woven into the story of the Italian Renaissance and the outsized figures of the age.” —The Washington Post “Spike crystallizes historical detail into vivid, memorable imagery. . . . Alternating between accounts of the turbulent political atmosphere and details of Michelangelo’s most private moments in the sculpture studio, Spike creates a rich narrative that promises more intrigue than the best adventure novel.” —Publishers Weekly “Such a comprehensive account of the master’s early life and rise to fame amid the political upheaval in the Papal States and Florentine Republic.” —Art + Auction

Michael Hirst's chapters are followed by Jill Dunkerton's survey of Michelangelo's technique as a painter on panel, using both egg tempera and oil paint, based on the investigation of his paintings in the National Gallery. Included in the discussion is Michelangelo's slightly later Doni Tondo in the Uffizi, Florence, his only completed panel painting and one of the most perfect of his works. Dunkerton also looks back to the paintings by Ghirlandaio and his workshop in which Michelangelo was trained. Her illuminating text helps us to understand how Michelangelo executed these two familiar but relatively little-studied paintings and also to envisage the startling finished appearance probably conceived by the artist.

This book is the fullest account ever written of Michelangelo's early work - as a painter as well as a sculptor. The period of his first stay in Rome was a crucial five years in the artist's life when he created, among other works, the marble Bacchus now in the Bargello, Florence, and the celebrated Pietà in St. Peter's, Rome, and, as Hirst shows, also began his painting of the Entombment now in the National Gallery, London. It was during these years in Rome, Hirst argues, that he probably painted another work in the National Gallery Collection, the Madonna and Child with Saint John and Angels, better known for the last 150 years as the Manchester Madonna, which Hirst concludes is entirely the work of Michelangelo and not, as has been thought, of an associate. Hirst traces much that is original in Michelangelo's though - this troubling interpretation of the character of the god of wine, his novel conception of sculpture in the round, and his extraordinary treatment of the nude body of Christ in both sculpture and painting - but also explores the artist's debt to earlier fifteenth-century imagery and ideas, and supplies substantial new evidence concerning the artist's life and contacts in Rome. Hirst's chapters are followed by Jill Dunkerton's survey of Michelangelo's technique as a painter on panel using both egg tempera and oil paint, based on the investigation of his paintings in the National Gallery. Included in the discussion is Michelangelo's slightly later Doni Tondo in the Uffizi, Florence, his only completed panel painting and one of the most perfect of his works. Dunkerton also looks back to the paintings by Ghirlandaio and his workshop in which Michelangelo was trained. Her text helps us to understand how Michelangelo executed his paintings and also to envisage the startling finished appearance probably conceived by Michelangelo for these familiar but relatively little-studied paintings.

An illustrated biography of Michelangelo, the Italian Renaissance painter and sculptor.

This is a long-awaited and authoritative reinterpretation of the early life and career of arguably the greatest artist in history. Author John T. Spike surveys Michelangelo's early life from birth to his early thirties, probing the thinking, artistic evolution and yearnings of a young man thoroughly convinced of his own exceptional talent. Spike explores Michelangelo's involvement in the most troubling controversies of his age, and recreates Florence and Rome with vivid sketches of Lorenzo the Magnificent, Leonardo, Julius II and Machiavelli. This is a prodigiously informative and compelling account that will fulfil the need for a major Michelangelo biography for this generation and many to come.

Travel to Renaissance Italy and learn about the young apprentice who went on become a true master, and one of the most beloved sculptors and painters of all time in this addition to the #1 New York Times Best-Selling Who Was? series! Michelangelo created some of the world's most recognizable art, from the statue of David to the intricate ceiling fresco of the Sistine Chapel. Beyond his well-known painting and sculpting, he was a gifted poet and architect. Young readers can learn about the entirety of Michelangelo's life, from his time as a young apprentice, his relationships with several Catholic popes and the Medici family, to his unwillingness to stop working into his late eighties. A perfect read for art lovers and fans of the Renaissance.