Michelangelo

April 7, 2014
While this breezy biography by art historian Unger (Machiavelli: A Biography) contributes little that is new to the subject, the casual reader (or prospective tourist) could do worse than pick up this highly readable book, if only for pleasing explanations of Michelangelo’s well-known works. Consulting the artist’s letters and sonnets, and early biographers Vasari and Ascanio Condivi, Unger weaves a familiar narrative about an ambitious sculptor, painter, and architect who elevated the artist’s status from laborer to demigod, mostly under the patronage of five popes: Julius II, Leo X, Clement VII, Paul III, and Julius III. But the book’s real interest lies in Michelangelo’s art, and six works in particular, including the Pieta, the Sistine Chapel fresco, and St. Peter’s Basilica. Unger, who can be relied upon for illuminating turns of phrase, reminds readers why Michelangelo’s work matters. He explains, for example, how the The Last Judgment was an unconventional subject in the contented era of the Renaissance, and describes how Michelangelo’s version opposes that leisure and optimism, rendering individuals naked and vulnerable to the end of days, while also casting doubt on orthodox institutions as mediators and spiritual guides. Similarly, for those readers who want to know why the Pieta was controversial or the significance of David, Unger’s biography will be delightfully informative. Eight-page, four-color insert, b&w photos. Agent: Alexander Hoyt, Alexander Hoyt Associates.

January 1, 2015

This fine combination of biography, artistic development, and social and political history by art historian and journalist Unger (Magnifico: The Brilliant Life and Violent Times of Lorenzo de' Medici; Machiavelli: A Biography) focuses on six major works of Michelangelo's career--the Pieta, David, The Creation, the Medici tombs, The Last Judgement, and the basilica of Saint Peter's--to follow the artist's burgeoning talent and fame, along with his notoriety and impulsivity. The author asserts that Michelangelo's art, sculpture, paintings, and poetry transformed the role that the artist plays in the creative act; he then places this idea into social and political settings of the time: the struggle for supremacy between Florence and Rome, which deeply involved Michelangelo in his various commissions and often led to the production of some works at the expense of others. By examining the artist's progress, readers get a refreshed view of the performance of invention as well as one of Michelangelo himself. With great perception, Unger creates a portrait of a magnificent craftsman and an often troubled human being. VERDICT This splendid combination of scholarship and insight is written in a graceful style that captivates the reader from the first sentence.--Paula Frosch, Metropolitan Museum of Art Lib., New York

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Starred review from May 1, 2014
In Michelangelo, the poet Ludovico Ariosto saw an angel divine. The Michelangelo whom Unger delivers in this probing biography is no angel but, rather, a fallible, even devious man. But he does evince powers not previously seen among mere human beings in the way he defies the limits that previously circumscribed the role of the artist. Readers watch this multifaceted genius acquire these powers as the bold young sculptor of the Pieta maturesdazzling Rome with his David, stunning the Vatican with his Sistine Chapel Creation, baffling his rich patrons with his daringly innovative Medici tombs, and finally overwhelming the ecclesiastical hierarchy with his anarchic Last Judgment. But the creative feat that unifies this string of masterpieces is Michelangelo's forging of an entirely new conception of the artist. No longer just a craftsman intent on selling his skills, the artist that emerges in Michelangelo is a visionary insistent on his imaginative autonomy. Michelangelo thus fashions a dynamic new identity for the artist as a revolutionary, opening new vistas for an astonished society. Unger highlights Michelangelo's singular achievement without glossing over the defects in his mercurial characteror obscuring the corruption and violence pervading his Renaissance world. A masterful portrait of a dauntingly complex figure.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)