In this volume, Emily A. Fenichel offers an in-depth investigation of the religious motivations behind Michelangelo's sculpture and graphic works in his late period. Taking the criticism of the Last Judgment as its point of departure, she argues that much of Michelangelo's late oeuvre was engaged in solving the religious and artistic problems presented by the Counter-Reformation. Buffeted by critiques of the Last Judgment, which claimed that he valued art over religion, Michelangelo searched for new religious iconographies and techniques both publicly and privately. Fenichel here suggests a new and different understanding of the artist in his late career. In contrast to the received view of Michelangelo as solitary, intractable, and temperamental, she brings a more nuanced characterization of the artist. The late Michelangelo, Fenichel demonstrates, was a man interested in collaboration, penance, meditation, and experimentation, which enabled his transformation into a new type of religious artist for a new era.
By:
Emily A. Fenichel (Florida Atlantic University)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 261mm,
Width: 181mm,
Spine: 15mm
Weight: 600g
ISBN: 9781009314374
ISBN 10: 1009314378
Pages: 300
Publication Date: 20 July 2023
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
1. Introduction; 2. Public: criticism, penance, and the portrait medal; 2. Public: collaboration and religious art in Rome; 3. Private: Michelangelo, Vittoria Colonna, and meditation; 4. Private: the Jesuits, the body, and meditation; 5. Conclusion.
Emily Fenichel is Associate Professor of Art History at Florida Atlantic University.
