The Sistine Chapel : history of a masterpiece / Antonio Forcellino ; translated by Lucinda Byatt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Forcellino, Antonio, author.

Contributor:

Byatt, Lucinda, translator.

Standardized Title:

Cappella Sistina. English

Language:

English

Italian

Subjects (All):

Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1475-1564--Criticism and interpretation.

Michelangelo Buonarroti.

Cappella Sistina (Vatican Palace, Vatican City).

Buonarroti, Michelangelo, 1568-1646.

Mural painting and decoration, Italian--Vatican City.

Mural painting and decoration, Italian.

Mural painting and decoration, Renaissance--Vatican City.

Mural painting and decoration, Renaissance.

Mural painting and decoration--Vatican City.

Mural painting and decoration.

Christian art and symbolism--Vatican City--Renaissance, 1450-1600.

Christian art and symbolism.

Physical Description:

x, 246 pages, 48 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 24 cm

Edition:

English edition.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK : Polity, [2022]

Language Note:

Translated from the Italian.

Summary:

"The Sistine Chapel is one of the world's most magnificent buildings, and the frescos that decorate its ceiling and walls are a testimony to the creative genius of the Renaissance. Two generations of artists worked at the heart of Christianity, over the course of several decades in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, to produce this extraordinary achievement of Western civilization. In this book, the art historian and restorer Antonio Forcellino tells the remarkable story of the Sistine Chapel, bringing his unique combination of knowledge and skills to bear on the conditions that led to its creation. Forcellino shows that Pope Sixtus IV embarked on the project as an attempt to assert papal legitimacy in response to Mehmed II's challenge to the Pope's spiritual leadership. The lower part of the chapel was decorated by a consortium of master painters whose frescoes, so coherent that they seem almost to have been painted by a single hand, represent the highest expression of the Quattrocento Tuscan workshops. Then, in 1505, Sixtus IV's nephew, Julius II, imposed a change in direction. Having been captivated by the prodigious talent of a young Florentine sculptor, Julius II summoned Michelangelo Buonarroti to Rome and commissioned him to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Two decades later, Michelangelo returned to paint The Last Judgement, which covers the wall behind the alter. Michelangelo's revolutionary work departed radically from tradition and marked a turning point in the history of Western art."--Publisher.

Notes:

Translation of: La Cappella Sistina : racconto di un capolavoro. Bari : Editori GLF Laterza, 2020.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

ebook version :

ISBN:

1509549234

9781509549238

OCLC:

1273672012