Michelangelo: A Tormented Life

This major new biography recounts the extraordinary life of one of the most creative figures in Western culture, weaving together the multiple threads of Michelangelo's life and times with a brilliant analysis of his greatest works.

The author retraces Michelangelo's journey from Rome to Florence, explores his changing religious views and examines the politics of patronage in Renaissance Italy, politics that were complicated by the fact that Michelangelo worked for both the Medici and the Papacy. He discusses Michelangelo's character in detail, showing him to be a tormented man, solitary, avaricious, deeply religious, burdened with repressed homosexuality and a surplus of creative enthusiasm. Drawing on Michelangelo's memoirs and personal correspondence, the author paints a portrait of a deeply contradictory man whose work was infused with a sensuality of which he chose to deprive himself.

For the first time, Forcellino explores the spiritual turning point Michelangelo experienced between the late 1530s and the early 1540s, a crucial period when he created some of his most important works, such as the Universal Judgement and Moses. Forcellino offers a systematic reconstruction and interpretation of the frescos in the Paolina Chapel which Michelangelo completed in the late 1540s. Although less well-known than their counterparts in the Sistine Chapel, Forcellino shows that these frescos are among the artist's supreme achievements. The author also seeks to reconstruct the last years of Michelangelo's life, dark years of which we know very little but which are fundamental to the posthumous creation of the Michelangelo legend.

As a restorer and a recognized expert on Michelangelo, Forcellino took part in the restoration of the Sistine Chapel and Moses, two projects which gave us a new perspective on the techniques used by Michelangelo, the way he worked with colour and marble and the tools he used.