Pioneer Library System

Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel
by Andrew Graham-Dixon

If you are liked the movie The Agony and the Ecstasy with Charleston Heston and Rex Harrison you may be predisposed to read Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel, however the book has less of the drama of Michelangelo's life and much more of the art. The book is broken into three major sections. The first part provides a brief biography of Michelangelo and discusses his work prior to undertaking the painting of the Sistine Chapel. This part is particularly interesting in pointing out that Michelangelo considered himself first and foremost to be a sculpture and in fact this first part ends with “The rest of this book is about the paintings created by the man who thought he was no painter.”

Part Two is about the art of the Sistine Chapel Ceiling. Andrew Graham-Dixon, who was the Chief Art Critic at the Independent for twelve years, describes the art in great detail and does an excellent job of interpreting the art and symbology as it would have been seen during Michelangelo's life. It also includes discussion of some of the, to Michelangelo, recent discoveries of ancient art that he may have used for inspiration. Since the Sistine Chapel tells the biblical story up to the time of Noah there are references to biblical text and Michelangelo's interpretation of that text.

Part Three concerns the other Michelangelo painting in the Sistine Chapel and that is The Last Judgement. Whereas Michelangelo painted the ceiling as a young man, he was 67 before he completed The Last Judgement . Not only had Michelangelo aged during the interim, but the church had undergone the traumatic periods of the reformation initiated by Martin Luther and the Germanic invasion of Rome that had destroyed much of the city and its population. Graham-Dixon does an excellent job of describing how these effected this last great painting by Michelangelo.

Whether your interest is in the life of this great sculpture and painter or just in these great works of art, Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel is well worth reading.