The untold story of Michelangelo's final decades--and his
transformation into one of the greatest architects of the Italian
Renaissance
As he entered his seventies, the great Italian Renaissance artist
Michelangelo despaired that his productive years were past. Anguished by
the death of friends and discouraged by the loss of commissions to
younger artists, this supreme painter and sculptor began carving his own
tomb. It was at this unlikely moment that fate intervened to task
Michelangelo with the most ambitious and daunting project of his long
creative life.
Michelangelo, God's Architect is the first book to tell the full story
of Michelangelo's final two decades, when the peerless artist
refashioned himself into the master architect of St. Peter's Basilica
and other major buildings. When the Pope handed Michelangelo control of
the St. Peter's project in 1546, it was a study in architectural
mismanagement, plagued by flawed design and faulty engineering.
Assessing the situation with his uncompromising eye and razor-sharp
intellect, Michelangelo overcame the furious resistance of Church
officials to persuade the Pope that it was time to start over.
In this richly illustrated book, leading Michelangelo expert William
Wallace sheds new light on this least familiar part of Michelangelo's
biography, revealing a creative genius who was also a skilled engineer
and enterprising businessman. The challenge of building St. Peter's
deepened Michelangelo's faith, Wallace shows. Fighting the intrigues of
Church politics and his own declining health, Michelangelo became
convinced that he was destined to build the largest and most magnificent
church ever conceived. And he was determined to live long enough that no
other architect could alter his design.
