Leo Steinberg was one of the most original art historians of the
twentieth century, known for taking interpretive risks that challenged
the profession by overturning reigning orthodoxies. In essays and
lectures ranging from old masters to contemporary art, he combined
scholarly erudition with an eloquent prose that illuminated his subject
and a credo that privileged the visual evidence of the image over the
literature written about it. His writings, sometimes provocative and
controversial, remain vital and influential reading.
For half a century, Steinberg delved into Michelangelo's work, revealing
the symbolic structures underlying the artist's highly charged idiom.
This volume of essays and unpublished lectures elucidates many of
Michelangelo's paintings, from frescoes in the Sistine Chapel to the
Conversion of St. Paul and the Crucifixion of St. Peter, the
artist's lesser-known works in the Vatican's Pauline Chapel; also
included is a study of the relationship of the Doni Madonna to
Leonardo.
Steinberg's perceptions evolved from long, hard looking. Almost
everything he wrote included passages of old-fashioned formal analysis,
but always put into the service of interpretation. He understood that
Michelangelo's rendering of figures, as well as their gestures and
interrelations, conveys an emblematic significance masquerading under
the guise of naturalism. Michelangelo pushed Renaissance naturalism into
the furthest reaches of metaphor, using the language of the body to
express fundamental Christian tenets once expressible only by poets and
preachers.
Michelangelo's Painting is the second volume in a series that presents
Steinberg's writings, selected and edited by his longtime associate
Sheila Schwartz.
