Michelangelo and the Art of Letter Writing

by Deborah Parker

Overview

Michelangelo’s extant correspondence is the most abundant of any artist. Spanning 67 years, it comprises roughly 1,400 letters, of which 500 were written by Michelangelo himself. Biographers and art historians have combed the letters for insight into Michelangelo’s views on art, his contractual obligations, and his relationships. Literary scholars have explored parallels between the letters and Michelangelo’s poetry. Nevertheless, this is the first book to study the letters for their intrinsically literary qualities. In this volume, Deborah Parker examines Michelangelo’s use of language as a means of understanding the creative process of this extraordinary artist. His letters often revel in witticisms, rhetorical flourishes, and linguistic ingenuity. Close study of his mastery of words and modes of self-presentation shows Michelangelo to be a consummate artist who deploys the resources of language to considerable effect.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107415263
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/19/2014
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	190
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.43(d)

About the Author

Deborah Parker is Professor of Italian at the University of Virginia. She has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Villa I Tatti - the Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, as well as numerous others. The author of many articles, as well as the book Bronzino: Renaissance Painter as Poet (Cambridge University Press, 2000).

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. The role of letters in biographies of Michelangelo; 2. From word to image: epistolary rhetoric and artistic form; 3. From experience to expression: representations of captivity in Michelangelo's art, poetry, and letters; 4. Michelangelo's words: saying, doing, meaning.

Editorial Reviews

"Parker offers perceptive and intriguing analyses of the style and handwriting used in Michelangelo's letters and in some poems.  Before 1500 he wrote in a hybrid script employing elements of the mercantesca traditionally used by merchants, but later switched to a more humanistic cursive hand.  His handwriting is most graceful when he is writing to important people.  When writing to his family he frequently uses proverbs and maxims, such as those found in Tuscan books on family guidance. . . Parker has amply shown that Michelangelo did not have a monopoly on such standard figures of speech, and his artworks are infinitely more subtle than any of his writings."
-James Hall, Literary Review

From the Publisher