Michelangelo the Sculptor [antikvár]

How much did Michelangelo make? In this book we wish to present a rather unusual portrait of Michelangelo the sculptor, essentially by analysing the practical conditions, and therefore the economic and contractual ones, under which he produced his works. Certainly, like everything concerning the great master, his struggle to find profitable contracts, his ambition to produce almost architectonic complexes (that would be called «settings» today) and his determination to do something more than to stick to the possibilities of the marble quarries, his workshop and the financial situation of his patrons, have become legendary. However, we can get some real surprises if we check the chronology and the accounts based not so much on contemporary biographies such as those by Vasari or his faithful disciple Condivi, but rather on his expense accounts and contracts. From these we discover that there were long periods of preparation and gaps when frequently Michelangelo did not receive any remuneration. When, finally, the drawings, the wooden models for architecture and the wax and terracotta models for sculpture were approved, there arose the problem of how to procure the marble — to find it in the quarries taking into account the whiteness, purity and resistance of the material and frequently the enormous size of the blocks. There followed the wait for the transport of the material, hindered by stormy seas, drought or rivers in spate; the setting up of temporary wooden studios or permanent ones with several beds for the assistants who had been summoned; and finally frenetic and chaotic work that was often interrupted because payments were not forthcoming, for a change in programme or the patron's death, because of wars or revolutions or the introductions of moral censorship with the Counter-reformation. Michelangelo's unfinished works were rarely the results of stylistic experimentation but mostly due to his situation as a court artist who was therefore totally dependent on the unstable political and social conditions of the sixteenth century. Contrary to what is generally thought, Michelangelo went about his works following meticulous design stages, creating reproduction systems that would be considered mechanical today. To «fix» his creations he used sketches, wax models and more resistant terracotta ones for larger works. During this stage he carried out studies of anatomy and movement and, when he had some clear idea, he would decide the shape and size of the marble block, sending special accurately measured sketches to the quarries, often followed by a personal visit to choose the right stone according to resistance, colour and purity. On the basis of the sketches and measurements this marble was then rough-hewn in loco, before being taken by ship, boat and cart to the studio in Rome or Florence. To speed up the work Michelangelo himself proposed to Clement VII the use of full-scale terracotta models, as a guide for his assistants, who had to reproduce them faithfully but leaving a safety layer for the hand of the master, using a system of lead wires tied to a circular dial — a system already proposed by Alberti several decades before. However, according to Cellini, Michelangelo personally drew the main view (derived from the model) on the block, a method according to which «one must begin on that side to unveil with the chisel, as if one wished to create a half relief figure, and then proceed gradually with the unveiling». 3,