L'Italo-Americano

www.italoamericano.org 10 THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 2017 L'Italo-Americano LIFE PEOPLE MOVIES MUSIC BOOKS B eing one of the most cele- brated artists of all times, as well as a leading figure of the Italian Renaissance, the great Michelangelo Buonarroti surely needs no introduction either as a sculptor, a painter or an architect. But even though most people seem to know much about the visionary genius that created s o many everlas ting works of art, what do we really know about Michelangelo the man? A recent documentary titled Michelangelo – Love and Death finally rises to the chal- lenge of reassessing this artist's undisputed greatness while, at the same time, considering his often-overlooked literary merits and contemplating his inner tur- moil and deepest feelings. Having its origins in an exhi- bition at London's N ational Gallery, the film is directed by David Bickerstaff, a real veteran of art documentaries, who has already turned his camera eye to the life and w orks of s uch European masterminds as Monet, Matisse, Van Gogh, Goya, and Vermeer. Even though it was mainly s hot in F lo rence and Rome – that is the two cities where Michelangelo spent most of his life – the cinematic jour- ney through the mind of this unparalleled artist cannot but begin in Capres e, the little Tuscan town where he was born in 1475. K now n today as Capres e Michelangelo in honor of its most famous resident, this small village not far from Arezzo was at the time part of the Republic of Florence. The Buonarroti had alw ays been a w ealthy F lorentine family, claiming descent from none other than Countess Matilda of Canossa: by the time of Michelangelo's birth, though, the family was in finan- cial straits, so that Ludovico Buonarroti had accepted a post as the local administrator of Chiusi and Caprese. But even s o, it w as not long before Michelangelo's family returned to Florence. As it is masterly shown by Bickerstaff's film – which quotes from the biogra- phies w ritten already in M ichelangelo's lifetime by G iorgio V as ari and A s canio Condivi – it was precisely in the city of the Medici that the great artist got his education and train- ing: at a very young age, Michelangelo started to associ- ate with Lorenzo il Magnifico's circle and he also began his apprenticeship with the painter Domenico Ghirlandaio, who regarded him as one of his finest SIMONE SANNIO Michelangelo, Love and Death: A New Film Rediscovers His Art pupils. Today, some of the genius' earliest sculptures, letters, and drawings from this period are hosted at Casa Buonarroti, a F loren tine palace formerly owned by Michelangelo: among these works, the Battle of the Centaurs and the Madonna of the Stairs, two reliefs in which the young talent gave his own rendition of Donatello's so- called non finito technique, as the museum director himself explains us in the film. Michelangelo – Love and Death also focuses on the genius' artis- tic maturity, of course, but – dif- ferently from most sources – it does so by looking more closely, almost intimately at his many masterpieces: their secrets and perfection are not only investi- gated and speculated about by eminent art critics and special- ists, but also revealed to specta- tors on the silver screen by com- pelling close-ups. The David, in particular, is represented in all its usual awe- inspiring glory, while an anato- my professor instructs us on s ome details pointing to M ichelangelo's meticulous knowledge of the human body and an Italian artisan takes us to the Carrara white marble quar- ries where the material for the statue was taken. As if it were a real "exhibition on s creen," Michelangelo's most famous sculptures are thus scrutinized one after another: from the vari- ous versions of the Pietà – testi- fying to the artist's increasing preoccupation with death as he grew older – to the grand project for the Tomb of Pope Julius II (including the figure of Moses), which he completed only after four decades of work. Bickerstaff's documentary also pays special attention to M ichelangelo's s kills as a painter and architect: mos t notably, the film concentrates on his years-long experience of frescoing the Sistine Chapel ceiling and the Last Judgment, in Rome's Vatican Palace, but also on the realization of the Medici Chapels' New Sacristy and the Laurentian Library (both part of the San Lorenzo com- plex) in Florence. If there is one reas on w hy Michelangelo – Love and Death is particularly original, however, it is because it manages to shed light on the les s er know n as pects of Michelangelo's art. The prime example in this regard is undoubtedly given by the film's s crutiny of the s o-called Rotschild Bronzes, two bronze statues of naked men riding pan- thers dis played at the F itzw illiam M us eum in Cambridge (England): by com- paring these unusual sculptures to a student's copy of some early lost sketches by Michelangelo, it has recently been suggested that the great artist himself may be the author of the two works, thus making them the only survived Michelangelo bronzes. Eventually, though, an even more surprising aspect of this artist emerges from the film. Although people tend to forget about that, it appears Michelangelo was not only an incredible sculptor, painter, and architect, but a remarkable poet as well. All in all, it is not sur- prising that such a man managed to put down in words those emo- tions and feelings his sculptures and paintings already conveyed: as Michelangelo himself seemed to acknow ledge in a poem detailing the frescoing of the S is tine Chapel, thes e w orks speak mostly about love: his own love for art. The David, in all its awe-inspiring glory, is at once human anatomy at its best and a call to the white marble that made Carrara famous White Carrara marble was, to Michelangelo, more precious than diamonds

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