Books of Interest
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The Agony and the Ecstasy (The Biographical Novel of Michelangelo)
By: Irving Stone
Irving Stone (1903-1989, died at the age of 86, American writer of biographical novels about artists, politicians and intellectuals.)
Irving Stone’s novel is an entertaining book and an historically supported story of the famous artist, Michelangelo. Michelangelo was a Florentine born in Florence, an influential city at the heart of the Italian Renaissance. The Medici family was in control of Florence’s political and cultural life in Michelangelo’s youth.
Two of the most famous artists of all time, Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti created two of the most famous art works of the world in Florence, i.e. da Vinci’s “Adoration of the Magi” and Michelangelo’s “David”. However, their personal relationship began roughly in their brief contact in Florence. In 1504. Leonardo da Vinci was 52 years old. Michelangelo was 29.
They had both been contacted to paint murals in the Hall of Five Hundred in the Palazzo Vecchio. Leonardo had already made his reputation as a master painter, polymath, and diverse genius. Michelangelo was considered a sculptor more than a painter. However, in a casual conversation da Vinci alludes to sculpture as a less prestigious form of art. The younger Michelangelo is offended and is alleged to have said harsh words to da Vinci with a challenge to paint a competing fresco in the Palazzo Vecchio. Neither completed their planned paintings but their preparatory works were preserved and considered important developments of the High Renaissance. Irving Stone suggests they meet later in life and Leonardo apologizes for what he felt was a misinterpretation of his words about the art of sculpture.
Stone suggests Michelangelo is more of an ascetic than da Vinci. Leonardo as noted by other authors, had many interests beyond art. Michelangelo prefers sculpture to any other form of art and when he is contracted for his artistic genius, he grudgingly takes commissions for his skill as a painter. “The Agony and the Ecstasy” is a title that captures Michelangelo’s artistic conflict.
Stone shows Michelangelo pursues human dissection, just as Leonardo is said to have, to more fully understand the construction of the human body for an artist to make painting or sculpture appear more real. Human dissection is not legal in Michelangelo’s time in Florence, so he secretly works at night when no one is around to see what he is doing.
Stone addresses the political turmoil of the time and how Michelangelo is hired by the Medici family when he is a young man. This is before the Borgias replace the Medici family in Italy. Michelangelo remains close to the Medicis even in their exile but is attracted to Rome in 1496 by Cardinal Raffaele Riario, a relative of Pope Sixtus IV. In Rome, Michelangelo creates “Bacchus”, the god of Wine.
Michelangelo’s Bacchus, the Roman god of agriculture, wine, and fertility.
After creating “Bacchus, a French cardinal commissions the “Pieta” for St. Peters Basilica. Michelangelo gains the reputation of being a master sculptor.
Stone suggests the Pope asks why Mary appears so young and Michelangelo explains it is because she is the mother of a divine.
After the Pieta, Michelangelo is commissioned by overseers of the Office of Works of the Cathedral of Florence. This is not clear in “The Agony and the Ecstasy” but it reinforces Irving Stone’s recognition of Michelangelo’s deep connection to Florence. He returns to Rome, but his heart is in Florence. Much of Michelangelo’s time in Rome is uncomfortable and does not calm down for him until the Medicis return to power.
The warrior Pope, Pope Julius II heads the church from 1503-1513. Irving Stone explains; this Pope demands Michelangelo paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican in Rome. Of course, Michelangelo resists because he wishes to be remembered for sculpture, not painting, because it is an art that gives him joy. The forceful Pope insists, and Michelangelo makes a false start that changes into a history of the birth of the world on the ceiling of the Chapel. He works on the ceiling of the Chapel from 1508 to 1512.
Sistine Chapel painting by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512.
The story of Michelangelo ends with the return of the Medicis to power. It is for Michelangelo–a journey of “…Agony and Ecstasy”–of love for his work, the daughter of a Medici, and the tumult of his time. Michelangelo never marries and dies at the age of 88 in 1564.
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