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Paperback – 145 x 115 mm – 144 pages

Thirty-two pages of colour illustration

ISBN 9781843682622

Unavailable for many years, these Dialogues vividly record conversations between Michelangelo and the Portuguese painter and writer Francisco de Holanda in the 1530s. It was a time of vigorous debate about the arts in Rome, and the Dialogues give an unprecedented insight into the world in which Michelangelo lived, and into his opinions, preoccupations and character at the time he was painting the Last Judgement.

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) was already in his lifetime the most celebrated and influential artist in Europe. These Dialogues record his participation in the discussions about art hosted by Vittoria Colonna, his closest friend (and for whom he made some of his most poignant images). No other text brings us so close to Michelangelo the artist, poet and thinker.

The Dialogues are presented here in the classic translation by Charles Holroyd, painter, engraver, art historian and director of the National Gallery. The introduction by David Hemsoll situates the Dialogues in the context of Michelangelo’s career and the artistic world in Rome.

Many of Holanda’s rarely seen drawings from the album he created of his Italian journeys are reproduced here, giving a vivid impression of the appearance of Rome in the sixteenth century. They are accompanied by a number of Michelangelo’s studies and finished drawings.

The author, Francisco de Holanda (c. 1517-84), was a distinguished Portuguese painter and writer who had been sent to the papal court as the artistic envoy of the Portuguese king John III. His Dialogues are a polished and thoughtful evocation of the intellectual society he found in Rome.

David Hemsoll, a Renaissance art and architectural historian, teaches at the University of Birmingham. Among other specialities, he is an expert on Michelangelo and his artistic theory.