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Paperback – 145 x 115 mm – 198 pages

66 pages of colour illustration, including a fold out

ISBN 9781843682615

Intended as a corrective to Vasari’s account, this biography by Michelangelo’s close friend and fellow painter Ascanio Condivi presents an unprecedently intimate view of the life and career of the most influential artist in the history of Western art.

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) remains the most compelling artist in the Western canon, and a touchstone for all artistic endeavour. Painter, sculptor, poet, architect, he redefined not only the possibilities of the imagination, but also of the image of the artist. He was the first artist to be the subject of a biography in his lifetime, with the publication of his Life in Giorgio Vasari’s Lives of the most excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects in 1550, where Michelangelo is presented as the divinely inspired culmination of the history of art.

Characteristically, perhaps, Michelangelo was dissatisfied with Vasari’s treatment, and encouraged his close friend and fellow painter Ascanio Condivi to publish a rival biography. Condivi’s Life is an impassioned and intimate portrait of Michelangelo, which gives an unparalleled picture of the master’s life, work and personality. This narrative of genius and its struggles in the treacherous world of Papal politics and Italian wars remains one of the most fascinating and influential texts in art history. Condivi’s Life is presented here in the classic translation by Charles Holroyd, artist, art historian and director of the National Gallery. The introduction by Charles Robertson sets Condivi’s Life in the context of Michelangelo’s career and the image that he created of himself. Sixty six pages of colour illustration (including a fold out) cover the full span of Michelangelo’s achievement.

Ascanio Condivi (c. 1525-1574), from the Marchigian town of Ripatransone, was a moderately talented painter, sculptor and architect, remembered today chiefly for this biography of his friend Michelangelo.

Charles Robertson is the former head of the History of Art Department of Oxford Brookes University and has published a number of studies on Italian Renaissance art and architecture.