Michelangelo, Drawing, and the Invention of Architecture

by Cammy Brothers

In this engaging and handsome book, Cammy Brothers takes an unusual approach to Michelangelo's architectural designs, arguing that they are best understood in terms of his experience as a painter and sculptor. Unlike previous studies, which have focused on the built projects and considered the drawings only insofar as they illuminate those buildings, this book analyses his designs as an independent source of insight into the mechanisms of Michelangelo's imagination. Brothers gives equal weight to the unbuilt designs, and suggests that some of Michelangelo's most radical ideas remained on paper. Brothers explores the idea of drawing as a mode of thinking, using its evidence to reconstruct the process by which Michelangelo arrived at new ideas. By turning the flexibility and fluidity of his figurative drawing methods to the subject of architecture, Michelangelo demonstrated how it could match the expressive possibilities of painting and sculpture.

Genres: Art, Architecture

272 pages, Hardcover

First published September 16, 2007

Reviews

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A painter, an architect, a sculptor, a poet - Michelangelo was all these, and more.
His pursuit of architecture stemmed from his sculpture.
His architecture became a frame for his sculpture.
His architecture became sculpture without the need for the human form.
For too we see beyond the furrowed brows and languor at the artists side.