A Journey Into Michelangelo's Rome--Angela Nickerson (book review)

Seven things you may or may not know about Michelangelo Buonarotti:

1. His dad was so against having a painter for a son that he beat him as a child, to discourage him from doodling.

2. As well as a sculptor and a painter, he was a poet. He often came up with ideas for sonnets while sculpting.

3. He loved stone so much that he left part of each of his sculptures unfinished so the raw stone would be visible.

4. The pope built a secret drawbridge from the Vatican to Michelangelo's studio, so he could visit with him at work without appearing to play favorites.

5. He wore boots made from dog skin.

6. In fact, he wore them for months at a time, without taking them off. With bare feet.

7. Today (March 6th), was his birthday. He lived to be 89 years old (1475-1564).

I learned all this from Angela Nickerson's A Journey Into Michelangelo's Rome, my third book in the Roaring Forties Press's ArtPlace Series (the others being A Journey Into Dorothy Parker's New York, and A Journey Into Steinbeck's California). Of the three, I'd say Nickerson had the toughest task. Rome was, after all, a huge city with millenia of history behind it by the time Michelangelo was born in 1475. So, how does one take a tour of Michelangelo's Rome, without visiting the ancient structures that helped define the city in his day, as well as ours? Then there's the inconvenient fact that Michelangelo spent part of his life in Florence and Bologna, rather than Rome. A thorough biography of the artist can't focus exclusively on his time in one city.

All this to say: I found this book to be less of a journey through Michelangelo's Rome, than it was a history of Rome and a biography of Michelangelo, twisted together into one illustration-packed 163-paged volume. There's a fine line between providing context and overwhelming the reader. Maps and illustrations contain both Renaissance-era and ancient structures. Meanwhile, the site one of Michelangelo's residences, (now replaced by modern buildings), is mentioned but not mapped.

With its translations of sonnets and excerpts of letters written by Michelangelo, A Journey Into Michelangelo's Rome offers an engaging introduction to both the artist and the "Eternal City." However, a narrower focus on the points where the two intersect would have made it more fully stand out, among the dozens of books that can be found on either subject.

For the soundtrack: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525ish-1594) rocked the renaissance. He was a famous composer in Rome during Michelangelo's time, and his music is still sung today. I'm delighted to have found a recording of a piece that my choir has done to share with you. So gorgeous, so fun to sing.

My next review in the ArtPlace series is coming up on March 17th. I'll be journeying into Ireland's Literary Revival with author R. Todd Felton, in celebration of St. Patrick's Day.

TSS: Edgar, Leonardo, and Michelangelo

Yesterday when our family was leaving for the science museum to see the Leonardo da Vinci exhibit, Chris beat me to the car and implanted himself triumphantly in the passenger seat with his book on his lap.

"But...when am I going to read?" I asked forlornly through the driver's side door, book tucked under my arm.

He laughed. "On the way home?" he suggested.

You see, my husband recently checked out The Story of Edgar Sawtelle from the library, and he's got a plan: If he reads 40 pages per day, he can finish it before it has to go back in three weeks. Forty pages is a lot for a man who rarely spends more than half an hour reading on a weekday, and frequently doesn't read at all. The guy is clearly motivated to finish this book I've vowed not to read. So, reading in the car will have to be his prerogative, this time.

The da Vinci exhibit, which we were visiting for the second time, is fabulous. Going back to da Vinci's original drawings and using materials that would have been available to him, these folks have built life-sized (or near to it) versions of his ideas--many of which have never been built before. Flying machines that never flew hang from the ceiling, predecessors of cranes, tanks, and automobiles are parked throughout the hall along with models of bridges and an entire town built to resist a plague. In one hands-on section, you can turn different types of wooden gears and ball bearings Leonardo studied and invented, and learn how the same ideas are used in modern machines. Then there's the room of mirrors, and the art section, where infrared photography has allowed us to learn more about the Mona Lisa than you ever dreamed you cared to know. If this exhibit travels anywhere near you and you have any interest at all in history, science, or art, I urge you to go.

And what does all this have to do with reading, you ask? I haven't read the Da Vinci Code and don't plan to. But, I'm currently reading A Journey Into Michelangelo's Rome, from the ArtPlace series. Since Michelangelo and Leonardo were contemporaries, it's been fascinating to compare what I'm reading to what I'm seeing at the museum. I'll have more to say about Michelangelo this Friday, when I review the book in commemoration of his birthday.