Very interesting take, I did not know about Pierliugi Farnese being a potential culprit, you have the advantage of being fluent in Italian. And Vasari did, at times, stretch the truth.
In the past, I wrote a story compiling the many ways in which Michelangelo dealt with fools, have a look:
Thank you for reading! The hypothesis about Pierluigi Farnese (who, from what I later found out, did some truly terrible things... much worse than what I mentioned in the article) came from a lecture by Antonio Forcellino. He also wrote a wonderful biography of Michelangelo, and I believe his work has been translated into other languages, in case you’d like to explore further. From his biography, I learned that Michelangelo was a deeply complex and tormented figure, so I have no trouble believing he “took his revenge” more than once with brush and chisel!
With pleasure, thank you for reading my story too. I will take a look at Forcellino. What some of these guys did would be scarcely believable as a movie proposal, yet it happened. That's the beauty of writing about actual events.
The difficulty is in writing in an accessible and agreeable manner, while being factual. Check the book 'the Art Spy' by Michelle Young: she spent years combing through archives, but wrote a 100% factual book that reads like a novel.
Doing both things is very difficult, and it seems to me that it is what you are doing, good for you.
Check my latest article about Baldassare Castiglione, I trust you will like it.
Wow, thank you for your kind words and also for the book recommendation. I’ll be very glad to read it! Cultural heritage preservation is a theme that has always been very close to me.
Very interesting take, I did not know about Pierliugi Farnese being a potential culprit, you have the advantage of being fluent in Italian. And Vasari did, at times, stretch the truth.
In the past, I wrote a story compiling the many ways in which Michelangelo dealt with fools, have a look:
https://artjourneycurator.substack.com/p/insulting-michelangelo-sistine-chapel-eternity
Thank you for reading! The hypothesis about Pierluigi Farnese (who, from what I later found out, did some truly terrible things... much worse than what I mentioned in the article) came from a lecture by Antonio Forcellino. He also wrote a wonderful biography of Michelangelo, and I believe his work has been translated into other languages, in case you’d like to explore further. From his biography, I learned that Michelangelo was a deeply complex and tormented figure, so I have no trouble believing he “took his revenge” more than once with brush and chisel!
With pleasure, thank you for reading my story too. I will take a look at Forcellino. What some of these guys did would be scarcely believable as a movie proposal, yet it happened. That's the beauty of writing about actual events.
The difficulty is in writing in an accessible and agreeable manner, while being factual. Check the book 'the Art Spy' by Michelle Young: she spent years combing through archives, but wrote a 100% factual book that reads like a novel.
Doing both things is very difficult, and it seems to me that it is what you are doing, good for you.
Check my latest article about Baldassare Castiglione, I trust you will like it.
Wow, thank you for your kind words and also for the book recommendation. I’ll be very glad to read it! Cultural heritage preservation is a theme that has always been very close to me.