“It’s freezing up here. What did you use to keep warm?”
“Indignation,” said Michelangelo. “Best fuel I know. Never burns out.”
These lines describe Michelangelo Buonarroti, one of the finest sculptors to have ever lived. Irving Stone‘s The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo portrays Michelangelo as a man driven by his passion. He finds solace in his obsession: carving white marble. To find the whitest block of marble, free of veins and blemishes and to carve the Moses or Hercules trapped therein, is all he dreams about. Michelangelo’s avaricious father Lodovici is shown to be a man who swoops down on his son’s earnings and carries them off to feed the other useless fledglings in the nest. Michelangelo’s amatory alliances are few and far between, after all, what woman wants to be entangled with a man, however supreme, when he spends twenty hours a day with his real passion. Pontiffs come and go with regularity, some helping the Maestro, some crippling him with commissions he has no interest in. Michelangelo is terrifying in his passion though, defying the pope himself when he cannot summon the necessary passion for a work. Not a course recommended for a long life in the mediaeval ages in Europe. But Michelangelo gets away with it, making monumental sculpture after sculpture against all odds, besting all enemies. And there are plenty of enemies, from a sneering Leonardo da Vinci, who later reconciles, to other, inferior artists who seek to mprove their lot by belittling Michelangelo’s genius. However, true genius triumphs, and we are thankful for that.
Stone does a great job of describing Michelangelo’s drive, his turmoil as he accepts commissions far below him to feed his family, and finally his vindication when a work of art is completed. Stone’s research is extensive and describes the many hats Michelangelo wore, often at the behest of his political elders: sculptor, painter, quarrier, road-maker, engineer, architect and even warrior. A real Renaissance man such as Michelangelo is a hard topic to write about. Where does one begin? How to start describing his genius, profound and versatile in every field he ventured into. Stone prevails with meticulous details that make us laugh at times, and cheer Buonarroti on at others, when foes imperil him and his seemingly-divine talent. A good read and a great look into the fires that drive true genius. If you like books about larger-than-life figures that might inspire you, pick this tome up.
ISBN: 0-451-21323-8