Leo Steinberg was one of the most original art historians of the
twentieth century, known for taking interpretive risks that challenged
the profession by overturning reigning orthodoxies. In essays and
lectures ranging from old masters to contemporary art, he combined
scholarly erudition with an eloquent prose that illuminated his
subject and a credo that privileged the visual evidence of the image
over the literature written about it. His writings, sometimes
provocative and controversial, remain vital and influential reading.
For half a century, Steinberg delved into Michelangelo’s work,
revealing the symbolic structures underlying the artist’s highly
charged idiom. This volume of essays and unpublished lectures
elucidates many of Michelangelo’s paintings, from frescoes in the
Sistine Chapel to the Conversion of St. Paul and the Crucifixion of
St. Peter, the artist’s lesser-known works in the Vatican’s
Pauline Chapel; also included is a study of the relationship of the
Doni Madonna to Leonardo. Steinberg’s perceptions evolved from long,
hard looking. Almost everything he wrote included passages of
old-fashioned formal analysis, but always put into the service of
interpretation. He understood that Michelangelo’s rendering of
figures, as well as their gestures and interrelations, conveys an
emblematic significance masquerading under the guise of naturalism.
Michelangelo pushed Renaissance naturalism into the furthest reaches
of metaphor, using the language of the body to express fundamental
Christian tenets once expressible only by poets and preachers. Leo
Steinberg was one of the most original art historians of the twentieth
century, known for taking interpretive risks that challenged the
profession by overturning reigning orthodoxies. Michelangelo’s
Painting is the second volume in a series that presents Steinberg’s
writings, selected and edited by his longtime associate Sheila
Schwartz.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780226482439
Publisert
2022
Utgiver
Vendor
University of Chicago Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter