Michelangelo

Bibliographic Information
Stanley, Diane. 2000. MICHELANGELO. HarperCollins Publishers. Hong Kong, China. ISBN 0688150861

Plot
This story introduces us to the talented young Michelangelo. As a boy, he lived around stone cutters and found peace within a hammer and a chisel. Although he was a gentleman, and his family wanted him to pursue a profitable career, Michelangelo was able to convince his father to become an artist. He studied fresco painting, sculpture, and even performed dissections on cadavers to more intimately understand the workings of the human body. This knowledge was evident in his work, and he soon grew in notoriety with the pope and began receiving more commissions for art than he could complete within one life time. This particular account details not only Michelangelo’s experiences, but the emotional ramifications he felt for being ugly, hot-tempered, and a loner. Despite many setbacks to his individual works of art, he flourished during the Renaissance, and has left an imprint upon the world that is still visible today.

Critical Analysis
The most unique aspect of this book is that it mixes illustration, pictures of Michelangelo’s art, and photographs in a unified and logical presentation. The text, full of interesting notes from letters, explains the driving passion of Michelangelo’s while the pictures of his creations reflect that same passion hundreds of years after their creation. Not only do we learn that Michelangelo drew pictures and small clay figures of his sculptures before he drew them, we get to witness the final result. Not only to we feel how forlorn he must have been to take care of his family, and himself, we see it in Christ’s face in his Pietà statue. We are able to view the Sistine Chapel in it’s entirety and understand why it took four years for him to complete it. We are also transported through time to Michelangelo’s world, to understand the social complexities and its effect on this great artist. An amazing book that will whet children’s appetites for aesthetic beauty, this volume provides a sound history in the humanity that we call Michelangelo.

Review Excerpts
School Library Journal: As Michelangelo breathed life into stone, Stanley chisels three-dimensionality out of documents. Her bibliography lists original material as well as respected scholarship; from these sources she has crafted a picture-book biography that is as readable as it is useful. She approaches her subject chronologically, from the artist's early childhood with a wet nurse in a household of stonecutters through his long history of papal commissions to his deathbed musings. In addition to the direct (although uncited) quotes and delineation of his life's journey and major works, she provides an unobtrusive explanation of the style, technique, and meaning of Michelangelo's sculptures, architecture, and paintings. She includes an iconography of the Sistine Chapel, shown in all its restored glory. An author's note and map provide historical context, the former explaining the impact of the classical excavations on the Renaissance sensibilities. Integrating Michelangelo's art with Stanley's watercolor, gouache, and colored-pencil figures and settings has the desired effect: readers will be dazzled with the master's ability, while at the same time pulled into his daily life and struggles. Stanley has manipulated his art on the computer, particularly the sculpture, to tone down the marble's gloss and definition. As a result, the images are more convincing as "works in progress." Her careful use of scale and color contribute to the success of the scenes.
Horn Book: "Biographical information is presented in an engaging manner with details selected not only to reveal the subject's character but also to whet the reader's interest. . . . Each significant phase of {the artist's} life is also depicted in illustrations reminiscent of the period and incorporating computer-manipulated images of Michelangelo's work. . . . Stanley has indeed captured in both words and pictures the essence of Michelangelo, man of the Renaissance."

Connections
Explain that Michelangelo liked stone sculpture the best out of it, painting, and architecture and that today they will be creating their own sculpture.
Items you will need:
Small toys- MCDonald’s happy meal figures, plastic animals, etc. You might want ten more than the number of students you will have to allow for picking and choosing
Plastic knifes—one for each child plus extra because they break
Bars of soap—one for each child

Explain to the children by slowly cutting away the soap, they, too, will get to discover the magic shape within their block, just like Michelangelo did with stone. Instruct children to cut away from their hands. Doing this outside or on plastic garbage bags makes clean up much easier.