Choice Review
This volume is a catalog for an important exhibition of one-sixth of all extant (600) Michelangelo drawings, owned in and to be exhibited in England and Holland. For a catalog, this has a notably ambitious and far-reaching text: an enumeration for the exhibition, a chronological history of Michelangelo's career, an analysis of his working methods (including the fact that Michelangelo, a frugal user of paper, often recycled letters and drawings), and a history of his works in European collections. Chapman (associate keeper, Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum) may have attempted too much with his very scholarly but very dense and compacted prose. The reproductions are adequate, although for contemporary tastes, more detailed enlargements would have provided significant visual information. Nevertheless, a worthy one-volume study of the greatest draftsman. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. General readers; lower-division undergraduates through professionals. J. T. Frazer emeritus, Wesleyan University
Library Journal Review
Accompanying a unique British Museum exhibition (showing until Jun. 2006), this generously illustrated catalog by art historian Chapman (associate keeper, Dept. of Prints and Drawings, British Museum; Raphael: From Urbino to Rome) features nearly one-sixth of the 633 surviving drawings believed to be attributed to one of the greatest and most creative Italian Renaissance painters, sculptors, architects, and poets, Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564). Mostly drawn from the world-renowned collections of paper works at the British (London), Ashmolean (Oxford), and Teylers (Haarlem, the Netherlands) museums, these 90 drawings range from quickly rendered preliminary studies to more completed works. While not an exhibition catalog in the traditional sense-it lacks a separate section of entries on showcased works-this chronologically organized text is easy to read, informative, and scholarly. It focuses mainly on the political, social, and historical contexts for Michelangelo's works and addresses issues of technique, connoisseurship, authorship, and provenance. Two appendixes provide springboards for further study and research. Intended for diverse audiences, this insightfully written and significant book is highly recommended for academic, special, and large public libraries with specialized Italian Renaissance art book collections.-Cheryl Ann Lajos, Free Lib. of Philadelphia (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
