Michelangelo: Sculptor in Bronze - Hardcover

Avery, Victoria

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1781300631 ISBN 13: 9781781300633

Publisher: Philip Wilson Publishers, 2019

Synopsis

This book, the first comprehensive interdisciplinary account of Michelangelo's work as a sculptor in bronze, is the outcome of extensive original research undertaken over several years by academics at the University of Cambridge together with a team of international experts, directed by Dr Victoria Avery, a leading authority on the history, art and technology of bronze casting in Renaissance Italy.

The catalyst for this innovative project was the attribution to Michelangelo of the Rothschild bronzes – two extraordinary bronze groups of nude men on fantastical panthers – prior to their display at the Fitzwilliam Museum in 2015. First proposed by the distinguished Michelangelo scholar Professor Paul Joannides and validated by the wide-ranging research published here, the attribution to Michelangelo has now gained widespread acceptance.

As part of this pioneering project, Professor Peter Abrahams, the eminent clinical anatomist specialising in dissection, has carried out the first ever in-depth scientific analysis of the anatomy of Michelangelo's nude figures. Abrahams' findings have uncovered hitherto unrecognised features of Michelangelo's unparalleled mastery of the structure and workings of the human body that give the gesture and the motion of his figures their unique expressive force.

Enigmatic and visually-striking masterpieces, the Rothschild bronzes are the focus of this multi-authored, interdisciplinary volume that contains ground-breaking contributions by leading experts in the fields of art history, anatomy, conservation science, bronze casting and the history of collecting.

About this title

About the Author

Victoria Avery has been Keeper of European Sculpture & Decorative Arts at the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, since 2010 prior to which she was Associate Professor in the Department of Art History at the University of Warwick. Vicky has lectured and published widely on all aspects of the decorative arts and sculpture, most recently Michelangelo: Sculptor in Bronze (2018); and is leading a new digital research project, Representations of Black People in European Sculpture, 1450–1950. Vicky has curated numerous interdisciplinary exhibitions, including Treasured Possessions (2015); Madonnas & Miracles (2017); and Feast & Fast (2019–2020), from which she is co-editing a multi-author volume, The pineapple from domestication to commodification: Re-presenting a global fruit, for the Proceedings of the British Academy (2024).

Edition details

• Publisher: Philip Wilson Publishers
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1781300631
• ISBN 13: 9781781300633
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352