cover image MICHELANGELO AND THE REINVENTION OF THE HUMAN BODY

MICHELANGELO AND THE REINVENTION OF THE HUMAN BODY

James Hall, . . Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $25 (256pp) ISBN 978-0-374-20883-7

Hall's acclaimed The World as Sculpture (2000) expounded on the elevation of sculpture from a second-string medium to the most prestigious of modern art forms. Here, he tries to demystify the most prestigious of sculptors. Driven by questions—Why are the Madonnas so unmaternal? Why so many giant figures? Why so much anatomical emphasis? (In short, why is Michelangelo's genius so weird?)—that have nagged viewers for at least two centuries, Hall's thematic taxonomy attempts to understand the weirdness, and to honor the genius, without succumbing to the artist's own "self mythologisation," or resorting to the conventional rationales of misogyny, eccentricity and monomania that have dogged Michelangelo's reputation since the Romantic period. Instead, Hall construes the work in terms of contemporary traditions, innovations, disputes and fashions, which historically situate many of the odder features of the work and humanize the artist. The result is a rich and evocative examination of the major works, and to some extent of the man who made them, learned and authoritative without the pretensions or systematic coverage of professional scholarship. Some of the interpretations are fresher and more radical than others, but the aim, which is to present the originality and tenacity of Michelangelo's work in a plausible light, is well served. Illus. (May 11)