art / history / renaissance

". . . traces Michelangelo's development from student and young artist to master during the period from roughly 1485 to his completion of the Sistine Chapel ceiling in 1512. Analyzing Michelangelo's burgeoning abilities through copies he himself executed in museums and galleries in Florence and elsewhere, Pascuzzi unlocks the transformation that made him great. At the same time, he narrates his own transformation from student to artist as Michelangelo's last apprentice"--Provided by publisher.

"... gather[s] and analyse[s] evidence from numerous areas of da Vinci's life that scholars have hesitated to speculate about-- particularly his sexuality, his personal relationships, the genesis of his most famous pictures, and his mysterious final days"--Back of dust jacket.

No face has ever captivated so many for so long. Every year more than nine million visitors trek to her portrait in the Louvre. Yet while everyone recognizes her smile, hardly anyone knows her story. This book rests on the premise that the woman in the Mona Lisa is indeed the person identified in its earliest description: Lisa Gherardini (1479-1542), wife of the Florence merchant Francesco del Giocondo. Descended from ancient nobles, she gave birth to six children and died at age sixty-three. Her life spanned the most tumultuous chapters in the history of Florence, decades of war, rebellion, invasion, siege, and conquest--and of the greatest artistic outpouring the world has ever seen. Her story creates an extraordinary tapestry of Renaissance Florence, inhabited by larger-than-legend figures such as Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Machiavelli.