Any potential biographer of Michelangelo must have the skills of a general historian, an art historian, a literary critic and a theologian, not to mention a mastery of the volume of written material by and about his or her subject. Few could be better prepared than William Wallace, who has spent a lifetime studying and writing about all aspects of Michelangelo's life and career. His Michelangelo: The Artist, the Man, and His Times encompasses this great range. With only ten colour illustrations, the narrative is predominantly weighted towards the life as illuminated by Michelangelo's correspondence and other documents. Wallace is especially good on the culture in which Michelangelo moved and the way he refashioned his career to enhance his social status. He takes a sensible view on issues such as the homoerotic element in the artist's life and art, arguing persuasively that his cult of the male body and fervid relationships with younger men were part of a homo-social culture in which such conduct was not considered abnormal. Michelangelo told one of his biographers that sexual abstinence was responsible for his longevity.His relationship with the young and beautiful Tommaso de' Cavalieri may have been platonic, as was his devotion to the austerely religious poet Vittoria Colonna.
Wallace excels in highlighting lesser-known aspects of Michelangelo's life, such as his months in the quarries of Carrara where he supervised the dangerous excavation of marble. Also compelling is his account of one week during which Michelangelo directed 100 men working on the Medici church of San Lorenzo in Florence. His engagement on the façade of this church and, latterly, a mausoleum for the Medici dynasty belies the conventional image of the solitary, antisocial artist of Romantic lore: Michelangelo supervised accounts, provided food and equipment, negotiated with bargemen and made a quick trip to the quarries — all in the space of seven days while still maintaining a steady flow of designs and working intermittently on sculpture.
Wallace's book conveys a well-rounded picture of Michelangelo the man, but it does assume great familiarity with the artist's creations-or at least access to images in other books. For centuries, art history was essentially a literary exercise in conjuring up images through words. When Herman Grimm or John Addington Symonds published their pioneering lives of Michelangelo in the 19th century, books had few or no illustrations. As a consequence, much space was devoted to the evocation in words of works of art, which was not only necessary but also helpful in guiding others to appreciate the fruits of long acquaintance with an artist's work. Since then, book illustrations have proliferated to such an extent that our attitude towards description has changed, making it seem otiose.
The decision to scale back illustrations here may reflect our modern saturation with images, but it is not always compensated for by adequate treatment of Michelangelo's art, which is the primary reason we want to read about him. Although Wallace's account is crisp and condensed, one sometimes wishes for the descriptive amplitude of a John Addington Symonds.
