The untold story of Michelangelo's final decades-and his transformation into the master architect of St. Peter's Basilica

As he entered his seventies, Michelangelo despaired that his productive years were over. Anguished by the death of friends and discouraged by the loss of commissions to younger artists, this supreme Renaissance painter and sculptor began carving his own tomb. It was at this unlikely moment that Michelangelo was given charge of the most ambitious and daunting project of his long creative life-the design and construction of St. Peter's Basilica. In this richly illustrated book, William Wallace tells for the first time the full story of Michelangelo's final two decades-and of how the artist transformed himself into one of the greatest architects of the Renaissance.

About the Author
William E. Wallace is the Barbara Murphy Bryant Distinguished Professor of Art History at Washington University in St. Louis. His many books include Michelangelo: The Artist, the Man, and His Times.

Reviews
"Finalist for the Marfield Prize (The National Award for Arts Writing), Arts Club of Washington"
"[Michelangelo, God's Architect] paints a complex portrait of this tortured and talented Renaissance man and excavates a lesser-known but crucial final chapter of the artist's approximately 75-year career....[An] extremely readable, engaging book. -Lauren Moya Ford, Hyperallergic"
"Michelangelo, God's Architect represents the culmination of a career dedicated almost entirely to this single, engrossing figure. . . . Wallace's book is a model of deep scholarship brought to life with lively prose through the integration of sixteenth century documents on almost every page. . . . A rollicking good story."---Cammy Brothers, Journal for the Society of Architectural Historians



Book Information
ISBN 9780691212753
Author William E. Wallace
Format Paperback
Page Count 328
Imprint Princeton University Press
Publisher Princeton University Press