From the acclaimed author of Michelangelo, God's Architect, a dual biography of two towering artists of the Renaissance, whose decades-long rivalry spurred both to greater heights
In 1529, Michelangelo was in Venice when he first met Titian, Venice's famed painter of princes, gods, and goddesses. Coming face-to-face with Titian's drama-infused, richly colored works, the creator of David and the Sistine Chapel ceiling realized he had met a worthy opponent. Twenty-five years later, Titian came to Rome to paint the pope, and the two met again. Painting in the Vatican, Titian experienced the full power of Michelangelo's work and vowed to surpass the achievements of his older contemporary.
Michelangelo and Titian is the untold story of history's greatest artistic rivalry, a competition between two monumental figures more admiring of one another than either would ever admit. William Wallace brings the world of the sixteenth century to life, and in particular its culture of gossip and intrigue. Wallace challenges the established narrative of this relationship as mostly one-sided, with the younger artist in competition with the reigning master. He shows how the artists moved in overlapping courtly and papal circles, sharing the patronage, power, and sometimes friendship of the most important people of their era, including members of the Medici, Este, and Farnese families. Wallace traces how, over the span of some forty years, this unspoken rivalry was reciprocal and mutually beneficial, with each learning from the other's brilliance, quietly seeking to best the other's work and secure his own legacy.
An extraordinary achievement, Michelangelo and Titian is a compelling account of two supremely gifted rivals who inspired each other to test the limits of their creative genius, and in doing so created some of the most astonishing works of art the world has ever known.
About the Author :
William E. Wallace is the Barbara Murphy Bryant Distinguished Professor of Art History at Washington University in St. Louis. His books include Michelangelo, God's Architect: The Story of His Final Years and Greatest Masterpiece (Princeton); Discovering Michelangelo: The Art Lover's Guide to Understanding Michelangelo's Masterpieces; and Michelangelo: The Artist, the Man, and His Times.
Review :
"The celebrated art historian and Michelangelo expert William E. Wallace's elegant double biography. . . . is a fluent, readable and thought-provoking book about two great artists, and what they might have had to say to one another--whether or not they actually got to say it."---Keith Miller, Art Newspaper
"Michelangelo and Titian provide an intimate portrait of two Italian masters that helps focus and highlight the unique preciousness of their lives and art."---Jesse Russell, University Bookman
"[A] daring exegesis."---A.R. Hoffman, New York Sun
"I strongly recommend."---Tyler Green, Modern Art Notes podcast
"Gripping [and] informative."---Christine Jackson, St. Louis Magazine
"A lively, ambitious book. . . . Far from a compendium of scholarly esoterica, the book transforms Michelangelo and Titian, figures so exalted they can seem little more than remote monuments, into working artists, flesh-and-blood individuals who look, reflect and respond to new aesthetic experiences. . . . A riveting and richly illuminating book. There should be more like it."---Eric Gibson, Wall Street Journal
"For readers frustrated by dry art historical studies, [William E. Wallace] conjures a lively and believable world imbued with emotion absent from typical textbooks. [Michelangelo and Titian] can also be considered as a theoretical excursion by an expert on the topic -- even if not provable, it prompts a more abstract form of thinking on the subject."---Olivia McEwan, Hyperallergic
