Michelangelo and the Viewer in His Time

In thisengaging account, now in paperback, Bernadine Barnes uses new research toshow how Michelangelo’s art was seen in its own time. The original setting isreconstructed for works that have been moved, modified or left incomplete.Michelangelo’s consideration of his audience changed throughout his career:sometimes he produced work for conventional religious settings and at othertimes he was given unprecedented freedom by open-minded patrons. This bookbrings the viewer back into the development of Michelangelo’s work and givesemphasis to the differences between viewers in specificsettings.Michelangelo lived in a time when the development ofprints and published art criticism changed the nature of the viewing publicin ways that foreshadow our own media culture. This book encourages today’sviewers to take a fresh look at Michelangelo’s work.