This major new biography recounts the extraordinary life of one of the most creative figures in Western culture, weaving together the multiple threads of Michelangelo`s life and times with a brilliant analysis of his greatest works. The author retraces Michelangelo`s journey from Rome to Florence, explores his changing religious views and examines the complicated politics of patronage in Renaissance Italy. The psychological portrait of Michelangelo is constantly foregrounded, depicting with great conviction a tormented man, solitary and avaricious, burdened with repressed homosexuality and a surplus of creative enthusiasm. Michelangelo`s acts of self-representation and his pivotal role in constructing his own myth are compellingly unveiled.
Antonio Forcellino is one of the world`s leading authorities on Michelangelo and an expert art historian and restorer. He has been involved in the restoration of numerous masterpieces, including Michelangelo`s Moses. He combines his firsthand knowledge of Michelangelo`s work with a lively literary style to draw the reader into the very heart of Michelangelo`s genius.

"Written as fluently as a novel, Forcellino`s gripping narrative combines new research on Michelangelo`s life and vivid quotations from his letters with a sharp sense of the artistic challenges to which he responded and a restorer`s close attention to technical detail." (Peter Burke, University of Cambridge)

"From the very first pages, this fascinating biography draws us into the heart of the life of the greatest artist of post-Antiquity, a life of privilege which nevertheless had its share of burden and tragedy. As an art historian, Antonio Forcellino is endowed with a fresher, sharper, more professional and livelier outlook than most learned scholars. From his personal experience, he knows the work on the scaffolding, regardless of the height or season, as well as the techniques of the scalpel and the fresco, the study of the human body and the endless negotiations with clients of differing temperaments and moods. At the same time, his fluent and lively account ably evokes Michelangelo?s political, economic and personal background, whilst penetrating the secrets of Michelangelo?s religiousness: this - occasionally desperate - dialogue with the contradictory thought of contemporary theology and this passionate search for a direct relationship with God which are indispensable keys to the understanding of his works." (Christoph Luitpold Frommel, University of Rome)