Sun-Symbolism and Cosmology in Michelangelo's Last Judgment (Sixteenth Century Essays and Studies, V. 46)

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 375 pages
• Published by: Truman State University Press February 2000
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0943549655
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0943549651
• Book Dimensions: 10.9 x 3.8 x 1.1 inches
• Weighs: 3 pounds

Product Description
This volume sheds new light on the celebrated Italian artist and fresco. Art historians long have noted the circular composition around the figure of Christ, yet no satisfactory explanation has ever been offered. Here, against the background of the Renaissance, the author uses art historical methods with an interdisciplinary approach to resolve the meaning of the fresco's iconography and circular composition.

Through a fresh examination of sources, Shrimplin addresses the unusual and innovative features of Michelangelo's work. She weaves common threads between the Neoplatonic cult of sun symbolism, literary sources in Dante, Copernicus' theory of heliocentricity, and the Catholic Reformation revival of the traditional Christian analogy between the Deity and the Sun. She suggests a new biblical source for the fresco as well as the broader implications of her hypothesis.

Written in a clear, effective style, Sun Symbolism and Cosmology in Michelangelo's "Last Judgment" contains some strikingly acute observations, careful examination of a wide range of both primary and secondary sources, an ambitious methodology, significant new research, and interesting conclusions.

Reader Reviews
Michelangelo's famous painting "Last Judgement" is arguably one of the most important works ever created in the history of Western art. It is also the subject of Valerie Shrimplin's strikingly acute and original observations as she careful examines a wide range of both primary and secondary sources employing a comprehensive methodology, developing significant new research, and reaching fascinating and insightful conclusions respecting the cosmological symbolisms employed by Michelangelo. Sun Symbolism and Cosmology in Michelangelo's "Last Judgement" is an impressive work of considerable originality and scholarship, an invaluable and fascinating contribution to the study of Michelangelo's work and thought as representing by a single, major, and enduringly influential artistic achievement.