Michelangelo élete by Romain Rolland
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Michelangelo élete by Romain Rolland is a biography written in the early 20th century. The work presents Michelangelo as a heroic genius riven by doubt, suffering, faith, and contradiction amid Renaissance Florence and papal Rome. It is less an inventory of masterpieces than a psychological and spiritual portrait of the artist’s grandeur and fragility. The opening of the book reads the “Victory” statue as a self-portrait of a conqueror who recoils from
triumph, then widens into a meditation on suffering, Christian melancholy, and the need to face human weakness without idealization. Rolland sketches Michelangelo as a compulsive worker who denied himself rest, imagined poverty despite wealth, ruined his health, distrusted allies, and often wavered in will—fleeing danger, then returning to duty. A stark physical and moral likeness follows, alongside the sense that his greatest designs remained unfinished. The narrative then begins: birth in Caprese, early beatings for drawing, training with Ghirlandaio and in the Medici gardens, immersion in antiquity, and the fever of Savonarola that triggers a first flight. Early Roman works (Bacchus, the Pietà) give way to the Florentine David and a bristling rivalry with Leonardo. Summoned by Julius II, he conceives a colossal tomb, clashes with Bramante, flees, is pressed into casting the pope’s bronze at Bologna, and is finally compelled to paint the Sistine ceiling—dismissing helpers, enduring failures, debts, and family pressures—until the unveiling in a blaze of solemn grandeur and a body bent by the effort. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Rolland, Romain, 1866-1944 |
|---|---|
| Translator | Éber, László, 1871-1935 |
| Title | Michelangelo élete |
| Original Publication | Budapest: Révai, 1920. |
| Credits | Albert László from page images generously made available by the Hungarian Electronic Library |
| Language | Hungarian |
| LoC Class | N: Fine Arts |
| Subject | Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1475-1564 |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 77857 |
| Release Date | Feb 3, 2026 |
| Last Update | Feb 19, 2026 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 193 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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