رنج و سرمستی روایت مردیه که از سنگ به جاودانگی رسید .ایروینگ استون در این کتاب، نه فقط زندگی یک هنرمند، که نبردی انسانی و دردناک رو به تصویر میکشه، نبردی بین رنج زیستن و سرمستی آفرینش. این کتاب فراتر از ی زندگی‌نامه‌ ست و شرح آلام روحی نابغه اما تنها و رنج کشیده ست.میکل‌آنژ ، هنرمند بی‌پناهیه که در هر برهه از زندگیش، جسم، توان، زمان و هنرش به نوعی به استثمار گرفته شده، اما اون از دل همین بند و زنجیرهایی که به روح و جسمش فشار میارن، راهی رو برای رهایی پیدا میکنه. اون که از کودکیش، بی‌مادری مثه ی ...

One should not become an artist because he can, but because he must. It is only for those who would be miserable without it. The Agony and the Ecstasy ~~~ Irving StoneThe PietaThere are books ~~ very few books ~~ that overtake you. Some books have that kind of power. Especially if you have that weird relationship with the book that nothing else can compensate, and if you lie down with it and get up with it for a long time, it is inevitable that you feel at a loss when you finish reading it. Ir...

Irving Stone's The Agony and the Ecstasy was a magnificent literary biographical novel of the renowned and beloved artist Michelangelo. It beautifully details the complexity, not only of the man, but a lifetime of his works, including the many and famous sculptures from Carrara marble, paintings, frescos and architecture, not only in Florence, but in Bologna and Rome. Michelangelo's large body of work included his iconic sculptures of David and the Pieta. Although he preferred other forms of art...

The "agony" and the "ecstasy" of "THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY"!I wonder if Stone would feel honoured or slighted at my brash theft of HIS title THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY, as the basis for my review of his wonderful work!Irving Stone's THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY is an enormous, comprehensive re-creation of the life and death of Michelangelo Buonarroti, one of the acknowledged world giants of art. Not only has he allowed us to share Michelangelo's triumphs as a sculptor, painter, architect and poet b...

At the age of thirteen, Michelangelo enters the workshop of painter Ghirlandaio and studies the fresco painting technique. Son of a surly bourgeois father of noble descent, lost his mother at an early age, Michelangelo eventually becomes fascinated by the texture of marble and wishes to release, the trapped forms which, according to his neo-Platonic worldview, are already hidden inside the raw material.A book is not big enough to fit the magnitude of Michelangelo Buonarroti's artistic genius, th...

***4.5 stars out of 5***”To some people stone was dead; ‘hard as stone,’ ‘stone cold,’ they said. To him, as he once again ran his fingers along its contours, it was the most alive substance in the world, rhythmic, responsive, tractable: warm, resilient, colorful, vibrant. He was in love with stone.” Michelangelo portrait by VolterraMichelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was born in Florence on March 6th, 1475. It was a fortuitous time to be born. He was coming of age just as the Renaissa...

I discovered this Irving Stone title in high school many many years ago, but I had not read the book again since then so it was fresh, new, and incredibly stunning for me. We meet Michelangelo when he is thirteen, and follow him through his almost tortured life until he dies at age 88. In between we see him become an Artist like no other before or since. We learn Art History, Italian History, Vatican History, and meet an incredible number of Popes, all of whom keep Michelangelo on a short leash....

Oh good lord. No wonder I'm reading this book so slowly. I have to keep putting it down and fanning myself. Here's the young Michelangelo carving marble for the first time: "He had removed the outer shell. Now he dug into the mass, entered in the biblical sense." Really? He's fucking the marble? Apparently, yes..."In this act of creation there was needed the thrust, the penetration, the beating and pulsating upward to a mighty climax, the total possession. It was not merely an act of love, it wa...

Even with Art History 101 under my belt, I was shocked to learn of his monumental contributions to sculpture, paint, architecture and even politics. But I was even more inspired by the incredible challenges he overcame throughout all of his 90 years of life. Nothing came easy. What an inspiration! Here is a quote from his death bed:"Life has been good. God did not create me to abandon me. I have loved marble, yes, and paint too. I have loved architecture, and poetry too. I have loved my family a...

Goodreads crashed on me - I didn't realize the five stars were posted but not my review. You may be wondering why I rated this book so highly. The book made Michelangelo and his times really come alive for me. I feel like I personally know, like and respect Michelangelo as a person. He was so recognizably human with family issues, rivalries, loyal friends, treacherous friends and, above all this fierce driving passion for his art, especially sculpture. He was born with a gift and a genius that h...