Siting Michelangelo: spectatorship, site specificity and soundspace

Abstract

"Michelangelo's originality as an artist lay not only in ideas about perfection and beauty, but also in his unique approach to the artistic process and art's site specificity. Michelangelo's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel and the sculptures of the Medici Chapel and Julius II's tomb should all be understood as dramatic interventions at their sites. Instead of adapting to and blending in with their surroundings, these are works that interact with space, the ceremonies, and the music. In addition, the many uncompleted works and the artist's own writings point to an aesthetic of continuous processing, where the fundamentals remain as important as the finished work. In Siting Michelangelo, Peter Gillgren investigates Michelangelo's works as conceived with the aim of altering and rearranging what was already in place. Gillgren's study shows that not only must we look closely at the works of art, but we must fully consider them as embodiments of their sitedness. This original and throught-provoking book applies a fresh critical perspective to the essentials of the discipline of art history"-- book cover