Home > Our art books > > Michel-Ange

Michel-Ange

Hector Obalk

The subtitle fills a whole line but is quite explicit: “All Michelangelo or almost in one single story and 1000 images”. Based on his close relations with the masterpieces of the enfant terrible of art (he had the privilege of riding a cherry picker to see the works up close on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel), the author describes them to us in detail. He has no qualms in noting the artist’s weaknesses, in the folds of the Doni tondo for example, and sees Michelangelo fundamentally as a sculptor, even when he paints. This means one has to turn around the statues, decipher the muscles, tendons and un-imagined movements of the anatomies. We learn of the ways of the famous chiasma for the famous hip movement and we see eloquent close-ups, such as the teeth inside the mouth of his Bacchus from 1496 and wonder how Michelangelo sculpted them. This visit presents itself like a comic strip. But it is also a travel guide, thus confirming Michelangelo is a continent all to himself.


Michel-Angel by Hector Obalk, Hazan, 96 p., €25.

Michel-Ange - Hector Obalk


Review published in the newsletter #451 - from 1 December 2016 to 7 December 2016

Buy that book from Amazon

Achetez cet ouvrage à La FNAC