Mystery of Michelangelo’s Battle of Cascina
Review of Joost Keizer's "Michelangelo, Drawing and the Subject of Art" (2011)
In January this year I added an entry on Michelangelo’s The Battle of Cascina, a cartoon for a never-completed mural in the civic heart of Florence which is one of the most celebrated and influential works in the history of art. A composition on paper with nearly twenty life-size figures, it was worn to shreds by admiring artists sketching it. Today it is known through a copy. I argued at the time that the faceted rock of the river bank is a metaphor for Michelangelo’s mind. Joost Keizer’s recent analysis in the September Art Bulletin made me think again because he identifies additional problems with conventional understanding of the scene, problems that I had not noticed.
Download Full Essay PDF(s):
© Simon Abrahams. Articles on this site are the copyright of Simon Abrahams. To use copyrighted material in print or other media for purposes beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Websites may link to this page without permission (please do) but may not reproduce the material on their own site without crediting Simon Abrahams and EPPH.
