Full Description
Michelangelo wrote the Poems to directly confront themes to which as an artist he could not give the type of expression that he wished. To do so, he chose harsh language, which was distant from the transparent idiom of the Cinquecento. Critics have generally been cautious, often hostile, toward his 'second trade.' By contrast, writers, appreciating their quality, have greeted his poems in a completely different manner.
This book presents an original investigation of the relationship of a variety of authors (Varchi, Aretino, Foscolo, Wordsworth, Stendhal, Mann, Montale, Morante and others) with Buonarroti's verse. Through close analysis of the texts, it shows why Michelangelo should hold a more noble position on Parnassus than that which historiography has hitherto granted him.
This book is a translation of Michelangelo in Parnaso: La ricezione delle Rime tra gli scrittori (Venice: Marsilio Editori. 2019).
Contents
Translator's Note
Bibliographical Note and Abbreviations
Illustrations
Introduction: Conversations among Writers
1 The Cinquecento
1 Responding in Verse
2 The Prose Writers
3 Michelangelo on Parnassus
2 From the Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Centuries
1 The First Edition
2 Beyond Italy
3 The Twentieth Century: Critical Reception
1 Dante, Petrarch and Michelangelo
2 For the Quincentenary
3 Anthologies between the Two Millennia
4 Seductions
4 The Twentieth Century: Creative Reception
1 The Strong Poets
2 Distillations
5 Translations
1 Translations by Poets
2 The Poems in Music
3 Portraits as a Poet
Conclusion
Illustrations
Index of Names
