Michelangelo: A Film

This lovely gift book and accompanying film introduce one of the greatest Renaissance masters through his drawings. A short illustrated essay opens the book, describing Michelangelo's life and the background behind some of his greatest works. The book then illustrates a selection of his most important drawings with short captions, from sketches jotting down preliminary ideas to highly finished studies - all proving how integral drawing was to the artist in the process of perfecting his ideas. In all the illustrated works, from portraits to architectural studies, from complex studies for the Sistine chapel to his moving Crucifixion scenes, the innovation and genius of the artist is apparent, making this the perfect introduction to the work of an unsurpassed master draughtsman. The film, presented by Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, focuses on both the drawings and the way that they illuminated his life, his artistic development, his religion and his inner torments. The film observes a life class at the Prince's Drawing School and uses the male sitter that the students are drawing to show how precisely Michelangelo studied his great obsession: the human body. The film traces the remarkable evolution of some of the world's most celebrated artworks, from pen studies made during the artist's early twenties to the sketch of God, giving life to Adam for the Sistine chapel ceiling, culminating in the visionary crucifixion scenes carried out shortly before his death.

Hugo Chapman is curator of Italian drawings before 1800 at the British Museum. He is author of Padua in the 1450s: Marco Zoppo and his Contemporaries (1998) and Michelangelo Drawings: Closer to the Master (2005); and co-author of Old Master Drawings from the Malcolm Collection (1996), Drawings by Correggio and Parmigianino (2000) and Raphael from Urbino to Rome (2004). Presenter Neil MacGregor is Director of the British Museum and an eminent art historian. Film directed by Patricia Wheatley of 2DF Arts & Media Ltd., England.