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Michelangelo's Medici Chapel

A New Interpretation, Memoirs, American Philosophical Society (vol. 216)
  • Edith Balas
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 1995
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About this book

There are no surviving documents that explain Michelangelo’s complex sculptural program for the Medici Chapel. The work as we have it is no more than an unfinished, fragmentary realization of the artist’s original conception. Here, Balas contends that the artist deliberately veiled his meaning in obscurity, making his images, like the language of Neoplatonic philosophers, intelligible only to an intellectual elite. Assuming the role of the Magus, Michelangelo conceived a cryptic, magical world of potent allegorical images designed not simply or primarily to commemorate the departed Medici but to help achieve elevation for their souls. Illustrations.

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    Frontmatter

    I
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    TABLE OF CONTENTS

    V
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    Introduction

    1
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    I: Prevalent Modern Interpretations of the Medici Chapel

    14
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    II: Michelangelo and Neoplatonism

    25
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    III: Mystic Symbolism, Magic and Astrology in Renaissance Neoplatonism

    30
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    IV: Jupiter and S aturn

    46
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    V: Night and Dawn

    69
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    VI: Day and Evening

    118
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    VII: The River Gods

    128
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    Vili: The Decorative Elements of the Chapel

    130
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    IX: Other Medici Programs with Neoplatonic Iconographical Content

    139
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    X: A Mausoleum for the Four Medicis

    145
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    XI: The Iconography of the Medici Chapel as an Expression of Neoplatonic Philosophy

    150
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    Appendix: Further Reflections on the Casa Buonarroti Inscription

    163
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    Bibliography

    179
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    Index

    185
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
December 6, 2024
eBook ISBN:
9798893981308
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
196
https://doi.org/10.70249/9798893981308
eBook ISBN: 9798893981308
Audience(s) for this book
College/higher education;
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