Michelangelo And The English Martyrs

In May 1555, a broadsheet was produced in Rome depicting the torture and execution in London and York of the Carthusians of the Charterhouses of London, Axeholme, Beauvale and Sheen during the reign of Henry VIII. This single-page martyrology provides the basis for an in-depth exploration of several interconnected artistic, scientific and scholarly communities active in Rome in 1555 which are identified as having being involved in its production. Their work and concerns, which reflect their time and intellectual environment, are deeply embedded in the broadsheet, especially those occupying the groups and individuals who came to be known as Spirituali and in particular those associated with Cardinal Reginald Pole who is shown to have played a key role in its production. Following an examination of the text and a discussion of the narrative intentions of its producers a systematic analysis is made of the images. This reveals that the structure, content and intention of what, at first sight, seems to be nothing more than a confessionally charged Catholic image of the English Carthusian martyrs, typical of the genre of propaganda produced during the Reformation, is, astonishingly, dominated by the most celebrated name of the Italian Renaissance, the artist Michelangelo Buonarotti. Not only are there direct borrowings from two works by Michelangelo which had just been completed in Rome, The Conversion of St Paul and The Crucifixion of St Peter in the Pauline Chapel but many other of his works are deliberately cited by the broadsheet's producers. Through the use of a variety of artistic, scientific and historical approaches, the author makes a compelling case for the reasons for Michelangelo's presence in the broadsheet and his influence on its design and production. The book not only demonstrates Michelangelo's close relationship with notable Catholic reformers, but shows him to have been at the heart of the English Counter Reformation at its inception. This detailed analysis of the broadsheet also throws fresh light on the Marian religious policy in England in 1555, the influence of Spain and the broader preoccupations of the Counter Reformation papacy, while at the same time, enriching our understanding of martyrology across the confessional divide of the Reformation.

In this book, Sarah Rolfe Prodan examines the spiritual poetry of Michelangelo in light of three contexts: the Catholic Reformation movement, Renaissance Augustinianism, and the tradition of Italian religious devotion. Prodan combines a literary, historical, and biographical approach to analyze the mystical constructs and conceits in Michelangelo's poems, thereby deepening our understanding of the artist's spiritual life in the context of Catholic Reform in the mid-sixteenth century. Prodan also demonstrates how Michelangelo's poetry is part of an Augustinian tradition that emphasizes mystical and moral evolution of the self. Examining such elements of early modern devotion as prayer, lauda singing, and the contemplation of religious images, Prodan provides a unique perspective on the subtleties of Michelangelo's approach to life and to art. Throughout, Prodan argues that Michelangelo's art can be more deeply understood when considered together with his poetry, which points to a spirituality that deeply informed all of his production.

Michelangelo in the New Millennium addresses the mobility and flexibility of Michelangelo’s art regarding placement and intention, considers the artist’s late papal painting commissions, and probes deeper into his early religious works.

Contextualizing Michelangelo’s poetry and spirituality within the framework of the religious Zeitgeist of his era, this study investigates his poetic production to shed new light on the artist’s religious beliefs and unique language of art. Author Ambra Moroncini looks first and foremost at Michelangelo the poet and proposes a thought-provoking reading of Michelangelo’s most controversial artistic production between 1536 and c.1550: The Last Judgment, his devotional drawings made for Vittoria Colonna, and his last frescoes for the Pauline Chapel. Using theological and literary analyses which draw upon reformist and Protestant scriptural writings, as well as on Michelangelo’s own rime spirituali and Vittoria Colonna’s spiritual lyrics, Moroncini proposes a compelling argument for the impact that the Reformation had on one of the greatest minds of the Italian Renaissance. It brings to light how, in the second quarter of the sixteenth century in Italy, Michelangelo’s poetry and aesthetic conception were strongly inspired by the revived theologia crucis of evangelical spirituality, rather than by the theologia gloriae of Catholic teaching.

Today most of us enjoy the work of famed Renaissance artist Michelangelo by perusing art books or strolling along the galleries of a museum—and the luckier of us have had a chance to see his extraordinary frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. But as Bernadine Barnes shows in this book, even a visit to a well-preserved historical sight doesn’t quite afford the experience the artist intended us to have. Bringing together the latest historical research, she offers us an accurate account of how Michelangelo’s art would have been seen in its own time. As Barnes shows, Michelangelo’s works were made to be viewed in churches, homes, and political settings, by people who brought their own specific needs and expectations to them. Rarely were his paintings and sculptures viewed in quiet isolation—as we might today in the stark halls of a museum. Instead, they were an integral part of ritual and ceremonies, and viewers would have experienced them under specific lighting conditions and from particular vantages; they would have moved through spaces in particular ways and been compelled to relate various works with others nearby. Reconstructing some of the settings in which Michelangelo’s works appeared, Barnes reassembles these experiences for the modern viewer. Moving throughout his career, she considers how his audience changed, and how this led him to produce works for different purposes, sometimes for conventional religious settings, but sometimes for more open-minded patrons. She also shows how the development of print and art criticism changed the nature of the viewing public, further altering the dynamics between artist and audience. Historically attuned, this book encourages today’s viewers to take a fresh look at this iconic artist, seeing his work as they were truly meant to be seen.

In Nicodemites: Faith and Concealment Between Italy and Tudor England, Anne Overell examines those who concealed their beliefs, thus avoiding persecution. Focusing on dilemmas in England and Italy, she concludes that Nicodemites contributed to the erratic development of toleration.

Niccolò Ridolfi (1501–50), was a Florentine cardinal, nephew and cousin to the Medici popes Leo X and Clement VII, and he owed his status and wealth to their patronage. He remained actively engaged in Florentine politics, above all during the years of crisis that saw the Florentine state change from republic to duchy. A widely respected patron and scholar throughout his life, his sudden death during the conclave of 1549–50 led to allegations of poison that an autopsy appears to confirm. This book examines Cardinal Ridolfi and his court in order to understand the extent to which cardinalate courts played a key part in Rome’s resurgence and acted as hubs of knowledge located on the fault lines of politics and reform in church and state, hospitable spaces that can be analysed in the context of entanglements in Florentine and Roman cultural and political patronage, and intersections between the princely court and a more professional and complex knowledge and practice of household management in the consumer and service economy of early modern Rome. Based on an array of archival sources and on three treatises whose authors were closely linked to Ridolfi’s court, this monograph explores these multidisciplinary intersections to allow the more traditional fields of church and political history to be approached from different angles. Niccolò Ridolfi and the Cardinal's Court will appeal to all those interested in the organisation of these elite establishments and their place in sixteenth-century Roman society, the life and patronage of Niccolò Ridolfi in the context of the Florentine exiles who desired a return to republicanism, and the history of the Roman Catholic Church.

Illustrated Religious Texts in the North of Europe, 1500-1800 provides a new perspective on the role of visual imagery in the Reformation period by focusing on international forms of collaboration, and makes a significant contribution to ongoing debates concerning the history of the book by focusing on the ideological as well as practical side of international contacts.