Michelangelo: The Last Judgment (A Glorious Restoration)

Michelangelo's 'The Last Judgment' (1534), painted on the rear wall of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, is considered by many to be the artist's greatest triumph as well as one of the most important works in the history of art. In this book, the newly cleaned and restored fresco is presented in all its powerful complexity. Richly illustrated with 150 magnificent full-color images -- showing the painting both in its entirety and in many close-up details -- the book offers an in-depth study of the work itself and of the restoration process.The restoration project of the entire Sistine Chapel, including 'The Last Judgment,' is one of the major events in 20th-century world culture. Meticulous cleaning has disclosed colors more brilliant than anyone had previously imagined, combined in extraordinary harmonies that have revealed Michaelangelo for the firist time as a great colorist as well as a master of sculptural form. Many of the photographs show the work's surface in small sections, allowing the reader to see the astonishing virtuosity of the artist's brushstrokes.Loren Partridge, author of Abrams' The Art of Renaissance Rome: 1400-1600, is Professor of History of Art at the University of California at Berkeley. Partridge brings a host of new insights to Michaelangelo's work by examining the past, present, and future of the entire chapel. Essays by two specialists in the field, Gianluigi Colalucci, the former chief conservator of the Vatican Museums and restorer of the Sistine Ceiling, and Fabrizio Mancinelli, the late director of the restoration work on the ceiling, describe the process of restoration in detail.Published as a companion to Abrams' The Sistine Chapel: A Glorious Restoration (1994), The Last Judgment is the first one-volume monograph on Michaelangelo's renowned work.