Romantic Michelangelo, between literature and art criticism

• Grant number: 14/05222-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Effective date (Start): August 15, 2014
• Effective date (End): February 14, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts - Art Fundamentals and Criticism
• Principal Investigator: Luiz Cesar Marques Filho
• Grantee: Renato Menezes Ramos
• Supervisor: Neville Rowley
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Research place: École du Louvre, France
• Associated to the scholarship: 13/01681-1 - Melancholy, heroism and failure: the reception of the michelangelo myth in nineteenth century, BP.MS

Abstract

The major objective of this Project is to investigate how did the Michelangelo myth during the 19th century in France as of three central themes: melancholy, heroism and failure. Michelangelo, in the years between 1830 - when Delacroix writes one of his biographies - and 1875 - when Rodin runs through Italy celebrating the fourth centenary of his birth - , not only became recurrent in French artistic production, but also pursues a real fascination among the artist. Simultaneously, the increasing interest for the Italian Renaissance and also the effort to create an historiographic corpus, covering the 15th and the 19th centuries stimulated the production of biographies of artists, between them, the Quatremère of Quincy's one. Furthermore, the reading of Renaissance sources enabled to assimilate and crystallize the idea of a Michelangelo obsessed by his own image and author of uncountable self-reports, to start with the biography written by Condivi, alleged to be an autobiography. Based on this artistic and literary productions, this project shall consist on the reflexions about how the image of Michelangelo Pensieroso moves between the representation of a misunderstood genius, a failed artist facing the inability of finishing his work of art, and a dandysm pioneer. (AU)