Michelangelo’s Christian Mysticism: Spirituality, Poetry, and Art in Sixteenth-Century Italy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014).
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.
- A broad and sustained investigation of Michelangelo’s theology that complements existing, more focused historical, art historical, or literary studies
- Goes beyond current studies on Michelangelo and reform to consider the role of the Holy Spirit in both personal piety and collective religious life
- Distinguishes itself by approaching the character of Michelangelo’s religious art through an examination of his poetry
Winner of a 2013 MLA ‘best-book’ publication award: Aldo and Jean Scaglione Publication Award for a Manuscript in Italian Studies.
“Sarah Rolfe Prodan’s study of Michelangelo’s complex and oft-discussed spirituality is elegantly written and highly erudite. It manages to do triple time as a superb introduction to the many ways in which Michelangelo’s works and mode of production have been analyzed by scholars with an eye to understanding how his works relate to God, devotion, and mysticism, thoughtfully discussing the limits of these past critical interpretations; a rigorously documented study of the various forms and formats of Michelangelo’s spiritual expression, drawing expertly from theological, classical, literary, historical, and critical texts; and a convincing argument for the significant influence of Neoplatonic, Augustinian, Viterban, and Platonized Dantean thought on Michelangelo. This study will be of great interest and value to scholars and students of literary studies, the history of art, and religious studies alike.” – MLA Scaglione Prize Committee, New York, December 3, 2013
“Sarah Prodan succeeds with exemplary thoroughness, sensitivity, and balance in laying out the imbricated components of Michelangelo’s poetic imaginary, from the canonical – Dante, Petrarch, Ficinian Neoplatonism – to the familiar but less exhaustively explored, particularly St Augustine, the Catholic Reformation, and the realm of popular piety, such as sung laude (which Michelangelo would have heard in the milieu of Lorenzo de’ Medici, himself an author in this genre) … this volume offers the most comprehensive and integrated discussion of Michelangelo’s spiritual poetry since Robert Clements’s magisterial The Poetry of Michelangelo (1965).” – James M. Saslow, Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme 38, 1 (2015): 191-194
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Part I. Michelangelo and Renaissance Augustinianism 11
1 “The Sea, the Mountain, and the Fire with the Sword”: An Augustinian Pilgrimage? 15
2 “The Sea”: The Vicissitudes of Inordinate Love, or Hell as Habit 25
3 “The Mountain”: Acedia and the Mind’s Presumption to Ascend 45
4 “The Fire with the Sword”: Grace and Divine Presence 68
Conclusion 79
Part II. Michelangelo and Viterban Spirituality 83
5 The Benefit of Christ 87
6 The Action of the Spirit 109
7 Michelangelo’s Viterban Poetics 121
8 Aesthetics, Reform, and Viterban Sociability 141
Conclusion 155
Notes 157
Bibliography 217
Index 239