Definitive account of the architectural work of the great Renaissance artist Michelangelo (1475–1564). This monograph presents 31 of his projects, some built, some unrealized, beginning with his early works in Rome at the start of the 16th–century. The book continues with his work in Florence between 1516 and 1534, including the Laurentian Library, and finally the major Roman projects from 1534 to 1564, among them St. Peter's, the Porta Pia, and Santa Maria degli Angeli. Authors Giulio Carlo Argan and Bruno Contardi analyse the artist's complex relations with his papal and Medici patrons and discuss Michelangelo’s unconventional interpretation of the classical language of architecture. The book reproduces many annotated sketches, pen–and–ink studies, plans and renderings, along with rich black–and–white photographs of the buildings taken by leading fine art photographer Gabriele Basilico.
