Simonetta Carr - Michelangelo for Kids: His Life and Ideas, with 21 Activities

Copyright 2016 by Simonetta Carr

All rights reserved

Published by Chicago Review Press Incorporated

814 North Franklin Street

Chicago, Illinois 60610

ISBN 978-1-61373-193-2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Carr, Simonetta, author.

Title: Michelangelo for kids : his life and ideas, with 21 activities /Simonetta Carr.

Description: Chicago, Illinois : Chicago Review Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015038458 | ISBN 9781613731932 (paperback)

Subjects: LCSH: Michelangelo Buonarroti, 14751564Juvenile literature. | Michelangelo Buonarroti, 14751564PsychologyJuvenile literature. | ArtistsItalyBiographyJuvenile literature. | RenaissanceItalyJuvenile literature. | BISAC: JUVENILE NONFICTION / Biography & Autobiography / Art | JUVENILE NONFICTION / Biography & Autobiography / Historical. | JUVENILE NONFICTION / Art / History.

Classification: LCC N6923.B9 C375 2016 Y DDC 759.5dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015038458

Cover and interior design: Monica Baziuk

Cover images: Front cover (counterclockwise from top): Michelangelo, The Creation of Adam, Erich Lessing / Art Resource, NY; Michelangelo, David, Galleria dellAccademia, Dan Dicello, with the authorization of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism; The Conversion of Saint Paul, Scala / Art Resource, NY; Giuliano Bugiardini, Portrait of Michelangelo with Turban, Scala / Art Resource, NY; St. Peters dome courtesy Pipopipo, Flickr. Back cover (top to bottom): Sistine Chapel ceiling, Erich Lessing / Art Resource, NY; dome of the Medici Chapel, Jay8085, Flickr; Michelangelo, Piet, Alinari / Art Resource, NY.

Interior illustrations: Jim Spence

Interior maps: Erichsen Group

Printed in the United States of America

5 4 3 2 1

To my amazing, creative, and supportive family

AN UNQUENCHABLE PASSION

FROM FORGER to WONDER

TO PLEASE a POPE

A DAUNTING CEILING

FOR the LOVE of FLORENCE

JUDGMENT and GRACE

AT the SERVICE of a TROUBLED CHURCH

THE LAST YEARS

INDEX

W hat if someone wanted to write a biography about you without ever talking to you? Maybe they have some of your e-mails, have seen you a few times, and can read what you post on social media. They might even be able talk to someone who knows you. Do you think their biography will be accurate? It might come very close to the truth, but it will always be incomplete. Writing a biography with insufficient information represents a great challenge for an author.

This is always the case, in varying degrees, when authors write about someone who is now deadespecially if this person lived many centuries ago. Authors read letters written by or to the person (direct correspondence) or about the person (indirect correspondence) and look for any other documents they can findbirth, marriage, and death certificates; wills; bank statements; and even shopping lists.

They also read about the times and locations in which their subject lived, and study biographies of other people who lived in similar historical and socioeconomic conditions. Then they try to put all the pieces of the puzzle together.

Of course, authors base much of their work on the writings of other biographers, especially those who lived at the same time or just after their subject. They look at how other biographers interpreted the same information and compare their conclusions, keeping in mind that biographies become less reliable as we go back in time, because fairness and accuracy have not always been as important as they are today.

The same challenges face those who want to study Michelangelos life. His early life was not well documented, even though two of his biographies were written while he was still alivesomething extremely unusual at that time. One of these biographies was authored by his friend and fellow artist Giorgio Vasari, and the other by his pupil Ascanio Condivi. Condivis biography was practically dictated by Michelangelo.