Michelangelo Imperfect

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564) made modern art. If we were to point to a single artist responsible for establishing the notion of art as self-expression, a commonplace today, it would be he. Despite his successes in other art forms, Michelangelo regarded himself primarily as a sculptor. Based on The Royal Cast Collection in Copenhagen, supplemented by completely new reproductions. Michelangelo Imperfect tells the story of his sculpture and its multiplication in the modern era.

The book tells the story of Michelangelo’s career as a sculptor, his life and practice, as well as that of the multiplication of his work in the form of casts and other reproductions in the modern era. Questions of authorship, originality and authenticity as well as the establishment and purpose of cast collections in the nineteenth century are addressed in five essays. In addition to this, the book catalogues almost all of Michelangelo’s sculptural works, reexamining several of his major projects in detail.