Michelangelo's Christian Mysticism: Spirituality, Poetry and Art in Sixteenth-Century Italy

Michelangelo's Christian Mysticism: Spirituality, Poetry and Art in Sixteenth-Century Italy. By Sarah Rolfe Prodan. (New York: Cambridge University Press. 2014. Pp xvi, 251. $95.00. ISBN 978-1-107-04376-3.)

It is fair to acknowledge that Michelangelo's art, life, and tormented soul have produced a multitude of readings-biographical, historical, aesthetic, psychoanalytic, religious, and others less prominent. Few studies, however, have tried to look at Michelangelo "the poet" to obtain a deeper understanding of his art and spirituality. Sarah Rolfe Prodan's fine book on Michelangelo's Christian mysticism combines a literary, historical, and aesthetic approach to highlight the Augustinian matrix at the heart of the protagonist's religious life. In eight highly erudite chap- ters interrelated in two micro-studies (Part I: Michelangelo and Renaissance Augustinianism; Part II: Michelangelo and Viterban Spirituality), the uniqueness of Augustinian mystical theolog)', as well as the pneumatological aspect of piety within the Viterbo circle, are considered authoritatively in order to enhance our understanding of Michelangelo's spiritual writings.