Acknowledgments

Brothers, Cammy

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Acknowledgments

Cammy Brothers

Michelangelo, Drawing, and the Invention of Architecture

~Writing is a relentlessly solitary activity. But at its best, it can be a record of conversations, real or imagined, with friends. In this sense, all of those friends remain present in the work, as interlocutors or as ideal readers.

Author

Cammy Brothers

PublisherYale University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-20913

Acknowledgments

Writing is a relentlessly solitary activity. But at its best, it can be a record of conversations, real or imagined, with friends. In this sense, all of those friends remain present in the work, as interlocutors or as ideal readers.

One of the more utopian settings for conversations of this kind is the Villa I Tatti, the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, near Florence, where Walter Kaiser, Susan Bates, Nelda Ferace, Allan Greico, Michael Rocke, and the entire genial staff created an environment in which one could work undisturbed but in sympathetic company. Much of the first draft of the manuscript was written at Yaddo, in Saratoga Springs, New York, another pastoral oasis blessed with the ideal balance of solitude and community.

The University of Virginia School of Architecture has shaped the project in various ways: first, through the interest and intelligence of my students, and my desire to write in a way that would make sense to them; and second, through the encouragement of colleagues, in particular Daniel Bluestone, Robin Dripps, Edward Ford, Nataly Gattegno, Jason Johnson, Elizabeth Meyer, Lucia Phinney, William Sherman and Peter Waldman, all of whom attended presentations of my work and offered numerous insights, often from the useful viewpoint of the practicing architect. Students in a graduate seminar on Michelangelo in fall 2002 gave new direction to my ideas. I am also deeply appreciative for the support of my departmental chairs Lisa Reilly and Richard Wilson, and Dean Karen Van Langen.

The home of this project, even more than the institutions that have sponsored it, is the drawing study room. Without the generosity of the staff at many museums and collections across Europe, who allowed me to view at length and repeatedly their most precious objects, the research at the heart of this book could not have taken place. Above all, I am deeply indebted to the Casa Buonarroti, the Prints and Drawings Room of the British Museum, and the Gabinetto dei Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi, and in particular to Elisabetta Archi, Hugo Chapman, Elena Lombardi, Marcella Marangiù, Marino Marini, Pina Raggionieri, and Anna Maria Petrioli Tofani. I also thank Carel van Tuyll van Serooskerken (formerly of the Teylers Museum in Haarlem, now of the Louvre) and Catherine Monguiel Goguel (of the Louvre) for their kindness.

Photographic archives were the sites of numerous small epiphanies: especially the Conway Library at the Courtauld Institute in London, the fototeche of the Kunsthistoricishes Institut in Florence, and the Biblioteca Hertziana in Rome. I would particularly like to thank Elisabetta Archi, Hugo Chapman, Diana Cheng, Geoffrey Fisher, Ralph Lieberman, Arnold Nesselrath, Rosanna Di Pinto, Angela Rossi, and Martijn Zegel for help in obtaining photographs. A generous grant from the Lila Acheson Wallace – Reader’s Digest Publications Subsidy at Villa I Tatti defrayed the cost of photographs.

A number of friends and colleagues generously read parts or all of the manuscript at various stages: James Ackerman, Molly Aitken, Paul Barolsky, Penley Chiang, Ann Huppert, Mauro Mussolin, Deborah Parker, David Summers, William Wallace, and Peter Whincop. I am especially grateful to the readers of early drafts, Lionel Devliecher and Robin Dripps, whose responses gave shape to the project, and whose interest made it seem worth completing. Connie Brothers and Bill Bulger also read various drafts, and acted as tireless copy-editors. At a later stage, Howard Burns gave a close reading to the entire text, and his comments and encouragement were essential. Monica Shenouda eliminated numerous redundancies with her incisive editing talents; she also provided valuable help checking Italian transcriptions. Caroline Elam read two versions of the manuscript with extraordinary attention to detail, and her thoughtfulness, knowledge, and precision improved it immensely; the various notes pointing to her individual suggestions cannot do justice to the myriad ways her insights enriched the text.

In addition to these readers, conversations with Michael Hirst, Charles Robertson, Hugo Chapman, Luke Syson, Georgia Clarke, and Anna Maria Petrioli Tofani sharpened my thinking at various points, as did the questions of audiences at the various conferences and universities where I presented early versions of the work. In particular, Joseph Koerner provided encouragement at a crucial moment.

In Florence and London, and other sites where my research took place, friends made me feel welcome and made the project a pleasure: Kimberly Ackert, Mark Allen, Antonio and Francesco Bertolini, Molly Bourne, Jack Dunn, Bruce Edelstein, Suran Goonatilake, Jane Ireland, Mauro Mussolin, Toby Osborne, Elda della Santina, Alexis Sornin, and Francesco Spinelli. The moral support of Francesca Bignami, Kevin Everson, and Joanna Klink sustained me throughout.

At Yale University Press the early enthusiasm of Gillian Malpass propelled me to finish the manuscript, and her steady engagement and patience have been essential. Ruth Thackeray’s expert editorial eye saved the text from many infelicities, although I am to blame for any that remain. I am grateful for the kindness and efficiency of Emily Angus. Emily Lees gently ushered the book through its final stages, devoting her energy and ingenuity to all aspects of production and design.

Readers should note that several important books on subjects closely related to this study appeared after my manuscript was complete or nearly complete, so that I could do little more than make brief references to them. They are: Hugo Chapman, Michelangelo: Closer to the Master; Golo Mauer, Michehngelo die Architekturzeichnungen: Entwurfsprozess und Planungspraxis; and the catalogue edited by Caroline Elam, Michelangelo e il disegno di architettura, to which I contributed. Unfortunately, final revisions were complete before I could consult Paul Joannides’s catalogue, The Drawings of Michelangelo and his Followers in the Ashmolean Museum (to which I did, however, insert references in the captions) or the catalogue edited by Pietro Ruschi, Michelangelo architetto a San Lorenzo: quattro problemi aperti.

The book’s dedication reflects my profound debt to my teachers, Howard Burns and John Shearman. Howard Burns taught me how to look at architectural drawings, and I have not been able to turn away from them since. His encouragement of the project has made it possible. Discussions with John Shearman at the book’s earliest stages lingered in my mind, as did the memories of his wonderful lectures on Michelangelo. Although his legacy is as an art historian, he had a keen and subtle understanding of architecture, and of the need to connect artistic practices.

Author’s Note

Translations unless otherwise indicated are my own. In some cases I have slightly modified or edited published translations. Italian transcriptions retain their original spelling and capitalization, although I have occasionally modified the punctuation for greater clarity. Measurements of drawings are taken when possible from published sources, mainly from the standard catalogues; when no published source was available or when I discovered a discrepancy, I have used my own measurements. Letters and numbers within parentheses in the captions refer to the catalogues listed below.

Abbreviations

B: see Bambach, ed., 2003

Carteggio: see Barocchi and Ristori, eds., 1965–83

Codex Ashburnham 361, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence: see Francesco di Giorgio

Codex Barberini, Barb. Lat. 4424, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana: see Huelsen, ed., 1910, repr. 1984

Codex Coner, Sir John Soane’s Museum, London: see Ashby, ed., 1904

Codex Escurialensis 28-11-12, Biblioteca del Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo, El Escorial, Madrid: see Egger, ed., 1905; Fernández Gómez, ed., 2000

Codex Urbinas Latinus 1270, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana: see Leonardo da Vinci

Corpus: see Tolnay 1975–80

J: see Joannides 2007

P&G: see Pouncey and Gere 1962

P&P: see Popham and Pouncey 1950

Taccuino Senese S IV.8, Biblioteca Communale, Siena: see Falb, ed., 1902

Uffizi: Gabinetti Disegni e Stampe, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

W: see Wilde 1953a

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