Becoming Michelangelo: Apprenticing to the Master and Discovering the Artist through His Drawings

by Alan Pascuzzi

Michelangelo’s developing genius is revealed as never before by the man who became Michelangelo’s last apprentice— an American artist and art historian whose family helped carve Mount Rushmore. Many believe Michelangelo's talent was miraculous and untrained, the product of “divine” genius—a myth that Michelangelo himself promoted by way of cementing his legacy. But the young Michelangelo studied his craft like any Renaissance apprentice, learning from a master, copying, and experimenting with materials and styles. In this extraordinary book, Alan Pascuzzi recounts the young Michelangelo’s journey from student to master, using the artist’s drawings to chart his progress and offering unique insight into the true nature of his mastery. Pascuzzi himself is today a practicing artist in Florence, Michelangelo’s city. When he was a grad student in art history, he won a Fulbright to “apprentice” himself to to study his extant drawings and copy them to discern his progression in technique, composition, and mastery of anatomy. Pascuzzi also relied on the Renaissance treatise that “Il Divino” himself would have been familiar with, Cennino Cennini's The Craftsman’s Handbook (1399), which was available to apprentices as a kind of textbook of the period. Pascuzzi’s narrative traces Michelangelo’s development as an artist during the period from roughly 1485, the start of his apprenticeship, to his completion of the Sistine Chapel ceiling in 1512. Analyzing Michelangelo’s burgeoning abilities through copies he himself executed in museums and galleries in Florence and elsewhere, Pascuzzi unlocks the transformation that made him great. At the same time, he narrates his own transformation from student to artist as Michelangelo’s last apprentice.

Genres: Art, Biography, Biography Memoir, Drawing

333 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 21, 2019

Reviews

[Isabelle | Nine Tale Vixen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an advance review copy through Edelweiss. This does not affect my rating or opinions.

This is a really detailed account, with clear passion and reverence for art and for Michelangelo's mastery of the craft; I loved all the studies (and Pascuzzi's own copies) that were included, since the subject matter is so visual.

That said, the author's ego — which I don't mean in a derogatory sense, but I couldn't come up with a better way to phrase it — was a little too prominent for me to enjoy this as much as I wanted to. Perhaps I should've expected it, given that it's a highly personal account and thus as much (or even more so) about the author than Michelangelo, but I wasn't quite prepared. Some of the offhand comments and pure conjecture could have been omitted, as well as generalizations about the Artistic Experience that I found myself disagreeing with. For example:

But ultimately the making of art is not a science to be objectively studied and analyzed; it is a passion that, to be understood, must be felt and experienced from the inside.

I'll spare you the rant on STEAM / how science and art are not mutually exclusive and, in fact, can (should) have a mutualistic relationship, because I do respect that art is a very subjective experience and there are some things that science can not (yet) quantify. But again, I don't agree with this statement, nor with a lot of the other sweeping statements that are made in this book.

So it's kind of a shame, because the concept is fascinating.

[Julie Stielstra · Rating 4 out of 5]

My BA in Art History actually got me a job once (at the Cleveland Museum of Art), and has enriched my life immeasurably ever since. And I have less than zero artistic gifts. So Alan Pascuzzi's adventure into Michelangelo's drawings hooked me instantly. As an aspiring artist, he switched to art history in his college years, finding eventually that he mourned the loss of an intimate relationship with the art itself, which was replaced by archival research and digging into what other people have written about it. But he put it to wondrous use by researching his passion in a direct way: he made meticulous copies of every extant drawing by Michelangelo, as a literally hands-on method of understanding Michelangelo's skill, artistry, and development into genius. He researches how Michelangelo was taught. He makes his own tools: quill pens, silverpoints, chalks in red, white and black, graphite "pencils," special inks, papers coated with a sizing made from crushed marble. There is an art shop in Florence that deals in exactly such things - opened after the devastating 1966 floods to provide materials for the army of conservators trying to repair the untold damage. He finds a book - "The Forger's Handbook" - which explains all the techniques a modern artist can use to replicate works from hundreds of years ago - and is sternly told by an archival director that he is never to bring that book on the premises again. There is a lot of technical discussion of how different tools, pigments, and techniques "feel" to the artist, and the reasons for choosing them. But his enthusiasm is infectious. As he was busily working on a drawing with a silverpoint, another researcher shyly asks him what that thing is, and asks if she can hold it. She makes one timid little mark on the paper, and hands it back - such is the gap between artist and art historian. And there is a poignant episode in which he reproduces (almost to scale) a working "cartoon" of a fresco that was never painted, and presented it to uncomprehending stares at a graduate seminar in art history. He rolled it up, left it in the department, and it was apparently thrown away.

I loved this book partly because... illustrations! Handsomely produced on glossy stock (which occasionally needs some lighting adjustments to read comfortably), it is generously filled with photos of the drawings - both Michelangelo's and Pascuzzi's own - so I didn't have to flip back and forth between the book and Google Images on the iPad to see what he was describing. Sad that he had to raise money through GoFundMe to pay for the reproduction fees, but it was money well spent. Pascuzzi is a friendly and encouraging guide, and succeeds in the marvel of making an ordinarily curious reader consider taking a crack at a copy themselves. In fact, Pascuzzi now runs classes based on the Renaissance apprenticeship model, escorting students through the steps of copying, drawing, and producing their own work. His classes include people who have never drawn anything since childhood, and he explains how patient, diligent, meticulous copying can paradoxically serve to draw out an individual student's style. Would I love to take one of those classes.

Minor quibbles are an occasional slip of distinguishing left and right (I kept peering for a small drawing he said was on the lower left of a sheet, when it was on the right; a figure is described as having his head turned sharply right when it was left; he gets the Sistine Chapel God's legs mixed up), and in several places, plates were placed out of their numeric order: Figure 14 is on page 56, followed by Figure 21 on page 58, then Figures 15-18 follow page 68. And I also think that an alternate title, "Michelangelo's Last Student," would have been a perfect title, and perhaps a little less "hubristic" than this edition's.

Overall, a delightful read for artists, art history majors, and art teachers. And yeah, I might at least try my hand at a copy of the odd but charming "model" drawing he reproduces on page 48, just for fun.

juliestielstra.com

[J Earl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Becoming Michelangelo: Apprenticing to the Master, and Discovering the Artist Through His Drawings is an account of the author, Alan Pascuzzi, as he undertakes the task of copying Michelangelo's drawings as a form of apprenticeship. It is a beautiful book and a very interesting idea but it also drags at times, particularly those moments when Pascuzzi seems more intent on just talking about himself, not necessarily in relation to the apprenticeship or to Michelangelo's work.

I am not an art historian so I can't really speak to the veracity of his ideas about what he feels he learned about Michelangelo's artistic journey. That said, those ideas were very interesting and seemed, to a lay person, to make sense.

I was less than impressed with Pascuzzi's voice. He sounds more than a little egotistical. I understand one needs confidence to do this but, as I learned from some friends of mine who are artists, copying is not as hard as I imagined, so copying the work well is not in and of itself a special feat. but one would think so reading this. I enjoyed the journey but didn't really care for the tour guide is, I guess, one way of putting it.

Yet even with that I found the book far more interesting than not. I could have done without some of the more memoirish aspects and just had him stick to the art and that very specific journey. But it wasn't that hard to just ignore his bluster and pay attention to what an apprenticeship would have been like. Kinda like those people we all know who have great information for us so we listen and ignore all of their patting themselves on the back.

I know this sounds like a negative review but I have actually bought a copy of this book for a friend who I think will get a lot from it (I got my copy from the publisher through Edelweiss). So I do still recommend this, just with some strong caveats.

[Susan Paxton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. Alan Pascuzzi's method of coming to understand Michelangelo by emulating him, by in a sense apprenticing himself to him, leads him to deep insights about the great artist's development from his youth to the painting of the Sistine Chapel. Especially fascinating to me is that Pascuzzi not only copied Michelangelo's drawings as a way of comprehending and analysing them, he explored the materials and styles Michelangelo employed, and explains them in a clear fashion; we've seen works done with silverpoint or red chalk, we've heard of fresco, but Pascuzzi tells us how the materials are obtained, prepared, and used. A very helpful glossary is included, and the many illustrations are reproduced in color and in good size.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

So excited about this book! Whether you like art history, practice art, or are a fan of books like The Agony and the Ecstasy or Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling or The Da Vinci Code, you'll enjoy this book.

Imagine unplugging from this century and choosing to apprentice yourself to Renaissance master artist Michelangelo by diligently studying and painstakingly copying each of his drawings to make perfect reproductions—that's just what the author did.

The book captures more excitement than you might think is possible from what you see in museums and textbooks—the drama, the stories behind the major drawings, and almost literally retracing every stroke of the pen/charcoal/feather eraser/sanguine.

Disclaimer: The author taught a Renaissance Apprenticeship class I took, and it was the most fun (and informative). Standing in front of church frescoes with charcoal in hand for hours has never been so fun. (You might be inspired to try it yourself!)

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pascuzzi tells of his own journey to serve an apprenticeship under Michelangelo, of sorts, by copying all of his drawings with the same media that an artist would have used in Michelangelo's day. He explains how apprentices in that time and place would begin their study by copying the works of their master, a process that Pascuzzi decided to undertake himself. He discusses how Michelangelo developed as an artist and shares his own insights gained in copying Michelangelo's drawings. An interesting read for anyone who is interested in art and the process of becoming an artist.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would really give this 3.5 starts but rounded up.

Pascuzzi makes some great points about how to apprentice oneself to a master artist. i am not sure why he chose Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo, come to my mind as drawing masters and that's a flaw to the book. Why him? He does give some good tidbits about how to do this, but the true mechanics is missing. It's more of his search to find Michelangelo rather than a technique -- how to book and for that I blame the publisher that went with a trendy title and did not explain its choice on the jacket.

[Haily Lennon · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who loves and appreciates art I absolutely loved this book. I even did a master study project from the examples inside of it. I enjoyed the history and the additional knowledge from the writer. The only thing I couldn’t really click with was the writers comparison to the artist. He came off a bit cocky or maybe just has a large ego? Just in a way that is too confident. It made the book slightly less enjoyable for me. But all in all it was a very enjoyable read.

[Dodi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Initially I didn't like this; I picked it up at the library thinking it was something else. Nonetheless I continued reading, and it really grabbed me. I enjoyed especially the author's detailing of Michelangelo's techniques and materials. I will look differently at Michelangelo's work in museums.

[Jesse Lawless · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting demonstration of the development of Michelangelo. Humanizing and applicable. Author seemed vain but that did not detract from the book's value.

[Marilyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I could give this book more stars! If you are an artist you need to read this book. Alan's dedication to this project provides an in depth look at Michelangelo's work as a young student and as the genius he becomes. Seeing this collection all together in one book is a once in a lifetime experience. Alan's personal journey really adds to the story of Michelangelo.