The Agony and the Ecstasy - Irving Stone (Book).

The Agony and the Ecstasy - Irving Stone.

I can't claim that I have read too many Biographies off-late but whatever and however much I have in last couple of years, this one for sure stands out as "The Best", undoubtedly. For last three years, we've been living in a society called "Kumar Primavera", now that, Kumar stands for the builder's name but I'd been thinking for quite a while as what Primavera meant. Tried a few dictionaries but the word wasn't there and I am too bad at going online and Googling anything. After three years of staying in the society, now I know what "Primavera" stands for :) it was the name of the great Botticelli's Masterpiece of a female who he never met. And that is one thing that I love about Biographies :) as they are actually magical as they always answer so many of our unanswered questions. Before reading this book, I had no idea of Michelangelo Buonarroti's life, I didn't even know his full name :) (Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni). I may forget the others but Buonarroti I will remember for the rest of my life. Also, it was totally amazing to read of some superbly known names from that era. In no particular order these guys keep making entries in Michelangelo's life but always put an smile on my face as they come and go :) stalwarts like Raphael, Botticelli, Leonardo Da Vinci and at least five of the Pope's of the period that he lived to tell the stories of. Italy was never in my list of countries to be visited before I meet my maker but now after this outstanding book, Florence, Rome and Vatican are surely make up to the top 10 places to be visited without fail. The high point of the book as per me personally is his love hate relationship with the great Leonardo Da Vinci, his relations with his father, brothers and cousins and his love life or lack of it. This book will certainly show up in my list whenever I will speak about a book based on Father Son relationship :) and I must say that it indeed sent me a bit closer to my own dad too (Co-incidentally I visited him almost after a year as the book came to an end and read the last of it with him right next to me). How kool is that :)

Michelangelo, no doubt was one of the greatest Artist of not only his own time but even now, the legend lives through his works. He has a staggering list of not only sculptures and paintings only but sonnets and poetry too to his credit, about which I had no idea before I read this book. A hardcore romantic who always stayed away from Romance as he had no time as he always told everyone around him. All he wanted to do was Hammer around the marble blocks, as many as he could lay his hands on, as many as can be sent his way, as much as he could till the very last day of his life. Imagine, the guy lived almost 90 years and even on his death bed, he was sad that it was too early for him to leave as he had so much inside him that he wanted to carve out of the stones. It was totally an eye opening experience for me (and hilarious too) to learn that when he walked up to his first Master, under whom he wanted to learn the art of sculpting, he asked the master to his shock that "How much are you going to pay me to learn and sculpt? As my father for sure won't let me learn anything which doesn't pay". And the grand master did indeed agreed to pay him the demanded internship amount when Michelangelo showed him what he could do with a hammer and a chisel in a few hours time, still the boy (14 of all) wanted to learn. And the most amazing part is this that he outdid his own master in an years time and claimed that "The master has no more to teach me". Wow, I was like Bravo man! So many of his teachers wanted him to Paint whereas he almost hated the art of painting and never actually wanted to paint till someone actually put a gun on his head to do it :).

No doubt, he lived in his own whims and fancies too, never took his life seriously, made as much as he could and never said No to his Dad, siblings even cousins and friends too. One of the most amazing chapters was when he made his first Masterpiece (The Giant), a 17 feet statue, right from the moment he located the block of marble to carving the statue out of it. He spent 15 days just looking at the marble block from late night till the sun starts shining on it, his way of checking the quality of stone was so precise that the man will just sit and watch for days just to confirm if it is the right block of stone before he will touch it with his chisel and hammer :). He claimed that the beautiful statues were hidden inside the stones and he just brought them out for the world to see how amazing they were. But his life was quite challenging, from one master to another and from the time of one Pope to another, he had to spend at times months to years on their wishes as what he should make, or paint for them instead of what he actually wanted to do. Plus on top of that whatever little money he made by pleasing the then Kings, Princess and Pope's, he had to spend a majority of it on his four good for nothing brothers, a totally depended and over demanding father and at times on his amazing set of friends too.

Michelangelo was multi-talented, born to do wonders what he actually did with his life, unfortunately he never had time as much to love anyone and the only love of his love for whatever short period he had, was way beyond his league. But no doubt, he loved so many people and was loved big time in return by a few of his friends. He considered himself an ugly person going by the look and animosity at the very early stage of his life, animosity with another not so great friend and artist further destroy his looks, that particular chapter had me in tears big time yet how he was looked by the people who admired him was such a heart-touching experience. As I said earlier, his love hate relationship with Vinci is one of the high points of not only this book but Michelangelo's life too. They actually started at a very bad note but gradually grew up to not only respect each other but almost became good friends too. Michelangelo was a great artist but Vinci as Michelangelo himself claimed was so much more, a scientist, inventor, amazing painter. Vinci's idea of a flying machine as well as "Monalisa" too gets a very brief mention, a painting that he almost was never able to finish.

I can read this book again for that one special part on Human Anatomy where Michelangelo learns about the human body before he seriously starts the sculptures and especially the way he learns about it, although too much in gory details but totally outstanding. It was shocking to read something of that sort that in those details which I never expected but seriously hats off to people who supported him knowing his passion to the art and his final outcomes are still here for everybody to witness. The Biography is so aptly titled, initially I couldn't make out why it was called "The Agony and the Ecstasy" but as the book grew on me and I got involved with his life, I realized it couldn't have been titled any better. The book was almost 800 pages but still in the end, I wanted it to just go on and on about the man and his works, never wanted it to end. As I post this, I just realized that there is a movie too based on the book with Charlton Heston starring as Michelangelo :) with five Academy Nominations.

Have you read "The Agony and the Ecstasy" or any other biography which you feel is just simply out of this world types? I am now looking forward to my next biography again by Irving Stone only "Lust for Life" based on the life of Vincent Van Gogh :).

PS: I will always remember him now onward especially on my birthdays as that is the day he died precisely 412 years ago :).