ABSTRACT
Despite his enormous fame, Michelangelo is little different. Although he is the best-documented artist of the early modern era, we know less than we might imagine, especially regarding the artist’s early life. Michelangelo’s first extant letter was written from Rome in 1496, when he was already 21 years old. His personal records date only from 1508, when he began work on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Altogether, there are just six letters to and from the artist in the first thirty years of his life. Moreover, what we know has been subject to a continuous process of distortion, barnacle-like accretion, and much creative embellishment-like some scholarly version of the game of “Telephone” or “Pass the Message.” Is it even possible to answer the question as to who is the author of Michelangelo’s life?
