Michelangelo The Vatican frescoes

De Vecchi has documented the 14-year (1980-1994) restoration/cleaning of Michelangelo's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel in a single volume, providing an accessible, reasonably priced look at the entire enterprise. The three components of the campaign--lunettes, ceiling, altar wall--are presented in separate sections. Aside from the restoration notations, the text is pedestrian, but the generally high quality illustrations speak for themselves. The many close-up details give a deliciously intimate sense of Michelangelo's command of light and shade and his startling coloristic effects: salmon pinks against apple greens, high-pitched magentas shading into golden yellows. What becomes clear is the range of pictorial forms that Michelangelo had at his disposal, from the broadly sketched in, loose modeling of the Ancestors to the visionary clarity of the Last Judgment. Before, after, and in-process photographs allow the achievement of the project to be instantly understood. Gianluigi Colalucci, chief restorer of the Vatican, recounts some of the hair-raising problems of the campaign in a concluding essay. A compact overview for both general and specialized libraries. General; undergraduate through professional. D. Pincus; emeritus, University of British Columbia