Michelangelo’s Design Principles, Particularly in Relation to Those of Raphael

Book excerpt: Abstract: The discovery of the actual manuscript was featured on the front pages of the major German newspapers and reported throughout the world. It consists of 334 pages, typewritten, with extensive handwritten amendments, notes, and edits. According to Gerda Panofsky, her husbanded had continued to expand and edit the manuscript until 1922, and was preparing it for publication when he had to leave it behind. In this study, Panofsky provides a detailed analysis of Michelangelo's artistic style, comparing Michelangelo directly with Raphael, and then later taking a larger historical view. This text offers important new information about the evolution of Panofsky's scholarship, as well as on the state of research on Michelangelo and the High Renaissance during a period of transition for the discipline, in which formal readings of artworks began to take precedence over artists' biographies.