In this engaging account, now in paperback, Bernadine Barnes uses new research to show how Michelangelo's art was seen in its own time. The original setting is reconstructed for works that have been moved, modified or left incomplete. Michelangelo's consideration of his audience changed throughout his career: sometimes he produced work for conventional religious settings and at other times he was given unprecedented freedom by open-minded patrons. This book brings the viewer back into the development of Michelangelo's work and gives emphasis to the differences between viewers in specific settings.

Michelangelo lived in a time when the development of prints and published art criticism changed the nature of the viewing public in ways that foreshadow our own media culture. This book encourages today's viewers to take a fresh look at Michelangelo's work.