Artibus et Historiae no. 44 (XXII)
2001, ISSN 0391-9064Up
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PAUL BAROLSKY - A Lost Drawing by Michelangelo
The article discusses an episode from Condivi's biography of Michelangelo, apparently invented by the great sculptor himself and by scholars dismissed as "apocryphal", fictitious, i.e. not worthy of being used as a biographical source of Michelangelo. The author argues that even if the story was invented, it is nevertheless a part of history: Michelangelo's fictive shaping of his life-story is itself factual, a fact from his life. The "facts" of Michelangelo's "life" are delivered to us so artfully by his biographers, and such fiction is a historical fact. The author suggests that instead of being terrified by the word "fiction", we should seek to ponder the interrelations of facts and fiction.
