Prologue: The Artist Who Did Not Want to Paint

1965
13m

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This short, a companion to the feature film L'extase et l'agonie (1965), focuses on the sculpture of Michelangelo. After a short visit to Caprese, where the artist was born, and the town whe... Read allThis short, a companion to the feature film L'extase et l'agonie (1965), focuses on the sculpture of Michelangelo. After a short visit to Caprese, where the artist was born, and the town where he first studied his craft, we see many of his most important works. They include the M... Read allThis short, a companion to the feature film L'extase et l'agonie (1965), focuses on the sculpture of Michelangelo. After a short visit to Caprese, where the artist was born, and the town where he first studied his craft, we see many of his most important works. They include the Madonna of the Stairs, completed at age 15; the statues of the Medici Tombs; and his two mo... Read all

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IMDb RATING

7.4/10

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1User review

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Awards
- 1 win total

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Marvin Miller

Narrator
(voice)
(uncredited)

Director
- Vincenzo Labella
Writer
- Vincenzo Labella
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7.451

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7Doylenf

Splendid color short produced in association with "The Agony and the Ecstasy"...

For anyone who wants a close look at Michelangelo's works of sculpture, this is an eye-filling look photographed in CinemaScope and Technicolor.

It opens with an aerial view of the dome atop St. Peter's Church in Florence, while the narrator begins his story of the famous painter and sculptor he labels "the artist who did not want to paint." Born in 1475, he studied sculpture at an early age, producing works of art at 15, samples of which are shown including The Bacchus, with Satan tempting Adam and some muscular centaurs. Thereafter, we get various views of Pietas, Madonnas (including the Medici Madonna), the Tomb of Lorenzo decorated by figures representing Dusk and Dawn, Moses, the Pieta of St. Peters (which, incidentally, was shown at the 1964 N.Y. World's Fair), and his imposing statue of David, which took eighteen months to create when he was 23 years old.

The short closes with a final view of St. Peter's dome and the information that Michelangelo died at the age of 89.

Well worth viewing.