172 bo ok reviews

Succinctly stated, “Continuous redesign” entails the possibility for the build-
ers to adapt designs according to changing needs during the long period of 
construction (incessant revisions); “myopic progression” signifies that the proj-
ect remains incomplete and the architects (or capomaestri) provide detailed 
portions of the project in stages, delivering only as much as is needed at any 
particular moment of construction; “concatenation” describes linking and inte-
grating each successive stage of construction to a preceding one; and “retrosys-
thesis” involves harmonizing previous stages of the project in a coherent whole. 

This illuminating book, full of insightful interpretations, extensive new 
documentation, and rich examples, focuses the reader’s attention on the re-
lationship between architecture and time. Trachtenberg puts emphasis on the 
understanding of Building-in-Time, and seeks to provide an answer as to why 
Alberti’s radical idea, which has dominated architecture from the sixteenth 
century, still appeals to us as a natural way to build, while Building-in-Time 
has been perceived as something irrational. It is in fact a deeply rational, or-
dered, and efficient way of building. This book is a good point of departure for 
rethinking the pre-modern European world of architecture, as well as a starting 
point to see present architectural culture in a new way. It is dense and challeng-
ing reading, intended for scholars and graduate-level students familiar with 
architecture, history, and philosophy. 

The text is accompanied by superb photographs, most of them by the 
author himself, which perfectly illustrate the points discussed and greatly en-
hance the flow.

ewa chwojko-srawley, Georgina Arts Centre and Gallery

Wallace, William E. 
Michelangelo: The Artist, the Man, and His Times. 
New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Pp. xvi, 401. ISBN 978-0-521-
11199-7 (hardcover) $30.

William E. Wallace’s biography of Michelangelo is firmly based on the extensive 
collection of letters by or to Michelangelo and on a rich variety of primary 



comptes rendus 173

sources. The result is not only a very “human” insight into the artist’s life, but 
also a detailed depiction of the larger cultural context.

 While providing the reader with an overview of the times and the artist, 
Wallace focuses on some important aspects of Michelangelo’s life and personal-
ity, such as his obsession with his alleged noble origins. He reveals the pivotal 
role played by the artist’s friendship with important figures such as Tommaso 
de’ Cavalieri and Vittoria Colonna. Cavalieri was not only Michelangelo’s “be-
loved”; he was also, and above all, a powerful source of poetic and artistic in-
spiration. Colonna, on the other hand, was a pious correspondent and faithful 
friend who served Michelangelo as a guide in his spiritual/religious growth. 
Wallace further examines Michelangelo’s crucial role as official artist at the pa-
pal court and, last but not least, the abundance of artworks he produced during 
his long life.

Wallace’s achievement in this biography is to highlight, often through the 
artist’s own words, the importance and prominence of Michelangelo’s works 
in his day as well as the sheer volume of work and the variety of difficulties 
he encountered while trying to complete some of the most iconic artworks 
of the Italian Renaissance. At the same time, Wallace refers to projects and 
works other writers tend to overlook or mention only in passing. For example, 
when discussing the large bronze statue of Pope Julius II in Bologna, Wallace 
provides the reader with many technical details that allow the reader to better 
understand what a colossal engineering challenge this project proved to be and 
the almost endless and intense work it involved.

Wallace thus re-dimensions the myth that has grown up around 
Michelangelo. The artist is presented not as a “divine” genius, but as a man 
with both merits and shortcomings, an individual with a sense of humour 
and a wry wit, a likeable and generous man, often passionate and at times hot-
tempered. Wallace’s depiction places Michelangelo at the centre of a vibrant 
milieu of friends, family, admirers, and patrons that, in turn, colours both his 
personal and public figure. Some of these individuals are lively figures—such 
as Pope Paul III Farnese, who appointed Michelangelo chief architect, painter, 
and sculptor at the Apostolic Palace and, in so doing, gave him the opportunity 
to create some of his best-known masterpieces.

Wallace’s narrative style is easy to read and very enjoyable, thus reach-
ing out to an audience of scholars and students, specialists and generalists. It 
brings Michelangelo to life in all his complexity and sets him and his art among 



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the dynamics of the Italian Renaissance, providing the reader not only with a 
colourful image of the artist as a man, but also of the vibrant times in which he 
lived and worked.

sebastiano bazzichetto, University of Toronto

Walton, Michael T.  
Genesis and the Chemical Philosophy: True Christian Science in the 
Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. 
AMS Studies in the Renaissance 45. New York: AMS Press, 2011. Pp. xiii, 172. 
ISBN 978-0-404-62345-6 (hardback) $92.50.

It is a well-known fact that during the Renaissance and early modern period 
alchemy was not just concerned with the making of elixirs or gold; the art also 
encompassed a spiritual approach towards nature; and it assumed a distinctly 
Christian guise. Walton’s study examines these developments in such “chemical 
philosophers” as Paracelsus, Gerhard Dorn, Oswald Croll, Heinrich Khunrath, 
Robert Fludd, and Jean Baptiste van Helmont. It is a formidably difficult terri-
tory for historiographers, as Walton, himself an expert in the field, rightly em-
phasizes. Although his chosen scholars were in one way or another adherents 
to the Paracelsian tradition, they developed very heterogeneous and individual 
ideas. For this reviewer, at least, the treatment of von Helmont’s connections 
between his discovery of “Gas” and the first verses of Genesis belong to the 
most interesting and well-documented pages of the book (89–97). Walton here 
convincingly demonstrates the extent to which Bible study closely interlocks 
with very innovative seventeenth-century laboratory practice. 

The reader might wonder, later, why the author does not tie the above 
section to Van Helmont’s remarks on fermentation (123–25); instead, Walton 
refers us to a previous publication of his own. Unfortunately, it is not the only 
abrupt transition: Genesis and the Chemical Philosophy, from its very start, 
is not very clearly structured. Both the general reader (at whom the book is 
aimed) and the specialist would benefit from a longer, general introduction that 
carefully outlines the content of chapters, and that explains why particular texts