Few mortals have made a discipline of art and of life or devoted themselves to learning with the singleness of purpose of Michelangelo. Even in the magnificent turmoil of the Italian Renaissance, when Boticelli and Leonardo and Cellini electrified the civilized world with their creative genius, one man towers over them all -- Michelangelo, the master artist. Out of Michelangelo's reading, associations, and the everyday ordeal of art there emerged...