Violence is omnipresent in Michelangelo's work and in the myth of the artist; it is a visual subject and narrative figure that points to the processes of creation and reception. Starting from the semantics of violenza in cinquecento parlance, this study shows the central place of violence in Michelangelo's aesthetic discourse, which made it possible to conceptualize elements such as power, destruction, and the deliberate transgression of rules.

Andreas Plackinger, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg.