The Greatest Engineer of the Renaissance

press release:

Internationally recognized scholar of Italian Renaissance art and architecture, Dr. William E. Wallace, the Barbara Murphy Bryant Distinguished Professor of Art History at Washington University in St. Louis, will give a public lecture, “The Greatest Engineer of the Renaissance” on Wednesday, September 28, 2016 at 6:30 p.m. in the Department of Art History, Conrad A. Elvehjem Building, 800 University Ave, Room L140.  The lecture, which honors recently retired Professor Gail Geiger, focuses on the famed Florentine artist Michelangelo Buonarotti (1475-1564).  While one might first think of Leonardo da Vinci as a likely candidate for the greatest engineer in the Renaissance on the basis of his numerous inventive drawings, it was Michelangelo who accomplished far more as an engineer: designing and constructing a moveable scaffold for the Sistine Chapel, designing and actually building effective fortifications for Florence, organizing the quarrying and transport of some 3,000 blocks of marble from quarries ninety miles distant, and overseeing six major construction sites around Rome, including St. Peter’s, when the artist was in his 70s and 80s. Drawing on archival research and a careful review of the existing structures as well as Michelangelo’s preparatory drawings, Wallace’s lecture will shed new light on the great Florentine artist’s engineering innovations in his major architectural projects, as well as meeting the practical challenges such as lifting the very heavy marble figure of  David up to a buttress of the Duomo of Florence.  

Dr. Wallace is a graduate of Dickinson College (B.A.), the University of Illinois (M.A.), and Columbia University in New York  (Ph.D). He has published more than 90 essays on Renaissance art and architecture and seven books on Michelangelo, including Michelangelo at San Lorenzo: The Genius as Entrepreneur; Michelangelo: The Complete Sculpture, Painting, Architecture, which was awarded the 1999 Umhoefer Prize for Achievement in the Humanities Michelangelo: The Artist, the Man , and his Times; and Discovering Michelangelo: The Art Lover's Guide to Understanding Michelangelo's Masterpieces. In 1990 Professor Wallace was invited to the Vatican to confer about the conservation of Michelangelo's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel. He also appeared in a BBC film, The Private Life of a Masterpiece: Michelangelo's David, and was principal consultant for the BBC film, The Divine Michelangelo.

Wallace’s lecture is free and open to the general public.