Abstract This article begins by examining the unusual and significant motif of reading found in Michelangelo’s Manchester Madonna (c.1497). Drawing on Neo-Platonic ideas of divine furor in poetry and prophecy, it attempts to connect Michelangelo’s depiction to his own growing interest in poetry, as a reader and, eventually, as a writer. It will suggest that Michelangelo’s engagement with claims about the inspired text shaped this depiction as he wrestled with the contrast between the words of the Tuscan poets and his own hesitant versifying. It will be shown that, while this painting is marked by a considerable originality in conception, it sits in distinct contrast to the laborious, derivative, and bodily nature of both Michelangelo’s early poetic experiments and also much of his later poetic production. This contrast between his poetic and artistic work was further inflected by the bodily labor associated with the visual arts and by the Neo-Platonic discourse of divine inspiration that excluded the visual artist. Turning to subsequent works such as the Pietà (1498–99) and the Sistine Chapel’s prophets and sibyls (after 1508), and contrasting these works with his less inspired poetical constructions, this article will chart Michelangelo’s evolving theoretical engagement with the role which labor and furor each played in his artistic production.

中文翻译：

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阅读米开朗基罗/米开朗基罗

摘要本文首先考察了米开朗基罗在曼彻斯特麦当娜（c.1497）中发现的不寻常且有意义的阅读主题。它借鉴了新教宗关于诗歌和预言的神圣狂热思想，试图将米开朗基罗的描写与他作为读者，最终成为作家的对诗歌日益增长的兴趣联系起来。这暗示着米开朗基罗对托斯卡纳诗人的话语与他自己犹豫的多才多艺之间的对比感到困惑，这与米开朗基罗对受启发的文字的主张形成了鲜明的对比。可以看出，尽管这幅画在构思上具有相当大的独创性，但与米开朗基罗早期诗歌实验以及他后期许多诗歌创作的费力，派生和身体的本质形成鲜明对比。与视觉艺术相关的体力劳动和排除视觉艺术家的新柏拉图式神学论述，进一步体现了他诗歌创作与艺术创作之间的这种对比。转向后来的作品，如彼得塔（1498–99）和西斯廷礼拜堂的先知和同胞（1508年后），并将这些作品与他的灵感较少的诗意结构进行对比，本文将米开朗基罗在理论上的参与与劳动和劳动的作用作了对比。每个人都热衷于他的艺术作品。