Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel torment in graphic novel by Gianluca Buttolo

Gianluca Buttolo, an illustrator and comic artist from Udine, has released a graphic novel titled "Michelangelo. Il conflitto della Sistina" (ReNoir Comics, Milan 2019). The book focuses on the crucial period between 1508 and 1512, when Michelangelo, aged 33, was summoned to Rome by Pope Julius II (Giuliano della Rovere) to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Based on primary sources including Michelangelo's letters and diaries, the narrative unfolds as a dense monologue exploring the artist's fraught relationship with the pope, his deep insecurities about painting (a medium he considered alien to his sculptural practice), and his interactions with contemporaries such as Bramante, Sangallo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Raphael. The book also highlights Michelangelo's inspiration from the classical Laocoön group and the resulting controversies over nudity in the chapel. Buttolo's stark, black-and-white, stylized drawing style—reminiscent of Frank Miller, Hugo Pratt, and Mike Mignola—deliberately contrasts with Michelangelo's luminous, volumetric art. The volume is 144 pages, priced at €24.90.